Office Space Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I've noticed that when I talk about writer-director Mike Judge with various non-film-geek friends and acquaintances, I usually have to explain who he is -- even here in Austin, his hometown. And depending on the type of person, different types of projects trigger recognition. The high-tech crowd gets excited over Office Space, of course, but it's surprising how many of them can quote Idiocracy lines at me too. ("It's what plants crave!") Nearly everyone nods in recognition if I bring up Beavis and Butt-Head, although I do believe my mom winced a bit until I mentioned King of the Hill as well. And now that Judge has made what may be his most traditionally commercial comedy to date, Extract, I wonder if I'll have to explain who he is to fewer people. I hope so.

Certainly more people are aware of Extract than Judge's previous film, Idiocracy, which Fox slipped into a handful of theaters with virtually no publicity of any kind. Miramax is giving Extract plenty of publicity for its September 4 wide release, and Judge agreed to do some interviews. I was fortunate enough to get to sit down with him for a little while and chat about past and future projects as well as Extract. (The above photo is from the Austin red-carpet event later that evening.)

One of my most bittersweet memories of the days I spent at my first dot com job at a now-defunct video game website was the day I came in to the office after I'd been laid off and watched Office Space with my friends who were waiting for the axe to fall. In what was our former Axis of Video Game Nerdery (a room with every console, some "debugged" thanks to a soldering iron and some help from the guys in Chinatown, high-end PCs, and several TVs), we hunkered down in the dark and cheered as Peter, Michael, and Samir go crazy on the printer with baseball bats.

As it turned out, everyone got the axe by August, and since it was 2001 and we were about a block from the World Trade Center, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I'm still friends with many of those folks, especially because of moments like that (and a variety of others that were probably HR violations).

In honor of my colleagues, the two lucky college kids who got scads of VS cash to party it up '90s style and run a company into the ground, and the newest Mike Judge movie, Extract, I present to you my favorite Office Space moment. Well, one of many. Video after the jump. (Naughty language, ahoy!)

Cinematical is absolutely, positively pumped up to be bringing you the debut teaser trailer for Mike Judge's Extract, starring Jason Bateman, Mila Kunis, Ben Affleck, Kristen Wiig and J.K. Simmons. I'm a huge Judge fan; been following the dude since way back during his Beavis and Butthead days, and haven't really disliked anything he's put out. Folks have told me that Extract finds the writer-director returning to his Office Space-ish humor, and this teaser definitely shows some signs of that -- from the workplace mishaps to our hero's random romantic woes, classic Judge hilarity is watermarked all over this sucker.

Extract follows the personal and professional problems endured by the owner (Bateman) of a flower-extract plant, including a wife who won't sleep with him, a new hottie temp and ... Ben Affleck as a major stoner? Believe it. I think it's safe to say Judd Apatow's Funny People now has some serious competition when it comes to funniest film of the summer because this little sucker just shot up to numero uno on my anticipation list. What about you? Check out the trailer below and let us know what you think. Extract hits theaters on September 4.

Yes, that's a printer on the red carpet for the 10th anniversary screening of Office Space at the Paramount Theatre in Austin on Sunday night. The guys swinging baseball bats are the same ones you saw attacking the printer in the 1999 movie -- Ajay Naidu and David Herman. We like our red carpet scenes lively here in Austin.

Mike Judge, who wrote and directed Office Space (and played the manager at Chotchkie's), appeared at the event with nine other actors who played major characters in the movie -- everyone except Ron Livingston and Jennifer Aniston, essentially. The theater was sold out, and watching Office Space with 1,200 people who've seen it before was amazing and hilarious. Everyone frequently contributed cheers, whoops and applause for certain actors or memorable bits of dialogue ("Looks like you've been missing a lot of work lately." "I wouldn't say I've been missing it, Bob.").

*Warning: Clip contains foul language.*

Only nine years ago, Ron Livingston played the young, fax machine-stealing, disgruntled worker Peter Gibbons in Office Space. Whoever would've thought that less than a decade later, he'd head back to the office to be an aging businessman. Man, Hollywood is tough on age.

Variety reports the Livingston will lead an indie comedy called The Company Men, that Raul Sanchez will direct from his own screenplay. As the star, Ron gets to be "an aging businessman who struggles with a collapsing economy as he tries to save a sinking company." I guess the over-the-hill moniker sticks (Livingston is 41). It'll be interesting to see how this lives up to the cult favorite, and fan expectations. But really, the big question is: Will he use a red Swingline stapler?

Meanwhile, Livingston has a co-starring gig in The Time Traveler's Wife, which hits screens on Christmas Day.

Mike Judge made a lot of friends and Fox made a lot of enemies when Judge's last live-action feature, Idiocracy, was dumped into a couple of theaters (it made a whopping $438,000) and then ushered to DVD. Those who saw it (myself among them) raved, making the movie a minor cult hit, but it certainly got a lot less exposure than anything from the creator of Office Space should have.

Judge will attempt to remedy that with his next movie, which will be called Extract, and which its distributor (Miramax) will hopefully actually distribute. Jason Bateman, rightly adored by everyone, is attached to star. Variety, which broke the story, provides only a very cryptic plot description: "Extract explores what it's like to be the boss when everything seems to be shifting around you." No word on what the protagonist is the boss of or exactly what is shifting around him.

What can I say? It's hard to be anything less than enthusiastic about something in which both Judge and Bateman are prominently involved, even if I did miss the boat on Office Space when it first came out. I do hope that Bateman will still have time for that Arrested Development movie we've been sort-of promised. The thought of that actually happening makes me cry happy tears.

You know what stinks? Coming up with a fairly cool idea for a new column ... only to discover that someone even cleverer not only snagged the idea a few months ago, but also did such a bang-up job that it makes a new rendition seem pointless.

But since I'm in a writing mood, here's the story: I was sharing a pithy IM convo with a good pal, and somehow we got into mocking Borat and Austin Powers for being way too over-quoted. (I call it the Stairway to Heaven Syndrome: When something of serious quality melts into near-nothingness because of endless repetition and constant over-exposure.) So I said "Hey, I could do a funny Cinematical Seven on 'the world's most annoyingly over-quoted movies'!!"

My friend's response was "Hey, good idea. Just like this one." The author is the youthful-yet-not stupid Adam Quigley, whose work you just might know if you hang around JoBlo's Movienerd Blissfactory once in a while. And while I'm well aware that I'm recycling someone else's (months old) list, I just figured it was too much fun to not pass along.

Not to spoil too many of the surprises, but the movies I would have picked for my Cine Seven are ALL on Adam's list, but they were mostly the easy ones: Swingers, Austin Powers, Borat, Holy Grail, Office Space, etc. Check out the full list of the 10 Most Obnoxiously* Over-Quoted Movies of All Time. And feel free to let us know which ones we might have forgotten. For example, I love love love The Princess Bride, but I'm tired of hearing idiots scream "inconceivable" and waiting for a charitable chuckle. (Also, most of the picks are (logically) comedies, but I'd like to hear about some over-quoted non-comedies. I suppose Jaws, Star Wars, Casablanca and Scarface would make that list.)

(* See, Adam went with "obnoxiously," whereas I was going to use "annoyingly." Well played, Quigley!! And special thanks to Will Goss for the linkage and the nerdly movie conversation. )

Have you ever had a co-worker who was so terrible that it seemed like he was planted there just to make you miserable? That seems to be the premise behind Mission: Intolerable, a workplace comedy about a temp agency that hires out a "temp from hell" for companies who'd rather have an unwanted employee quit than have to fire him or her. According to the Hollywood Reporter, comedian Katt Williams (Norbit) is set to take the role as the temp (and founder of the agency, I guess). The movie's plot will focus on one job he's assigned where the employee he's supposed to force out stays his ground and fights back. The idea sounds kinda brilliant, actually, in a slightly derivative-of-The Office-and-Office Space sort of way. Unfortunately, the guy in talks to direct is John Whitesell, maker of such unfunny movies as Malibu's Most Wanted, Deck the Halls, Big Momma's House 2 and See Spot Run.

Also, the script received a rewrite from Malibu's screenwriters Adam Small and Fax Bahr (the original was by Steven List and Astrid Neal), who were also responsible for a number of Pauly Shore comedies. But how hard could it be to make a funny workplace comedy that we can all relate to and enjoy? Enough people hate or are at least annoyed by their jobs that any office-set movie could be appreciable by simply exaggerating the usual terrible and annoying work situations. Maybe a few seasons of NBC's The Office have fully mined the territory, though. It's been awhile since I worked at a job like that, so I have no clue what's funny about offices anymore. Of course, I'm not exactly part of the demographic the movie will be for, anyway. Mission: Intolerable is being produced by The Weinstein Co.'s Our Stories division, which means it will be made intently for black audiences. Actually, that exclusivity just makes me want to try to like the movie more.

After 22 hours of flying on planes, waiting on security lines and sitting in airport food courts, I've finally returned home from my two-week trip in Australia. (And get this -- not one politician came on to me in the airport bathroom! Drats!) Did you miss me? Did you even know I was gone? Do you even know who I am? Anyway, apart from bringing home some art and some severe jetlag, I also brought with me some cool Aussie slang. For example, I promised my Aussie friends I'd start using the word 'Brekki' in replace of 'Breakfast.' Instead of greeting someone with "Hey, how ya doing?," I've decided to start using the primary Aussie greeting (no, not G'day Mate) -- "How ya going, Mate?" Oh, and I've brought home a Koala to hang out with my dog. But don't worry, it's just a doll.

And is there a better time to return home than on Labor Day Weekend? It's been absolutely beautiful here in New York the past three days, and since my car is still in the shop, I've spent all of it inside, in bed and in front of the television. After all, two weeks running around on the other side of the world can kind of knock you out. Labor Day is a funny holiday because, while we're supposed to be taking a day off to celebrate all the hard work we've accomplished, all we think about all day is how summer has ended -- goodbye beach vacations; hello work and school. For a day off, you have to admit it's sort of depressing. But if you're looking for a good way to celebrate Labor Day by utilizing your home DVD player, there are plenty of work-related films to check out.

Since I spent most of my years in a cubicle, there's no other film like Office Space to show you the comedic side of corporate life. After doing a stint in the world of television production, I'm also quite found of both Network and Broadcast News. For sexy and seductive, go with Secretary. For some funny rise-to-the-top stuff, go with Working Girl, The Devil Wears Prada or (one of my personal favorites), The Hudsucker Proxy. Crazy teens doing crazy things in the workplace? Empire Records. Jaded twenty-somethings hating life? Clerks. No matter what you're in the mood for, there's definitely something for everyone. Which film will you be watching tonight?

Over at quigspot.com is a listing of what the blogger deems the "Ten Most Obnoxiously Overquoted Movies." He says in the intro: "Nothing makes a great movie suck like people quoting it day in and day out for months at a time. It's the go-to route used by individuals who aren't clever enough to come up with their own material, made worse by them thinking (thanks to the select few that laughed at their referencing) they've suddenly become the most hilarious stand-up comedian since George Carlin." I agree to some extent, but while it's true that quoting movies is not the most enlightened form of comedy, it can be a lot of fun. The key is to stick to obscure quotes -- avoid "Luke, I am your father" and "Say hello to my little friend." At a party, an obscure quote that someone else recognizes can help you recognize a kindred spirit, and snag you a new friend or even a romance. Still, there are some movies that get quoted far too frequently, and it becomes particularly hard to deal with once they're embraced by the "frat guy" crowd, as almost all of quigspot's choices are.

The ten selected overquoted films are: 10) Office Space (good call, but the boss' voice is just too much fun to do. Quoting this one simply has to be done sometimes, especially in an office setting), 9) Monty Python movies (disagree -- I don't hear Python quotes much these days), 8) Wedding Crashers (definitely getting obnoxious, especially at bars), 7) Anything with Samuel L. Jackson (Snakes on a Plane, absolutely), 6) The 40 Year-Old Virgin (maybe, but when the lines are that funny, who can argue?), 5) Anchorman (see #6, although "I'm kind of a big deal" has reached the end of the line), 4) The Austin Powers series (yup), 3) Borat (Should have been #1 -- some guy dressed as Borat at a Halloween party I attended stayed in character the entire night and almost drove me to murder), 2) Napoleon Dynamite (absolutely) and the choice for the #1 most obnoxiously overquoted movie is ... 300.

Movies I'm guilty of quoting? 1) Wayne's World -- whenever anybody orders Chinese food, I can't resist throwing in "I'll have the cream of sum yung guy." I'm also a fan of "If Benjamin were an ice cream flavor, he'd be pralines and dick." 2) The Naked Gun series. Endless possibilities really, but my favorite is "Like a midget at a urinal, I was going to have to stay on my toes." 3) Raising Arizona and The Big Lebowski -- literally every line of both is gold. Which movies do you love to quote? And which movies do you think get quoted too frequently?