TGME Round 1: Pulp Fiction Vs. Office Space

[GregMcduck]

How it works: Each poll will be open for two weeks, giving all of you time to watch each film. New polls added every Sunday and Wednesday.

Pulp Fiction (1994) vs. Office Space (1999)



Pulp Fiction is a 1994 film by director Quentin Tarantino, who cowrote the film with Roger Avary. A crime drama with a nonlinear storyline, the film is known for its rich, eclectic dialogue, its ironic mix of humor and violence, and its host of cinematic and pop culture references. Directed in a highly stylized manner, employing many cinematic allusions, Pulp Fiction joins the intersecting storylines of Los Angeles mobsters, fringe players, petty thieves, and a mysterious briefcase. Considerable screen time is devoted to conversations and monologues that reveal the characters' senses of humor and perspectives on life.

Pulp Fiction quickly came to be regarded as one of the most significant films of its era. In 1995, in a special edition of Siskel & Ebert devoted to Tarantino, Gene Siskel argued that Pulp Fiction posed a major challenge to the "ossification of American movies with their brutal formulas". In Siskel's view, "the violent intensity of Pulp Fiction calls to mind other violent watershed films that were considered classics in their time and still are. Hitchcock's Psycho, Arthur Penn's Bonnie and Clyde, and Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange. Each film shook up a tired, bloated movie industry and used a world of lively lowlifes to reflect how dull other movies had become. And that, I predict, will be the ultimate honor for Pulp Fiction. Like all great films, it criticizes other movies."



Office Space is an American comedy film written and directed by Mike Judge. It satirizes work life in a typical software company during the 1990s, focusing on a handful of individuals who are fed up with their jobs. Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston) is a programmer who spends his days updating bank software to remedy the then-expected Y2K disaster. His co-workers include Samir Nagheenanajar (Ajay Naidu), who complains that no one in the US can pronounce his name correctly; Michael Bolton (David Herman), who is angry that he shares his name with the real-life singer whom he hates; and Milton Waddams (Stephen Root), a soft-spoken, fixated collator who mumbles to himself incessantly (most notably about his co-workers borrowing his stapler) and is repeatedly harassed by management, especially the callous vice president Bill Lumbergh (Gary Cole). Lumbergh is Peter's nemesis — a stereotypical corporate middle-manager who spends most of his time wandering the office with coffee mug in hand, wears white-collared shirts, suspenders and a belt (a fashion faux pas), and emotionlessly micromanages his employees while engaging them with superficial small talk.

While not a box office success, the film has become a cult classic; it has since sold very well on video and DVD, and some of the movie's dialogue has entered into the popular lexicon since its release: ex. PMITA prison refers to 'pound me in the ass prison' as opposed to soft time in white collar prison; TPS report denotes any type of pointless office paperwork, based on the film's satirical example of such work; PC Load Letter an actual HP laser printer error message indicating that the printer needs letter-sized paper, but more generally a catch-all for any nonsensical error message. The "PC" in the phrase stands for "Paper Cassette", a paper reservoir for many printers. This error is more common in Europe when printing US documents on printers loaded with size A4 paper.

Please take the time to watch or re-watch these two films before voting. You can use this thread to post reviews after having watched them, campaign for your preferred movie, or just discuss the movies in general.

[Tripe]

Easy pick, nothing Hackentino does should even be considered good let alone great, unless mix-tape makers are eligible to be considered great composers.

[bettertomorrowamy]

Pulp Fiction is good, but Office Space is the shit.  Now if Netflix would send me the widescreen version instead of the fullscreen version I would be happy.

[anais.jude]

Pulp FIction is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay overrated

[Variety of Cells]

Yeah?  I guess I'll be in the minority, but I always felt that office space was also waaaaaaaaay overrated.  I'll concede that Pulp Fiction is blown out of proportion, but I just never found office space all that funny.  And as a film, I find pulp fiction to be better crafted and more engaging.  With Tarentino the way he is now... it's tough.  It's like trying to still like the first Matrix.  I can still do it, but when you know what comes next, it's hard.  But I still enjoy Pulp Fiction.

As for Office Space, people always raved about it as some sort of comedic masterpiece.  But when I saw it... I was underwhelmed.  It has its moments, but it's mostly just quotable lines.  It's not a bad film by any means, I just feel it's more overrated than Pulp Fiction.  So that lone vote for Pulp shall stand proud.

[bratpop]

Office Space is waaaaaaaaay overrated. I mean, sure it's a funny comedy, but the rap music? The actors? The director? Not so classic.

Pulp Fiction is a great movie and people only hate it to seem cool, because it's cool to like Tarantino, thus making it not cool, so you're only really cool if you hate Tarantino, except that's now cool so it must be cool to like him again. My head hurts.

Screw you, Pulp Fiction is a better movie than you are a person.

[Tripe]

Pulp Fiction is a great movie and people only hate it to seem cool, because it's cool to like Tarantino, thus making it not cool, so you're only really cool if you hate Tarantino, except that's now cool so it must be cool to like him again. My head hurts.

Nah, he's a talentless mix tape making hack who should still be shelving videos at his little rental store.

Pulp Fiction sucks as much as Reservoir Dogs blows but not as much as Kill Bill sucks ass.

I've always hated the little bastards work, and hey the tiny wee scrot himself.

[bratpop]

Quote right, you bastard!

[Tripe]

All fixed 

[Variety of Cells]

Office Space is waaaaaaaaay overrated. I mean, sure it's a funny comedy, but the rap music? The actors? The director? Not so classic.

Pulp Fiction is a great movie and people only hate it to seem cool, because it's cool to like Tarantino, thus making it not cool, so you're only really cool if you hate Tarantino, except that's now cool so it must be cool to like him again. My head hurts.

Screw you, Pulp Fiction is a better movie than you are a person.

Aw man, Bratpop agrees with me?

Can I change my vote? 

But seriously, you let Tripe completely ignore my argument to attack your noisy and insulting one.  Though strangely enough, now we are in the lead.  Maybe I should take a few lessons from you...

The only people who like Office Space are nerds who work in offices.  Killing people with guns is sooooo much cooler, because they have guns.  If anyone else votes for Office Space, I'm going to come to your office and shoot you with my gun.

[Tripe]

Oh no it's got nothing to do with my personal opinion of Office Space and everything to do with how utterly and completely  worthless* Hackentino and his crap piles are.

See my response to you argument VoC is that , in this case, I'm not voting on the quality of the film I'm voting for but on the singular lack of merit of the one I'm not voting for.

The match up could be pretty much anything and I'll voter for that instead of Pulp Bleeding Fiction

*though I suppose they did get him into Mira Sorvino's knickers for a while so they obviously had some worth to him.

[Variety of Cells]

Oh no it's got nothing to do with my personal opinion of Office Space and everything to do with how worthless Hackentino and his crap piles are.

Oh yeah?  Well I'm going to have to HACK your typing hand off if you keep making polarizing statements, forcing me to defend something I don't really believe in that much just so I don't look like a fool... bitch!

(Still winning?  Ok good.  Seems to be working)

[Tripe]

Feel free; I'm ambidextrous and have prehensile toes

[Variety of Cells]

Damn you British!  Why did they stop beating children for using their left hand?

[Tripe]

It was the stuttering monarch that did it I think.