Office Christmas Party - directed by Josh Gordon & Will Speck
Comedy movies are becoming terribly generic of late I am finding.
It's not necessarily a big problem.
Often the execution is more important than the plot.
In the eighties it seemed like every second comedy movie starred either Bill Murray or Eddie Murphy.
Now it seems that Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman have stepped up to replace them- often together in the same movie.
After "Horrible Bosses" and its sequel the duo re-team in "Office Christmas Party".
This one is is light on plot but the central idea is rich for comedy.
A company on the verge of being closed down has a wild party to try to impress an investor whose money could save them.
And so it all comes down to the execution.
One thing that "Office Christmas Party" gets very right is the casting.
Bateman is Mr Reliable in this sort of flick.
He basically plays the same character time and time again but there is no doubting that it works.
T.J Miller is one of those actors who is great in everything even when the film itself is not.
He threatened to drag "Transformers: Age of Extinction" out of the mire but was stupidly removed from proceedings so soon that even he couldn't save it.
Here he plays the head of the company branch that his late Father oversaw.
Aniston plays his sister - a woman who wants to close it down.
She plays the character with obvious glee delighting in each and every nasty put down and threat.
I didn't enjoy her performance as much here as I did in the Horrible Bosses movies but she certainly excels playing conniving, nasty, ruthless and/or plain crazy sorts.
As Carol Vanstone she leans far more to the ruthless side than the crazy and it affords her some pretty brutal moments.
Seeing Rachel from Friends tell a sweet little girl to F off is almost worth the ticket price alone.
There are a host of other familiar and notable faces including Rob Corddry ("Hot Tub Time Machine"), Randall Park ("The Interview") and Jillian Bell ("22 Jump Street") but for me the clear highlight is Kate McKinnon.
McKinnon is best know for her work on Saturday Night Live and the recent "Ghostbusters" movie.
She plays an uptight HR person who becomes less so as the movie progresses.
It allows McKinnon to play two roles in one and both provided for me the bulk of the laughs.
In truth there aren't quite enough laughs here as there ought to be with the talent involved.
The script is all over the place in trying to stretch the thin premise to ninety minutes and it stumbles badly in the last twenty five when it tries to wrap everything up.
Characters behave out of character and while I wasn't looking for great character arcs or a compelling story I was hoping for some major laughs.
There isn't anything too gut-busting here but thanks largely to McKinnon and Miller there is a near constant flow of amusing moments.
Fortune Feimster is on hand to boost things playing a stranger Uber driver.
Olivia Munn is very effective as what amounts to the straight man too and Courtney B Vance is surprising as the investor in need of impressing.
The party gets out of hand wonderfully well and Vance is at the centre of a lot of the debauched goings ons.
There is no doubt that the film earns its R16 with plenty of profanity, drug use and nudity both male and female.
The conclusion is weak but it at least allows for a couple more laughs.
RATING: 70 / 100
CONCLUSION: About funny enough but not as hilarious as the premise and the talent would have indicated it would be "Office Christmas Party" is an almost comedy.
Starring: Kate McKinnon, T.J. Miller, Jamie Chung, Jennifer Aniston, Jason Bateman, Jillian Bell, Olivia Munn, Abbey Lee, Randall Park, Karan Soni, Vanessa Bayer, Matt Walsh, Rob Corddry, Courtney B Vance, Sam Richardson
Screenplay: Justin Malen, Dan Mazer & Laura Solon
Music Score by: Theodore Shapiro
Cinematography: Jeff Cutter
Cinematography: Jeff Cutter
Edited by: Jeff Groth & Evan Henke
Running Time: 105 minutes
Language: English
Rated: R16 - Profanity, Drug Use, Nudity
Running Time: 105 minutes
Language: English
Rated: R16 - Profanity, Drug Use, Nudity
It's not necessarily a big problem.
Often the execution is more important than the plot.
In the eighties it seemed like every second comedy movie starred either Bill Murray or Eddie Murphy.
Now it seems that Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman have stepped up to replace them- often together in the same movie.
After "Horrible Bosses" and its sequel the duo re-team in "Office Christmas Party".
This one is is light on plot but the central idea is rich for comedy.
A company on the verge of being closed down has a wild party to try to impress an investor whose money could save them.
And so it all comes down to the execution.
 |
| T.J Miller, Jason Bateman, Kate McKinnon, Olivia Munn and Vanessa Bayer |
Bateman is Mr Reliable in this sort of flick.
He basically plays the same character time and time again but there is no doubting that it works.
T.J Miller is one of those actors who is great in everything even when the film itself is not.
He threatened to drag "Transformers: Age of Extinction" out of the mire but was stupidly removed from proceedings so soon that even he couldn't save it.
Here he plays the head of the company branch that his late Father oversaw.
Aniston plays his sister - a woman who wants to close it down.
She plays the character with obvious glee delighting in each and every nasty put down and threat.
I didn't enjoy her performance as much here as I did in the Horrible Bosses movies but she certainly excels playing conniving, nasty, ruthless and/or plain crazy sorts.
As Carol Vanstone she leans far more to the ruthless side than the crazy and it affords her some pretty brutal moments.
Seeing Rachel from Friends tell a sweet little girl to F off is almost worth the ticket price alone.
There are a host of other familiar and notable faces including Rob Corddry ("Hot Tub Time Machine"), Randall Park ("The Interview") and Jillian Bell ("22 Jump Street") but for me the clear highlight is Kate McKinnon.
McKinnon is best know for her work on Saturday Night Live and the recent "Ghostbusters" movie.
She plays an uptight HR person who becomes less so as the movie progresses.
It allows McKinnon to play two roles in one and both provided for me the bulk of the laughs.
 |
| Jennifer Aniston and centre - Fortune Feimster. Far right Courtney B Vance and Rob Corddry |
The script is all over the place in trying to stretch the thin premise to ninety minutes and it stumbles badly in the last twenty five when it tries to wrap everything up.
Characters behave out of character and while I wasn't looking for great character arcs or a compelling story I was hoping for some major laughs.
There isn't anything too gut-busting here but thanks largely to McKinnon and Miller there is a near constant flow of amusing moments.
Fortune Feimster is on hand to boost things playing a stranger Uber driver.
Olivia Munn is very effective as what amounts to the straight man too and Courtney B Vance is surprising as the investor in need of impressing.
The party gets out of hand wonderfully well and Vance is at the centre of a lot of the debauched goings ons.
There is no doubt that the film earns its R16 with plenty of profanity, drug use and nudity both male and female.
The conclusion is weak but it at least allows for a couple more laughs.
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