Office Space: Special Edition with Flair

Very few good, funny comedies are box office failures. Unlike other film genres, comedy feeds on word of mouth, and good laughs mean good buzz; so when the discussion of solid (some would argue great) comedies that didn't connect is raised, there is but one prime example: Office Space. Following on the heels of Mike Judge's "it boy" status with Beavis and Butthead and the mainstream success of King of the Hill, Office Space is his only live action work that's seen release. A chronicle of frustrated computer programming drones in a dreary, fluorescent-lit level of hell, it follows Peter (Ron Livingston) and buddies Samir (Ajay Naidu) and Michael Bolton (David Herman); the latter is not related, he points out, to the no-talent ass clown. When Peter cracks under pressurised boredom in front of a "consultant" (a great turn by John C. Reilly), he's tagged not as a troublemaker but as someone with upper management potential. Mike Judge's script revels in the comedic potential of the everyday — from the barely functioning fax machine to the chirping voice of the receptionist — and that's why Office Space has become a huge cult hit after its box office disaster. Despite its burgeoning rep, it's not a flawless film — Peter's romance with a theme restaurant drone-next-door (Jennifer Aniston) doesn't really fly, and the narrative lacks some forward momentum, but for a long string of eminently quotable lines and scarily familiar scenarios, Office Space has continued to connect. This new DVD issue claims to contain "flair," but it's the minimum; an all-new "making of" highlights all the good times but doesn't address the film's unusual journey from flop to cult classic, and deleted scenes add more of the same without really fleshing out any holes. The DVD-Rom featurettes are likely to be popular amongst office drones who claim that this movie is their life, though; it's sad, but if that's the case, we really should let them have their fun. (Fox)