… which I am watching right now.
— Michael Bolton rapping along with the radio while he’s stuck in traffic. This geeky thin white boy being a bad ass.
— Gary Cole’s first entrance over Peter’s cubicle. Genius. “Yyyyyyeah … ”
— “I have the memo … I just … forgot …” “Yyyyeah … well, if you could remember next time, that would be grreat….. Kay?”
— I love the guy from Saudi Arabia. I LOVE HIM. His first entrance: freaking out at the copy machine. Then later at the coffee shop Peter says, “This hypnotherapist really helped Anne lose weight.” Pause. Saudi guy says, “Peter, she’s anorexic.” Peter says, “I know! The guy’s really good!”
— The guy who plays Milton is an absolute comic genius. “I was told I could listen to the radio at a reasonable volume from 9 to 11 …I don’t see why I should have to turn down the radio … I enjoy the radio … at a reasonable volume … from 9 to 11 …”
— “There was nothing wrong with my name until I was about 12 years old and that no-talent assclown became famous and started winning Grammy’s.”
— “You think the Pet Rock was a really good idea?”
— I love Peter’s next-door neighbor and how they just blatantly have conversations through the wall. “Check out channel 9, Peter – check out this chick!”
— “JUST a moment!”
— I have to say it again. Gary Cole’s performance is just brilliant. It’s perfect in every way. Funny, contemptible … so so specific. “I’m gonna need you … to come in here tomorrow … so if you could be here … at 9 … that would be grreat, kay?”
— “I told Bill if they moved my desk one more time … I’m going to quit …”
— Gary Cole’s series of answering machine messages. “Yeah …” “Yyyeah, hi …” “Yyyeah, Peter …”
— The hypnotized look on Jennifer Aniston’s face when she hears the words “kung fu.” And the deadly serious tone in which she says, “I love kung fu.”
— “I’ll set the building on fire.”
— I love the two Bobs, especially the tall thin one. He’s very funny in a very subtle way.
— The manager of the restaurant is another comic genius. The way his lips get tight as he talks to her about doing “the bare minimum” … Dude is a genius.
— “I told those fudgepackers I liked Michael Bolton’s music. That’s just not right, Peter.”
— “This isn’t Riyadh, Zamir. They aren’t gonna saw your hand off!”
— “If things go well, I might be showin’ her my O face.”
— “You know, the Nazis had pieces of flair that they made the Jews wear.”
Peter, stuck in traffic, looking over to the sidewalk, watching an old man in a walker making better time than he is.
“CORPorate accounts, Nena speaking. JUST a moment.”
Milton’s stapler.
The shot where Peter’s having the nightmare about Joanna sleeping with Lumbergh…who is drinking coffee as he’s doing it, giving his “uh…yeah. If you could just go ahead and…” speech.
“Federal Pound-Me-In-The-Ass Prison.”
hahahaha the coffee cup in the fantasy! “grreat, mkay … grrreat…”
Have you seen Dodgeball, Emily? Milton is in Dodge Ball – it is so funny. He actually has a slo-mo scene when he makes a great play
I still get this huge kick out of the whole bit where they look up how to launder money in the dictionary.
The thin walled apartment always reminds me of my college apartment, where similar conversations might have been held, had the neighbors and I gotten along. I was always envious of Peter’s relationship with his neighbor.
And then when the neighbor stops talking to him through the wall – when he realizes that Peter is a criminal. hahahaha
I love it when Peter asks his neighbor (played by the excellent Diedrich Bader) something to the effect of “Does anyone at your job ever say ‘Someone’s having a case of the Mondays?'” “No. I think they’d get their ass kicked.”
Classic.
That line and Rex Kwan Do are how I’ll always remember Diedrich Bader.
If I remember correctly, the manager dude is Mike Judge.
I would love to know how many takes it took Jennifer to say “I love kung fu” so dead pan.
lawrence (the neighbor) is one of the best characters EVER.
“watch out for your cornhole, there, bud.”
Its been a while since I watched this…hubby told me about the movie and was a bit reluctant, but found when I did, was laughing the hardest over the flair..been there, done that!!
Gary Cole’s character = CREEP!! brrr…
BTW (and Im gonna be a comment hijacker here, but only because you and I share a common interest) – would you kick me off for saying I think Russell Crowe is the BEST actor I have ever seen??
My favorite line is a Jennifer Aniston one.
“I don’t really like to talk about my flair.”
Nothing beats the death of the printer. Absolutely nothing.
“I don’t get how a bunch of smart guys like us can be so bad at this, when a bunch of stupid criminals are able to do this every day?”
My favorite part of the printer scene (besides the music, that is), is when Samir runs back to kick its ass some more and is restrained by the others.
Not to be too PC about this, but I also love the fact that Samir even exists in this movie. It’s a bit of a pet peeve of mine when you see anything set in a hospital/software company/college campus without a single Asian person in it.
The funny thing is, the first time I saw this movie, I found it profoundly depressing (perhaps because my brother had worked for a Giant Insurance Company [and had just resigned when we saw the movie] and he sat there next to me the whole time we were watching it, going “Oh, man, it was just like that” or “Yeah, there was a guy like that in my department.”)
Now, it makes me laugh…and makes me very grateful to be in academia.
My favorite lines are Milton’s mumbling about burning the whole place down (I’ve actually SAID that to myself, to make myself laugh, when there was some stupid Directive sent down from the administration that I had to comply with) and “PC Load Letter? What the f*ck does that mean?” (Mainly because I am the ONLY person, I mean the ONLY person in my department who ever thinks to put more paper in the printer…so “PC LOAD LETTER” is a message I get regularly)..
and the whole “flair” discussion. I love that.
Last year, a friend of mine had the threat of a lay-off looming over his head. I said, “My advice to you is to start drinking heavily and ingest a heavy rotation of Office Space and Fight Club.” Worked like a charm.
You wouldn’t think that Milton, and the overbearing boss (Jimmy James) on NewsRadio, could possibly be played by the same actor! Kickass.
“PC LOAD LETTER” Hilarious!
When they kick the crap out of the printer? I pee myself every time.
The whole movie is classic.
This movie came out in 1999; some friends of mine and I went to see it, and when Jennifer Aniston asks Peter what he does for a living, and he says he fixes banking software for the millenium bug? We rolled, because that’s exactly what we did EVERY DAY. Oh, man.
Yes, we really did worry about things like that back then.
Oh, and don’t forget Jennifer’s “rival” at Chotski’s with all the flair and the attitude. When he flips them off? Too good.
I loved it when Lumberg announced the staff could participate in Hawaiian Day. The looks on everybody’s faces
I also loved Tom’s Jump to Conclusions Mat.
“It’s a “Jump to Conclusions Mat”. You see, you have this mat, with different CONCLUSIONS written on it that you could JUMP TO.”
And the fact he actually makes said map was hilarious, despite being told it was a horrible idea. I loved his paranoia about the consultants being brought in, and how he justified himself to save his job. “I have people skills, God dammit!”
Dodgeball is pure genius. “L for ‘love’!”
The tall skinny Bob is hilarious on NBC’s Scrubs as well.