Office Space - Special Edition with Flair!

Review by Richard Lee

Fox Home Video / 1999 / 89 Minutes / Rated R
Street Date: November 1, 2005

Specifications:
-DVD-Video
-DVD-9
-Region 1

Aspect Ratio:
-1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen

Audio:
-English 5.1 Surround
-French Dolby Surround
-Spanish Dolby Surround

Subtitles:
-English
-Spanish
-None

Main Menu:
-Play
-Language Selection
-Scene Selection
-Special Features

Special Features:
-Out of the Office: An Office Space Retrospective with Mike Judge
-Deleted Scenes
-Theatrical Trailer
-DVD-ROM

Slowly going back over their previous non-anamorphic DVD releases and re-releasing them the way they should have been in the first place, Fox Home Video has blessed us with a special edition of one of the funnier movies of 1999, “Office Space”. Based on the animated shorts “Milton”, created by Mike Judge who is also responsible for “Beevis and Butthead” and “King of the Hill”, “Office Space” takes a satiric look at the daily rut of several office employees at Initech, a high-tech company that resembles any one of many that sprung up during the dot-com boom. Peter (Ron Livingston) is getting less and less enthused with his ‘go nowhere’, ‘trapped-in-a-cubicle’ job; his sentiments are equally shared by his co-workers Samir (Ajay Naidu) and Michael Bolton (Dave Herman) who has a hilarious intro as a closet hip-hop music fan as well as the running gag concerning his namesake. Every day, Peter is hounded by several bosses, especially Bill Lumbergh (Gary Cole) who speaks with an irritating drone and interjects “mmm, yeah” constantly into his conversation. His buddies, Samir and Michael, have issues with a copier/printer that never seems to function properly and poor Milton (Stephen Root), unaware that he had been laid off years ago, is repeatedly relegated to ever more remote areas in the building all the while cherishing his red Swingline stapler. What’s worse is the impending down-sizing of the company brought on by the appearance of two corporate honchos led by Bob Slydell (John C. McGinley). One evening, Peter’s on-again, off-again girlfriend Anne takes him to a hypno-therapist to see if maybe he could get his life back on track; but as luck would have it, the therapist keels over immediately after putting Peter in a trance that is supposed to purge him of all his stress and worries. What follows is an unexpected new-found respect at work and the courage to ask out Joanna (Jennifer Aniston), the pretty waitress that he has been pining for. 

Packaged in basically the same snap case but with now a cleverly designed slip cover that resembles the front of a file cabinet drawer, “Office Space” is a welcome re-visit to one of many early DVD titles that were not given an anamorphic transfer. As an added bonus to those who purchase this title again, we get special features exclusive to this release. The “with Flair” that is attached to the packaging alludes to the service policy at Chotchkies, the restaurant that Jennifer Aniston’s character Joanna works at. To set the eatery apart from all the other Chile’s and Appleby’s that it resembles, the manager (Mike Judge) demands that his employees wear a minimum of fifteen decorative buttons on their uniforms. Although she meets that quota, Joanna still gets a lecture from the manager because her more peppy co-worker Brian is wearing thirty-seven. This and other funny tidbits all poking fun at the workplace make this DVD a must-own for all of us who can relate.

Picture Quality:

Anamorphic! That shouldn’t be a big deal but several major studios at DVD’s launch did not make their initial widescreen releases anamorphic. Or...for a more cynical view, they saw it as an opportunity for multiple releases of the same title. Whatever the case, the transfer is sharp and clean. The color scheme is deliberately limited to convey the dull and drab hues of the workplace while outdoor and restaurant scenes are bright with adequate black levels and contrasting.

Audio Quality:

The 5.1 surround track is mostly silent in terms of the rears and the LFE channels; but they do come alive during dream sequences and the incidental placement of hip-hop music during key scenes. A French and Spanish 2.0 Dolby surround track is also provided.

Special Features:

“Out of the Office” (new to this release) is a 28 minute retrospective with Mike Judge and various cast members discussing the filming and how the movie has achieved a “cult status”. Most interesting bit of information: Swingline did not manufacture their staplers in red, so a prop person painted it that color on the set. With the “cult” success of the movie, Swingline received so many requests for red staplers that they decided to add that color to their products.

“8 Never-Before-Seen Deleted Scenes” is also new to this release and basically includes scenes that would have slowed down the pacing of the movie or were not that funny to begin with. Most interesting is the scene where we learn that boss Lumbergh is dead.

Lastly, we have the theatrical trailer and the option to access DVD-ROM content that includes audio clips and screensavers. A feature commentary with director and cast would have been a nice addition to this special edition but is sadly missing.