1999 – alan williamson

Office Space (1999)

This 16 year old gem was not an immediate hit when it first came out.

Mike Judge (Beavis and Butthead fame) wrote and directed this story about a young mans disillusionment with corporate life. Let us cut to the chase – if you have never worked in an office cube, with all the inter-office politics then this movie will simply fly over your head. Let me save you some time, keep on going, nothing for you to see here.

If however, you have indeed been in that environment then you will find this painfully funny. Why painfully? Because you will realize just how futile and petty and darn right childish your daily struggles with office politics are when they are transposed onto the screen.

And this is the genius of this movie. When you see the whole story line of Milton and his stapler you will instantly identify with at least one person in your office to which this will apply to and you will find yourself howling at the guilty pleasure.

The fun doesn’t stop there. If you have ever undergone a take-over, a buy-out or even had consultants come in to optimize your work force, then the two Bobs will have you rolling in the aisles.

So what would you say, you actually do here?

Office Space hits many marks, taking a wonderful swing at every single office character you have ever run into. This is a movie that simply keeps giving and if you listen out carefully you will find the lines of this movie being quoted back in the office to you. It is like a secret code being passed back and forth.

If you have ever had a bad day at the office and in that mood where you think everyone is out to get you, throw on this movie and you will be instantly reminded that the world is filled with a lot of predictability.

#80 in the series

Viewing Date
Friday, 6th November 2015 (Richmond)

Rating
8/10

IMDB YouTubeTrailer

Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999)

Centering around a hit man, who models his life and philosophy around the ancient Japanese Samurai warrior living and operating in New Jersey, sees himself the target of the local mafia who take hum bridge for a hit that left a loose end.

Forest Whitaker plays the self titled, Ghost Dog, who lives on a roof top caring for his homing (or as they call them in the USA ‘passenger’) pigeons. It is through these pigeons that he signals his master, or handler who hands him out the various jobs he has to do. He works off a retainer, paid annually, to keep the paperwork to a minimum I imagine.

The movie is full of long lingering thought provoking scenes which sets the tone of the main character. This man who has decided to live in the shadows and follow a moral code that highlights just how unjust the world is. He witnesses many incidents as he dredges through his days. This would be great, if it wasn’t for the Key Stone cops mafia that are pitted against him as his foe.

I mean they are just comical but unintentionally so. Every single American-Italian cliche you can think of, its here. The godfather figure (Henry Silva), who says very little, but looks intensely before giving his orders, to the old cripple side kick, who shouts racist and obscene rants that everyone must tolerate. For some reason, these lot always meet in a Chinese kitchen with the owner demanding rent from them! Add in the running theme of them all being addicted to old cartoons on the TV. It is just stupid.

Stupid, because it detracts from the excellent and intense performance from Whitaker. He does his role perfectly, but deserves a much better gang to go up against. There are some questionable scenes that you wonder, what the hell was that for. The one that comes to mind is when he bumps into two hunters who are struggling to load a shot bear into the back of their pickup truck. Adds nothing to the overall narrative.

How does one sum up this movie? Could have been excellent but fails to deliver because of the supporting cast. Was hoping for far more for my 60th movie in this series.

Viewing Date
Saturday, 17th October 2015

Rating
6/10

IMDB YouTubeTrailer

Galaxy Quest (1999)

This is one of those movies that creeps up on you over the years. While not an instant hit at the box office on its arrival, it has attained cult status as we learn to appreciate some of the in-jokes and references to the science fiction convention sub culture.

The basic premise of the story is simple; you have a bunch of TV stars who are still trading on their successful TV series that aired many years previous. They drag themselves, be grudgingly, to the various conventions to meet the fans. Naturally this is a complete parody on the Star Trek franchise, which is what makes it even more fun.

At one particularly convention, they meet a real group of aliens, who mistakenly believe the TV show was real. So with a wonderful series of classic mistaken identity, they both work together; with one group thinking they have the real space heroes coming to help them and the other group thinking they are part of another special fan convention albeit with serious special effects.

Tim Allen plays the Captain of the outfit, with

Sigourney Weaver providing the female lead, with

Alan Rickman and

Tony Shalhoub rounding out the core crew. Then we have the hilarious character from

Sam Rockwell who is really grasping at straws as he once appeared in an episode that when he got beamed down to a planet he was killed off.

Anyone that has followed Star Trek or any other science fiction TV series will be very familiar with the setups and scenes. This is not a parody but a good old fashioned comedy with a wonderful inherited back story.

This movie falls into that wonderful “oh well since i am here” category. You know the type, you never put it on specifically but if you find it on TV already started, you will happily sit down and give it your full attention. Time never wasted.