Office Space | |
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Theatrical release poster
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Directed by | Mike Judge |
Produced by |
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Screenplay by | Mike Judge |
Based on |
Milton by Mike Judge |
Starring | |
Music by | John Frizzell |
Cinematography | Tim Suhrstedt |
Edited by | David Rennie |
Production
company |
Judgmental Films
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Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
Release date
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Running time
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89 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $10 million |
Box office | $12.8 million |
Office Space: Motion Picture Soundtrack | |
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Soundtrack album by various artists | |
Released | February 18, 1999 |
Genre | Hip hop, Rap |
Length | 44:35 |
Label | Interscope |
Professional ratings | |
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Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic |
Office Space is a 1999 American comedy film written and directed by Mike Judge. It satirizes the everyday work life of a typical mid-to-late-1990s software company, focusing on a handful of individuals fed up with their jobs. It stars Ron Livingston, Jennifer Aniston, Gary Cole, Stephen Root, David Herman, Ajay Naidu, and Diedrich Bader.
Shot in Dallas and Austin, Texas, Office Space is based on Judge's Milton cartoon series. It was his first foray into live-action filmmaking and second full-length motion picture release, after Beavis and Butt-Head Do America.
The film's sympathetic depiction of ordinary IT workers garnered a cult following within that field, but also addresses themes familiar to white-collar employees and the workforce in general. Although not a big success at the box office, making $12.8 million against a $10 million budget, the film was well received by critics and sold well on home video, and has become a cult film.
Peter Gibbons, a programmer at a company called Initech, is frustrated and unmotivated at his job. His co-workers include Samir Nagheenanajar and Michael Bolton, also programmers, and Milton Waddams, a meek collator who is mostly ignored by the rest of the office. The staff is constantly mistreated by management – especially by Initech's smarmy, callous vice president, Bill Lumbergh, whom Peter loathes – and is further agitated by the arrival of two consultants, Bob Slydell and Bob Porter, who are brought in to help the company through downsizing and outsourcing.
Peter's girlfriend, Anne, persuades him to attend an occupational hypnotherapy session, but the therapist, Dr. Swanson, dies of a heart attack right after hypnotizing Peter. Peter wakes up the next morning newly relaxed, and ignores repeated phone calls both from Lumbergh, who had been expecting Peter to work over the weekend, and from Anne, who responds by angrily breaking up with him and admitting she has been cheating on him, confirming his friends' suspicions. The following workday, Peter decides to skip work and asks Joanna, a waitress at Chotchkie's, a nearby chain restaurant, out to lunch. Joanna and Peter bond over their shared loathing of idiotic management and love of the television series Kung Fu.