Movie Review: Office Outbreak (2008)

by Hollis Jay

After I watched Office Outbreak, I was overwhelmed by a series of emotional responses. My first being laughter. I felt myself regaled by the sarcastic and underlining remarks towards reality television, but I also felt as if I was being attacked by some of the worst actors in history. There is no smooth line in plot, and no real sense of relationship created between the characters. In essence, we-as an audience-neither care about the outcome nor do we care who survives. There is no fear and no element of surprise. The injuries that our characters endure are neither imaginative nor do they even attempt at looking realistic. I mean I understand that this is at best a "B" movie, but within the realms of "B" movies this one only works downward toward an "F".

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The plot is also make up of the strangest elements. At one point, we are focused on bank fraud and then we are side tracked away towards the hype of a television show. Somehow, a man sitting in his vehicle with a gun becomes a terrorist issue in which police officers are set towards the financial building. Perhaps the worst actors are the police officers themselves. They almost drained me of every sense to go onward with the experience. The dialogue is stilted, tired, and devoid of any type of acting ability whatsoever. My second emotional response was frustration. Why was I watching this again? Only for the puritanical reason of trying to understand the reasoning behind the working mind of the bad movie-I thought. My frustration grew as the security guard inside the financial building shot one of the employees while a police officer watched. Wouldn't this be an issue in real life? I mean I understand that flesh eating zombies aren't necessarily our reality now, but shouldn't we mix reality and fiction to produce an intricate storyline?

Shawn Woodard needed to go back to the drawing board at least a few times to come up with anything as original as let's say Shaun of the Dead directed by Edgar or Junk directed by Atsushi Muroga. Next I moved on towards anger, as I began to curse the day David Hayes handed me this movie and I foolishly watched it without regard. But, I bear no ill will towards David as he provided me with another review. My last and final emotional response was boredom. I became overwhelmed with a sense of sleepiness and grogginess that can only be found by trying to keep up your interest in a bad movie. There is a serious problem when the movie has lost your interest in what is supposed to be the depths of its depravity, and when you are so exhausted by its' lack of neglect that even looking at the screen gives you a headache. Thanks Shawn Woodard!! Now, give me some Tylenol!!