Office Space (1999): A live action cartoon from the creator of Beavis & Butthead, Mike Judge, that hits satiric bullseyes on corporate American life in the '90s. The message: work sucks, and what we all wanna really do with our lives is sit around and do nothing. Peter works in a cubicle for a computer company, where "everyday is worse than the last. That means that whenever you see me, you're seeing me on the worst day of my life." The deus ex machina to push the plot along occurs when Peter sees a therapist who puts him a trance that frees him from all cares; fortunately, the trance is never broken due to the therapist's untimely death. Soon Peter is asking out the pretty waitress he's never had the courage to talk to (Jennifer Aniston), sleeping in during workday, and when he does show up to work, he sits around and plays Tetris all day. He and some co-workers come up with a scheme to swindle the company out of hundreds of thousands so they can all get out of this insane hellhole of a workplace, but -- I don't want to give away too much of the plot. The plot line's rather unbelievable, but that's not the point: the point is to show the absurdity of life in the cubicle, and most of Judge's observations are so dead-on they're hilarious in a Dr. Strangelove way, because the exagerrations are only slight -- corporate America doesn't realize how insane it is. For example, the cover sheet scene deserves to be considered classic: five different managers come over to Peter's cubicle to tell him that he forgot to put cover sheets on the reports, and one manager tells Peter that he'll get his secretary to write Peter another memo reminding him to put cover sheets on the reports. "But I already got the memo, you just reminded me yourself, I don't need another copy of the memo-"
Grade: B+
The Osterman Weekend (1983): An average spy thriller, based on the Robert Ludlum novel. While entertaining, only a handful of scenes contain that magic touch, and it pales compared to Sam Peckinpah's earlier work. His final film before his death in 1984.
Grade: B-
Over the Edge (1979): Whoah. Most teen movies are lighthearted, fluffy romps where the biggest issue is getting a date to the prom, but this is one of those rare movies which shows what teen life is really like. A stunningly accurate portrayal of suburban wasteland, the kids in this planned community are restless and bored, ignored by their clueless parents, and have nothing to do but drink themselves to oblivion and get into hassles with the cops. Most movies concerning "youths gone wild" are exploitative by nature, but this one nails the details so accurately that it feels almost like a documentary. Matt Dillon sizzles in his first starring role as a JD who gets ahold of a real gun -- which is when the harmless drinkin', drug-tokin', virginity-losin' fun stops being so harmless. The apocalyptic riot ending seems overblown and definitely not realistic, though, and there's not the least bit of understanding for the adults, but hey -- the Cheap Trick soundtrack is killer.
Grade: A-