Terry Tate, Office Linebacker (2002)

User Rating:

8.2/10   

Director:

Rawson Marshall Thurber

Writer:

Rawson Marshall Thurber (writer)

Genre:

Comedy | Short

Tagline:

The Pain Train's Comin', Bitch!

Plot:

Retired NFL Linebacker, "Terrible" Terry Tate enforces the office rules at the Felcher and Sons' headquarters...

Plot Keywords:

Office | Linebacker

Cast

Lester Speight	...	Terry Tate (as The Mighty Rasta)
Michael Sean McGuinness	...	Ron Felcher
Michael Cornacchia	...	Recycler Guy
Bob Stevenson	...	Paul
Louella Amorelle	...	Laura
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Luiggi Debiasse	...	Gene
Andrew Griffiths	...	Courtney Cate
Doug Grimes	...	Justin
Steve Mallory	...	Gunter
Sean Smith	...	Gaston DuCoque
David H. Steinberg	...	Guy with Apple

Runtime:

5 min

Country:

USA

Certification:

USA:Unrated

Company:

Industry Entertainment

Movie Connections:

Followed by Terry Tate, Office Linebacker: Sensitivity Training (2004)

Very funny office fantasy

Productivity is up at Felcher & Sons and the CEO puts it all down to the impact of one new employer – former NFL player Terry Tate. In his role as Office Linebacker Terry ensures that the annoying and inefficient people in the office are kept on their toes with a range of tackles, smackdowns and trash talking.

I really hate American Football and the idea of watching the Super Bowl for 4 hours in the middle of the night is not one I have any interest in. However in America the TV spots and commercials seem to be one of the big attractions for the audiences – with big film trailers, trunk monkeys and things like this short film. Here we have the simple idea of a NFL player taking out "punks" within the office environment, shouting and shouting "bitch" a lot. It is a simple idea but it is very funny – the guy who finishes the coffee, the bad worker, the annoying chatter, the guy who uses speaker phone in an open plan office – they all get taken down by Tate. It is perhaps funny because we all have people like this that we wish would be taken down in style and it is perhaps a bit of escapism.

The tackles are very convincing and had me wincing several times. Tate is played with real energy and the juxtaposition of his attitude and the bland world of the open plan office make for a comic mix that works very well. Meanwhile the office staff are convincingly played and also take hits very well. Overall a very funny advert that had me laughing from start to finish; it can be easily downloaded and it is worth trying to find.