Head Office

Gordon Gekko and his "greed is good" line have so much to answer for; they have since become the banner headline for the 1980s. However, that film hadn't yet arrived when this 1986 film, created in what looks like a 'humourous' response to the ‘80s motif of yuppie business and corporate greed, originally turned up. And again today. And manages to be just a pile of poorly-aimed poop.

And not funny at all.

Jack Issel is the charismatic lazybones son of a Senator. After graduating from business school, he secures a job with INC, a mega-corporation creating everything from warheads to laxatives. In finding his way around, he starts getting promoted for reasons he can’t understand. He starts a tentative relationship with a girl, Rachael, who is anti-corporate America and, as their relationship grows, Jack’s career continues to skyrocket. We all know by now that Jack’s bosses are trying to get the Senator onside for a plant they want to close in the States and re-open in Latin America. Rachael is leading the protest against this and before too much more happens some secrets come to light that change everything Jack and Rachael thought they knew. Or something.

"I wouldn’t be much of an executive if I screwed my way to the bottom, now would I?"

This 1986 exercise appears to have been an attempt at black comedy, but this schtick falls flat under the more serious darker threads of corporate America. Judge Reinhold’s cheesy grin can’t make this film any more likeable, or perhaps that’s because of it. At any rate, Head Office is built upon complex character plots that just confuse and robotic performances from most players. Jane Seymour is the only bright candle in the darkness and she gets about ten minutes of screen time (if that) and spends most of it clad in lingerie. However, she has a good deal of fun with her material and it’s a great shame she doesn’t appear more.

That might have saved the film.

A fairly average budget presentation from Universal gives us some film artefacts, though nothing too major. There are a couple of scenes of grain about and some faint haze attached to white shirts and whatnot. The colour palette is practically non-existent, with ‘80s greys and blacks dominating everything. Occasional aliasing occurs as well, though this is short-lived and fairly unobtrusive. There are many, so thankfully blacks look natural enough in this 2.35:1 cinema aspect delivery with 16:9 anamorphic enhancement. An allover fairly average release.

Again a fairly pedestrian delivery with Dolby Digital stereo to bring us every cringe-inducing ‘80s musical track. There is but one decent track from Wall of Voodoo, but that’s hardly enough to save it. Plenty of synthesiser and ‘lecky drums do their evil work here and the score does pretty much the same thing. There’s even a live band at one stage all wearing grey overalls and beating electric drums with bad hairdos. It’s ‘80s hell. Thanks a lot James Newton Howard.

Dialogue is all okay, with Rick Moranis’ brief appearance doing about half the overall script. He’s pretty funny, but is here and gone, as is Danny DeVito. Why the talent all jumped out early is fairly obvious by the film’s end anyway. Sound effects are tacked in at times and are pure stock, but mostly they synch up pretty well. There’s also an audio stumble at 1:15:01 that shouldn’t be there, but it’s a budget release of a film no one’s ever heard of, so why would they care?

The main menu has a chapter list and that’s it. This disc is tanking, people, and fast! Sell, sell!

I don’t know who’d get into this, to be honest. I couldn’t see the humour and there isn’t really a decent enough story to maintain more than a fleeting interest (thank you, Jane Seymour). Do as Danny De Vito and Rick Moranis do; get out early, or better yet, don’t go in at all.