Office Space -vs- Waiting

-VS-







A Battle for the ages!!!

From time to time a movie comes along that makes you sit down and take a long hard look at your life. Neither "Waiting" or "Office Space" is such a movie. But, they do both deserve a place in your movie library.

I know many a friend of mine who will say that there is no movie that can touch Office Space. I personally have converted to the "Waiting" school of thought. Let's loook at the two movies...

Round One: OFFICE SPACE

Here we have a movie that begs the question:
"What would you do if you had a million dollars?
Lawrence: I'll tell you what I'd do, man, two chicks at the same time, man."

Office Space is the heart warming story of a man who learns to deal with his loathing of work by....starting to not care! Through the help of hypnotics, our hero, Peter Gibbons is transformed into a slacker king. Peter becomes the man I always wished I could be. Now if you haven't seen the movie you may think, "well, how does this turn out for our hero?" Strange as it may seem, pretty damn good. His blase additude is mistaken for not being pressed to his potential. While his friends, Samir and Michael Bolton, (not that "no talent Ass clown") who actually like and do work, get fired.

Without spending too much time analyzing the movie ... which was what this started out as...here is my main thoughts. All of my friends who love the movie, with almost religious ferver, have worked in some sort of office setting.

Which leads me to movie two....

WAITING

While this movie is a few months off of a DVD release and I only saw it once...hell...long story short I have never run into a movie where personal experience played so heavily into my enjoyment.

During my college years at Illinois State University I had the good fortune to wait tables at the Red Lobster in Bloomington. To say that the movie reminded me of those days would be an understatement. To me the funniest part was the portrayal of the different types of customers that come in day after day. Many a time I would wish that I had the stones to hand a customer back their $2.00 tip. But, alas, I had a strange attachment to my job. Since it was, after all, my only source of income. I really didn't feel like hitting the job market again.

Customer portrayal, combined with the element of good old fashioned sexual harrassment...made me miss waiting tables. Then I remember how much it sucked for 80% of the time. Come to think of it...most jobs suck at about an equal rate. Anyway...

Ever start something with high hopes and then just let it fizzle? I hate to admit it but it seems that while I relate to the movie "Waiting" on a whole level...I am have a true Peter moment!

As for what I would do with a million dollars....I subscribe to the Peter Gibbons school of thought.

"I'd relax, I would sit on my ass all day, I would do nothing."

Now, I have actually lived that sweet dream...but it's late and that is a story for another day....(strangly it's a story that has a cameo by Lou Diamond Phillips!)