Critics Scoreboard
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Average Critic Score:
68
(30 sources)
68
(30 sources)
-
95
TNT RoughCut
Observations on the modern office space are dead-on, and I dare you not to laugh out loud at a few of the sophomoric jokes! Read Full Review » -
90
Los Angeles Times
Bristling with shrewd observation, inspired humor and all-around smarts, Office Space is a winner about a guy who's beginning to feel like a loser. [19 Feb 1999] Read Full Review » -
90
Variety
Imagine a live-action version of the "Dilbert" comic strip with a touch of Hal Hartley's deadpan absurdism, and you're ready for the frequently uproarious "Office Space." Read Full Review » -
90
LA Weekly
Mike Judge’s live-action directorial debut not only whittles the high-strung festering soul of ‘90s Orthodox Corporationism down to the quick and quintessential but wraps its veins around his fingers and flosses our teeth. Read Full Review » -
90
Film.com
Sure to become a classic; it taps into the fury of being a drone with a deeply knowing precision. Read Full Review » -
80
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80
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80
Salon.com
Its characters and its nowheresville setting are uncannily realized... It's not a cartoon in any sense, but an honest-to-God movie with some fine, understated acting and a human heart. Read Full Review » -
80
New Times (L.A.)
Office Space's pleasures don't really depend on plot. It's pretty much what a Dilbert feature should look like. Read Full Review » -
80
New York Magazine
Office Space is so enjoyable that you wish it were even better...Once the scheme to bilk Initech is set in motion, the off-kilter humor flattens into a take-this-job-and-shove-it thing, and the ending seems pooped-out. Read Full Review » -
78
Austin Chronicle
The storyline is something of a hodge-podge but what the narrative lacks in honing and straight-ahead storytelling it more than makes up for with well-aimed barbs and acutely focused observations...this funny, funny satire gets us where we live. Read Full Review » -
75
Chicago Sun-Times
The movie's dialogue is smart. It doesn't just chug along making plot points. Read Full Review » -
75
San Francisco Chronicle
Jennifer Aniston...doesn't have much screen time, but in playing this slightly insecure, affable young woman, she does her best film acting to date. Read Full Review » -
75
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75
Christian Science Monitor
In a surprise move, the creator of "Beavis and Butt-Head" has made a laid-back, even subtle comedy that generally favors mischievous ironies over outlandish jokes. Read Full Review » -
70
Slate
It's on the verge of being really good...his narrative peters out without a decent payoff. It's a testament to the rage and anxieties that he has brilliantly tapped into that he can't get away with a subdued conflagration and a lame twist at the end. Read Full Review » -
70
Washington Post
A knowing, somewhat slight, often hilarious sendup of cubicle culture. Read Full Review » -
70
Washington Post
I could love it only as far as it let me. Although the movie has hilarious moments throughout, its thematic thinness is writ fairly large on the big screen. Read Full Review » -
63
ReelViews
It fails to sustain its comic momentum or high energy level. The first half is fresh and funny, but it doesn't last. Read Full Review » -
63
San Francisco Examiner
There are plenty of good sight gags here, and anyone who can work the phrase "ass clown" into a script is all right with me. Read Full Review » -
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
What began as discomfiting satire soon devolves into silly farce. By the time Friends star Jennifer Aniston pops up as a waitress-cum-love-interest (quite a stretch for her), it's a sure sign we're back within the smug confines of the Tinseltown formula flick. Read Full Review » -
63
USA Today
From morning traffic jams to passive-aggressive bosses who justify their existence by making yours miserable, Space gets it right. [19 Feb 1999] Read Full Review » -
60
Film.com
Livingston is especially good at capturing Peter's passive rebelliousness, which suggests the suddenly uncooperative worker who defies employer logic in Herman Melville's "Bartleby." Read Full Review » -
60
Time
At its shambling best, Office Space is like a bracing break at the coffee machine. Some horrible Monday, why not cut work to see it? Read Full Review » -
60
Chicago Reader
Until the story diverges from a similar agenda, the gags about the daily grind and what happens when a drone forgets how to be submissive make for beautifully low-key satire, and the caricatures of office types seem clever. Read Full Review » -
60
TV Guide
Even if it doesn't up live to its inspired beginning, Mike Judge scores something with all the marks of a workplace cult classic with his first big-screen, live-action outing. Read Full Review » -
50
Entertainment Weekly
Feels cramped and underimagined. I think Judge is capable of making an inspired live-action comedy, but next time he'll have to remember to do what he does in his animated ones--keep the madness popping. Read Full Review » -
50
Chicago Tribune
Drably shot, unimaginatively written and shallowly acted, it's a poor example of the "daffy, goofy, sex-crazed guys" occupational comedies that flourished throughout the job-obsessed '80s. [19 Feb 1999] Read Full Review » -
40
The New York Times
It has the loose-jointed feel of a bunch of sketches packed together into a narrative that doesn't gather much momentum. Its conspiratorial eager beavers are so undeveloped that they could hardly even be called types. You don't care for a second what happens to them. Read Full Review » -
30
Film.com
The collapse of Office Space's second half is so egregious that one can't help but suspect Judge's Achilles heel may be his writing. It's not that he can't write -- it's just that his ideas tend to shine better within a pool of fellow scribes, as proven in his television career. Read Full Review »
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