Wolff rating: NOT BAD
Plot summary: Man who hates his job finds himself suddenly without cares, and so he decides to change a few things around the office and in his life.
Biased, pithy comments: Mike Judge is a guy who won't do anything for a laugh. In fact, he'll do very little for a laugh; he finds the smallest thing to show the ludicrous absurdity of the situations he creates, and then expects the audience to see the irony along with him. Strangely, it usually works in his animated shorts (upon which this was based), and in this movie it very nearly does. Set in a sea of office grey and men who wear clothes they hate and work on machines they despise, we see the grinding inhumanity of suburban software living. Unfortunately, setting a film in such deep banality can make the film feel very static and slow---kind of like suburban life. The jokes don't quite spin fast enough, but for the wretched few Dilberts about which Judge speaks, it does speak volumes. It's fun, but too clean, too motionless; too much like a Judge cartoon short stretched out to feature length. For some, this will be an anthem, but I suspect it will not last the test of time due to the pacing and the uneven plotting.
Other Notes: Watch for Judge himself as Aniston's boss.
How many times I have seen it: x1
Starring: Ron Livingston, Jennifer Aniston, Gary Cole, Ajay Naidu, Paul Willson
Directed by: Mike Judge