Quartier général

I have read the other comments here and I do understand everyone has their point of view. I agree that if you have never worked for a huge corporation (where employees are numbers not faces)then this movie will probably seem like nothing more than a stooges flick with big name cameos. I as a rental when I was working for Raytheon as a secretary and I can officially say that this movie is hysterical. It starts out fast in the opening with DeVito and then later on with poor Reinhold in the complaints department... if you have ever worked for PR or Customer support this will hit home in extremes! I love it and have looked for the video for years when it seemed to disappear off the face of the Video world (unless you bought it from a used video store's antique collection). I still hope it will eventually be released to DVD but until then I will be content with my video and hope to not wear it out. :)

This movie, like many in the 1980's suffers from studio slandering. The movie is brilliantly funny for the first half. An original satire on the wall street world. The second half and climax suffers from weak plotting and a silly shoot-out. Like most eighties movies. I still don't understand why they thought every comedy ought to have had one. Definitely watch this movie though. You will laugh alot.

This movie takes about the same cynically detached view of corporate America as Blake Edward's "S.0.B." took toward the movie industry. The thing about this movie that bears attention is that, even if it is "just" an 80s farce starring a lot of actors who haven't done much lately, the issues it raises, primarily the off-shoring of American jobs, are even more relevant today than they were then.

The cast, as a whole, is first rate. Judge Reinhold is the recent business school graduate courted by the massive INC Corporation for his Senator father's favors. As a result, he manages to get promoted repeatedly no matter how badly he screws up. He winds up doing the right thing just to stay alive. This is one of those movies that offers me moments when I can't catch my breath from laughing. I have seen it a number of times and the Rick Moranas conversation with his Mercedes dealer almost kills me every time. It has a number of very subtle corporate digs that will make you laugh till you cry if you catch them as they whiz by.

Overall rating: 7 out of 10.

About 20 years ago I ran into Eddie Albert at "Disneyworld", and asked him about one of the greatest "black comedies" of all time, "Head Office". What I wanted to know was, with a great cast, and a terrific script, how come the film sank into obscurity? His answer was that the studio thought it hit a little too close to home, lampooning big business. What makes "Head Office" so special is that the lack of communication between top executives and the people who are actually on the firing line, is all true. "Never make a decision, just approve other peoples decisions" I love this movie, and if you enjoy "dark comedy" this is one of the best. - MERK

As the other reviewer says, this is definitely a gem of a movie! If you work in a 15000+ employee corporation, you will see what we mean.

Danny De Vito is excellent as a manager who has been forced to jump to his early fall from an office window; Don Novello as the car driver with a taste for Julio Iglessias; Judge Rheinhold playing Jack Issel is great as the son of a congressman; Rick Moranis as a PR head is also great especially with the delivery of the line "I love this business" as he is checking his blood pressure; as is Jane Seymour, offering the line, after making love to a colleague: 'I wouldn't be much if a screwed my way to the bottom."

Great movie all round. I specially liked the line "we make everything from toilet paper to nuclear power plants."

You will certainly enjoy this one!