Quartier général

A very odd movie, this.

By no means a great, or more than mildly entertaining, movie In other words a Judd H. trademark flick. HOWEVER, many of the scenes have haunted me since first seeing it upon its debut, never to see it again since.

Certain scenes and lines are incredible funny, or perverse: especially Eddie Albert's president. The board meetings are all incredible funny. Albert's reaction at a board meeting to a anti-government bombing of "Mr. Chicken" franchises results in a speech that is completely absurd, and yet it differs very little from the speeches given by real business leaders and politicians who link what is now called "globalization" with the exercise of human rights.

Devito IS also good, but in a side story. And Don King spouts wonderful nonsense, ignored by everyone, in a cameo made during the brief period he, and his hairstyle, were seen as charmingly wacky.

It is worth seeing, should you run across it and do not expect too much.

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!

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

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. :)

I agree with most of the previous reviews, but I'd like to emphasize that not only is the first half of this movie great, its as funny and ahead of its time as it gets. An absolute classic and contains some of its actors' best work. Rick Moranis is one of the comic geniuses of his generation and his brief scenes are worth the entire experience alone. I've quoted his big line in appropriate situations (unfortunately to no appreciation / recognition) more than any other movie joke. This is the only feature film where he's as funny as in his best moments from SCTV and SNL. Eddie Albert's very first scene and punch line is one of the greatest satirical jokes ever written of this genre. Michael O'Donoghue's deadpan performance is chillingly convincing, etc, etc. Yes, there is the obligatory Judge Rhienhold "voice of sanity" character who's storyline gradually sinks the movie into formulaic banality (and I subtract just one point for that), but the first half of this thing is an absolute must-see for any satirical comedy fan. I'll go further - this movie, at its best, is the most underrated American comedy ever. Period.