Back
Shelf Beauties
by Willie Waffle
Click Here to Buy
Movie Posters!
|
Employee
of the Month
I’m certain Jessica
Simpson,
one of the stars of Lionsgate’s Employee
of the Month, has absolutely no chance
of winning that award for the studio after everyone sees how horribly
she
performs in a movie that doesn’t exactly raise the bar for
comedy in the
Cineplex.
Dane Cook
stars as Zack – the
slacker box boy at Super Club (think Sam’s Club or Costco). He has been happy to coast
through the world
of warehouse stores for the past 10 years, but Zack’s
attitude changes when a
beautiful new cashier with a predilection for sleeping with the
employee of the
month, Amy (Jessica Simpson), is transferred to their store. Now, Zack wants to do
everything possible to
win the award and steal the fair maiden’s heart, but Vince
(Dax Shepherd) – an
employee who has won Employee of the Month 17 months in a row, and
stands to
get a huge promotion and newish car if he wins one more time
– will not be
denied.
Who will be Employee of the
Month?
Director Greg Coolidge and
writers Don Calame and Chris Conroy had a chance to make a classic
movie
capturing the wild antics and neuroses of retail workers in America,
but instead
of getting another Office
Space or 9 to 5,
Coolidge delivers a movie full of fart
jokes and longing shots of Simpson’s large breasts
(they’re in the movie so
much they should get a co-star credit).
Employee
of the Month still has some small laughs, but nothing
memorable
as the movie fails to be a crazy and outrageous as it wants to be, and
becomes
much too serious towards the end.
Even
Andy Dick is boring. However,
the
movie’s largest failing is the use of Simpson.
Shepard makes something out
of his character as he goes for the wacky level everyone else should be
striving to accomplish. He
defines Vince
as a suck up and the type of coworker we have all loathed at some point
in our
working lives. Meanwhile,
Cook finds
some moments to make us laugh as he attempts to do his best Bill Murray
impression (which isn’t very good), but needs more script
development to make
him a lovable loser (the development comes too late for us to care, and
too
late for Cook to take advantage of it to make us like Zack more).
However, Simpson has the
charisma and screen presence of a wet towel.
She has been hired for her body and nothing else,
which makes her the
most expensive mannequin in the history of the world.
Simpson seems spaced out and detached
throughout the movie, barely reciting her lines with the energy of a
log and
finding herself pushed to the background as Zack and Vince are
supposedly
fighting for her. It’s
almost as if she
is watching all of the actors.
Coolidge and the gang could
have made Employee
of the Month a better movie by creating more
dirty tricks
for Zack and Vince to play on each other, a crazier ending and much
more
commentary on what it’s like for adults to be working in
retail instead of
factories or white collar jobs.
½
Waffle (Out Of 4)
Copyright
2006 - WaffleMovies.com
You
can support this site by shopping at AllPosters.com |
|
|