EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH

I’m against heavy criticism against light comedies: some films are made for fun, and not for awards. But I won’t defend this one: Employee of the Month (USA, 2006) doesn’t have anything good about it: plot, dialogues, acting... all weak. Okay, nobody expected brilliance from it, but some quality wouldn’t hurt.

Zack (Dane Cook) and Vince (Max Shephard) work for a supermarket. Zack is lazy and hardly cares about his job; Vince is uptight and always the employee of the month. Of course, they hate each other and fight constantly. Until Amy (Jessica Simpson) appears.

Attractive and shallow, she’s wanted by every male worker of the supermarket. Until they find out she’s only interested in employees of the month. So Zack and Vince make a bet: whoever wins the title gets the girl. Let the silliness and mess begin.

First: the plot. Who cares about a foolish employees contest? Amy’s... “preference” is a horrible pretext for the juvenile fights that keep this movie going for 1h30 (not to say how whorish it is...). If only there were good moments or ideas, but there aren’t.

Second: the screenplay. Employee of the Month is a comedy that doesn’t make you laugh once. There are no jokes or physical humor: just the same clichés we’re all used to. All the characters were annoying and superficial. Frankly, I didn’t care for any of them.

Finally: the acting. Dane Cook is not a good actor. I’ve never seen his stand-up comedy numbers, but his acting on-screen is really poor. He’s the weakest thing about Dan in Real Life (a good movie that he didn’t ruin because of the solid cast), and the same thing happens here.

Max Shephard is acceptable. Not brilliant, but he plays this particular character kind of well (I guess you don’t have to try hard to be annoying, huh?). But Jessica Simpson! Somebody should give her an award. Seriously, she appears in practically four scenes. And she barely even talks!

There’s only one explanation for her to be there. The producers probably thought: “Let’s get a hot blond girl with big t*ts, who won’t talk or do anything!” She’s not a good actress and she should stick to her singing (or whatever it is that she does).

Want an advice? Skip Employee of the Month. Choose a solid movie, that doesn’t include non-laughable jokes or silly lines which were probably written by 12-year-olds.

But hey, it’s just my opinion. I’m being harsh, but everyone is entitled to one. Always feel free to disagree!

>> ZÉ B. [2/5]

IMDB link: HERE