release date : february 19 , 1999 starring : jennifer aniston , ron livingston , gary cole , stephen root , david herman , ajay naidu , john c . mcginley , paul willson directed by : mike judge distributed by : 20th century fox films corp . mpaa rating : r ( language , brief sexuality ) url : <a href= " http : //www . execpc . com/~kinnopio/reviews/1999/office . htm " >http : //www . execpc . com/~kinnopio/reviews/1999/office . htm</a> confucius once said , " governing a nation is like cooking a small fish -- don't overdo it . " his maxim might be easily applied to writing a comedy script , for quantity over quality is one of the worst mistakes an amateur scribe can make . granted , mike judge , writer-director of the workplace satire office space isn't exactly an amateur ( his most infamous work , the mtv series " beavis and butt-head " was pure gold for its network ) . but unfailingly , judge manages to make some rather inexcusable mistakes in office space by spreading an iffy plot over too much ground . the iffiness in judge's plot -- a group of coworkers plan the downfall of their despicable boss -- is not in its appeal . in fact , based on the popularity of scott adams' cartoon " dilbert , " which will soon have its own television series , a satirical view of the american workplace is a hot item in hollywood . unfortunately the concept lends itself to skit-length sequences which would be more at home on the set of " saturday night live " rather than a full-length feature . the most convincing evidence of this are the trailers for office space , which feature almost all of the movie's top content ; this leaves the actual picture appearing very deflated . other evidence of office space's failure to work are its lack of good jokes . the comedy is marginally funny at best , but not enough to get a packed house of theater-goers to laugh out loud . the material in the movie is on-key for an older demographic than judge is used to targeting , and this could partially explain his work here . however , the movie is loaded with too many misfires -- including the token plot -- to allow for any excuse . the plot centers around three or four cubicled engineers , headed up by peter gibbons ( ron livingston ) , at a company named initech . after the movie elaborately establishes the miserable working conditions at initech , the movie introduces us to two consultants ( john c . mcginley and paul willson ) which are in charge of " downsizing " the company's payroll . when peter and his gang learns of this , as well as the reason behind it -- so their smooth talking boss bill lumbergh ( gary cole ) 's stock will go up -- they set about creating a plan to see his downfall . the circumstances that follow were obviously intended to be hilarious but they come out as anything but . a sympathetic cast and a muddled jennifer aniston-as-love-interest subplot are all that keep this one together , but it's definitely missable in lieu of something more intelligent . 
