Dir.
Greg Coolidge, US, 2006, 103 mins
Cast: Dane cook, Jessica Simpson, Dax Shepard, Efren Ramirez
Review by Matthew Rodgers
Employee of the Month
(or EOTM as it shall be referred to from hereon in) has
two main reasons to queue at the checkout, but they hardly
warrant a scramble worthy of the January sales. First along
the conveyor belt is the lure of the second big-screen
outing for sometime pop star, reality TV star, and vacuous
talent Jessica Simpson after her “short shorts” performance in 2005’s
awful, The Dukes of Hazzard. Rolling over the scanner next
is the tenuous link that hovers above the title on the films
posters; “From the producers of The
Wedding Crashers” that
elicits a similar response to the juddering prefix “produced
by Wes Craven” on below par, dust gathering horror
flicks. The big decision that needs to be made is that when
stood in the isle looking for EOTM, should you be perusing
the lofty heights of the charts, or rummaging around in the
bargain bin? I wonder…
Set in a huge retail outlet in the
suburbs called Super Club in which the driving force for
the underachieving, unmotivated members of staff is the
honour of being awarded Employee of the month, an accolade
that has been bestowed upon jobs worthy Vince Downey (Dax
Shepard) a record 17 consecutive times. One more and he
will win a bucket load of dollars, a rather shabby looking
car and possibly the affections of the steaming hot new
employee Amy (Jessica Simspon). Standing in his way is
the stores “box boy” Zack Bradley
(Dane Cook), whose slacker attitude has held him back in
the company hierarchy, but made him popular with the other
employee’s. Bring on the biggest barcode brawl since,
well… ever.
There are very few reasons to sit
through Greg Coolidge’s
low-brow comedy. Starting on the top shelf (no pun intended)
and working your way down, you have the obvious aesthetics
of Jessica Simpson, who in some instances is filmed in a
horrible soft focus just incase we couldn’t understand
that Amy was meant to be, to quote Derek Zoolander “incredibly
good looking”. It’s a shame that her looks are
not backed up by any talent whatsoever as she bats her eyelids
and giggles her way through the predictable plot as the rather
sexist object of affection for the warring guys. Other highlights
(and that’s a generous word to use) are the best motorcycle
action sequence since Mission Impossible II and the slight
charm of Cook’s “Ryan Reynolds lite” shtick.
The supporting cast are either completely
wasted, such as Napoleon Dynamite star Efren Ramirez who
plays a carbon copy of his Pedro character, or completely
useless; take your pick but no doubt the gurning features
of former Punk’d
star Dax Shepard doing his best impression of the far superior
Zach Braf (Scrubs) will grate the most.
EOTM’s plot is past its sell by date, the majority
of gags are rotten, and it will probably only appeal to those
not exhausted by the glut of juvenile comedies of similar
ilk – Waiting, It’s a Boy Girl Thing – that
have cluttered the shelves over the past couple of years.
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