Employés modèles

Zack is content with his job as a box boy at the Super Club supermarket, seeing the days through with the minimum of fuss and effort. The fact that cashier Vince is the exact opposite only confirms the daily choice that Zack makes not to care. However when a new employee starts in the very shapely form of Amy, Zack finds a reason to change his ways. Amy has a reputation for finding ambition attractive, so employee of the month and assistant manager nominee Vince is in with the best shot. Zack decides to win the employee of the month competition instead of Vince, getting the kudos and the girl – but at what price? You can see the potential here for great comedy. The story of the title is really just there to create a frame for a workplace comedy that one would hope learns lessons from Office Space and The Office in really getting down to the reality to find the jokes. Sadly it never really does this but the results are not terrible – just basic. The plot is quite obvious but mainly stays out of the way by being a frame for the action. The relationship stuff involving Amy doesn't offer much for the amount of time that it goes on for but mostly it does free up space for the workplace joking. Problem is that it is not as strong as one would have hoped and much of it is at quite a basic level and doesn't have much in the way of inspiration. It still is quite funny at times and it made for a very easy watch but if you are hoping for more than that then the film will disappoint.

The cast are solid but not up to the task of lifting it. Both Cook and Shepard are good enough to do the minimum requirements but not good enough to really deliver something special. The support cast pretty much matches this approach by having a "thing" about their characters that allows one gag but not having anything more. The end result is a basic film that never really excels itself in any regard. It does do the basics well enough to make for very easy amusement for the undemanding viewer but nothing more than that.

Keep watching this over and over. Dax Shepard was the real star of this movie.

I wasn't expecting much, but I was pleasantly surprised. I laughed at several witty lines, especially one where Zach corrected Vince's grammar, but Vince didn't get it. Even Jessica Simpson didn't bother me because they didn't try to inflate her intelligence; they just made her a rather bland character.

The plot isn't original, but watching Vince pretend he was Tom Cruise from Cocktail made me laugh. When I watch this sort of movie I want to laugh and I did just that. Dane Cook was a pleasant surprise too. I had never seen anything with him. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie even though I didn't think that I would.

I was hardly amused when I saw the previews for this movie. It didn't look that good, I'm not that big of a Dane Cook fan (and in no way a Jessica Simpson fan), and I didn't enjoy "Waiting" too much (though I'm not sure how much that relates). This movie has more wit than it knows what to do with, and I laughed out loud numerous times. All the acting was spectacular and I was surprised to find that the writing had equal amounts of humor and heart.

To come into it thinking it was going to be terrible and coming out thinking it was one of the better movies I've seen in a while, I'd say that's an accomplishment. Though its only my opinion of course, check it out if your curious.

Much better, actually. The surprising thing was that my wife and I rented this movie along with Wedding Crashers and we watched them both the same night. We ended up turning off Wedding Crashers after too many groan-inducing scenes, but watched Employee of the Month all the way through and laughed at most of the jokes, which was the opposite of what I expected to happen.

Employee of the Month is not what I would call a "good" movie. The acting is mediocre, the plot is very simple and the humor is, at times, crude. And, of course, Jessica Simpson is a horrible actress. But they didn't use her as much more than a pretty face for the the hero and villain to fight over, so I hated her much less than I thought I would. Many of the scenarios are over the top and unbelievable, but I found that to be another joke aimed at the big warehouse chains themselves, not just silly things meant to be funny on their own.

It was a very silly, simple, and (apparently) cheaply made comedy, but one that was enjoyable to watch, nonetheless. I might even recommend it if you are looking for a movie that doesn't require a working brain to understand and find funny.