Office Space : love, embezzlement and the boss
by Natalie Gagliano
staff writer
Office Space is a comedy that por
trays the typical obstacles that white
collar workers experience on a daily
basis. The film casts Ron Livingston
and Jennifer Aniston as the main char
acters.
Ron Livingston plays Peter Gib
bons, a computer programmer who
checks for the Y2K bug on bank com
puters. He is rather miserable due to
the day to day drudgery of his job and
his bitchy and faithless girlfriend. He
works with Michael Bolton (David
Herman), whose name is continu
ously confused with the singer
Michael Bolton, Sumir (Ajay Naido),
an immigrant who has yet to fulfill
the American Dream, and Milton
(Stephen Root), a nerd who takes all
the crap from the bosses without say
ing a word. Gary Cole plays Bill
Limberg, the vice president of the
company who treats his employees
like trash beneath his shoe.
Peter and his girlfriend attend a
hypnosis session to relieve the stress
they have been experiencing from
their relationship, and the hypnotist
ends up having a heart attack, leav-
ACROSS
1 Departs
5 Mimic
8 Experts
14 Advantage
15 Prune
16 Surgical thread
17 Computer
storage capacity
units
19 City on the
Illinois
20 Pope’s
emissaries
22 On deck
23 Introduced
26 Falsehood
27 Taylor or Smith
28 Pig’s comment
30 Soaked in woad
31 Civil disturbance
35 Ingenuous
37 Boitano and
Button
39 Skier's courses
43 u Alfie”star
45 Ms. Newton-
John
46 Son of Adam
49 Bowling targets
51 April 15
addressee
52 Greek letter
53 New Jersey cliffs
57 Jamaican fruit
59 Withdraws
60 Protruding rim of
awheel
62 Show on TV
66 Engaged in
swordplay
67 Holiday lead-in
68 “Elsa’s Dream,’
e.g.
69 Robs
70 _ Moines, IA
71 _ Oreille Lake
DOWN
1 Valuable stone
2 Lyric poem
3 Coop item
4 Waterproofs
5 True up
6 Couch denizen
7 -Barr virus
8 Small snakes
ing Peter in a "I don’t give a shit”
frame of mind.
Nevertheless, Peter ends up receiv
ing a phone call from his girlfriend
the following day, and they get into
an argument. Peter tells her exactly
how he is feeling, and she confirms
Peter's belief that she has been cheat
ing on him all along. The relationship
is ended.
Peter then decides he is not going
to work that day, or the next, or any
other day for that matter. When he fi
nally decides to go to work, Peter dis
covers through the grapevine that the
company is beginning to lay off work
ers. When he has an interview with
the downsizers, he informs them that
he hates his job and he only does
about 15 minutes of real work a day.
He is then promoted.
Peter decides after the promotion
that he is going to come up with a plan
to embezzle money from the com
pany, since he views the company as
greedy for canning people that don’t
need to be laid off. His two helpers
become Michael Bolton and Samir,
his colleagues. They create a program
that makes a fraction of a cent left over
from every transaction.
Peter discovers a girl named
01999 Tribune Media Services, Inc,
All rights reserved.
Expected
Harrow's rival
Virtuously
Alice Kramden's
friend
Did ushering
Hive resident
Best and Ferber
Also
Hockey setting
Pound of poetry
Metric weight,
briefly
Sub shop
Imprint Clearly
Black or White,
e.g.
Stumble
d’lsere,
France
30
32
33
34
36
Shoot from
hiding
‘Ars Amatoria"
poet
Soggy ground
Be mouthy
Staged
41
42
44
Joanna, played by Jennifer Aniston,
who works at the theme restaurant ad
jacent to the company. She is also hav
ing problems of her own at her job;
her boss constantly nags her about her
not wearing more than fifteen flairs a
day. Peter falls in love with her and
tells her about his plan. She disap
proves of it and tells him he has gone
too far.
And he has gone too far, because
it is soon discovered that the three
make more money than was expected,
enough tor someone to notice. Peter
decides he has to turn himself in.
The movie is hilarious when it
portrays how ridiculous and dehu
manizing corporate life really is.
There’s the upbeat secretary, who
beams so much that you want to
strangle her, the meaningless and an
noying memos, the fax machine that
doesn’t work even if you beat the
thing to death, and a jerk-off of a boss.
Office Space starts out funny, sati
rizing the typical life of a white-col
lar worker. The second half of the
movie, following the hypnotist inci
dent, becomes boring when the em
bezzlement plan is developed and put
into action. The plot transgresses from
Peter’s promotion to his embezzle-
Overfills
Aerie youngster
University in
NewOrieans
Record holder?
Runs In neutral
Comprehend
Features
Music rights grp.
Andes resident
Cincinnati nine
Solidify
Exist
Moral misdeed
Small boy
. at. -n Livingston
Fox presentation of Office Space.
ment plan. me, the director could have given
The movie did not give Jennifer Aniston’s character a bigger role, con-
Aniston, Michael Bolton, David sidering the fact that the only reason
Herman, etc. enough limelight. Their why guys went to see the movie was
roles were not very big at all, espe- due to the fact that Aniston was star
cially Jennifer Aniston’s. And, believe ring in it!
The Corruptor is little more than
a typical cop shoot-em-up flick!
by Michael Coursey
staff writer
The Corruptor is a less than rivet
ing police action movie that is very
predictable at times and does offer
some storyline dilemmas. The
movie, starring Chow Yun-Fat as
Nick Chen, a well established, well
connected cop in New York's
Chinatown. Mark Wahlberg also stars
as Danny Wallace, a young, muscu
lar, eager policeman trying to make
a positive impression. Nick Chen
knows the way of the street and is not
afraid to cozy up to the Chinese mob
bosses (who are involved in drugs,
prostitution and smuggling of illegal
immigrants) He takes payoffs and
sexual favors in order to obtain inside
information. Chen believes this
doesn't sacrifice his integrity as a
good cop.
When Danny Wallace is the only
Caucasian assigned to the Chinatown
beat, his effectiveness as an under
cover reporter is questioned. They
ride him about wanting to be "too
Chinese" and not really knowing
what it means to be Chinese in
America. Wallace exclaimed that "he
just wanted to do his job as a cop.”
The major problem with the
movie, in my estimation, was that the
scenes were strung together in a rush
to get to the next scene of v iolent gun
play or car crashes. One scene had a
ten minute car chase where it seemed
10 or more innocent civilians were
killed or wounded and millions in
Page 9 - The Behrend College Beacon - Thursday, March 25, 1999
re a romantic moment in
I would definitely recommend the
movie if you have ever experienced
corporate life or will be in the future.
This movie definitely has a lot to say
about this distinct job: It sucks!
property damage was accumulated.
The one underlying theme that
seemed to make the movie interest
ing was the question; do you stand by
your partner, through thick and thin?
This has been done quite often in po
lice dramas; and when the FBI is
brought in to investigate it makes the
stakes that much higher.
The extremely quick cuts between
the scenes did take away from the
movie and the continuity had a roller
coaster effect on me. Overall I think
Mark Wahlberg did a adequate job,
he has promise as a actor, (but he’s
no Matt Damon yet). Chow Yun-Fat’s
personality carried this movie along,
although I thought it could have been
much better. I give this movie a wary
2 and 1/4 stars.