Office Christmas Party
Mary: "Tonight the decision you make will have
consequences that will haunt you for the rest of your professional lives."
"Office Christmas Party" is
directed by Josh Grodon ("Blades of Glory", "The Switch")
and Will Speck ("Blades of Glory", "The Switch") and stars
Jason Bateman as Josh Parker, T.J. Miller as Clay Vanstone, Olivia Munn as
Tracey Hughes, Jennifer Aniston as Carol Vanstone, Kate McKinnon as Mary,
Courtney B. Vance as Walter Davis, Rob Corddry as Jeremy, Vanessa Bayer as
Allison, Jillian Bell as Trina, Randall Park as Fred, Sam Richardson as Joel,
Karan Soni as Nate, Jamie Chung as
Meghan, Da'Vine Joy Randolph as Carla, and Abbey Lee as Savannah.
Holy shit! Is that Zack Galifianakis from "The Hangover"? Crossover!
Clay Vanstone heads the Chicago branch of
a tech company called Zenotek. His sister and CEO of Zenotek, Carol Vanstone,
promises to shut down Clay's branch because they're not making the profits
she's expecting and she doesn't like Clay for shit. Unless Clay and his two
other friends/employees, Josh and Olivia, can land a deal with Walter Davis and
his company to gain profit, all of Chicago's Zenotek's employees will be fired
just in time for Christmas. The only, and super logical, way to land the deal
is with a huge-ass fucking party for the ages. Anything and everything can
happen on party night.
Literally anything...so have fun!
We've hit that time of the year when we
expect a whole bunch of holiday themed films to give off that seasoned feeling.
"Office Christmas Party" tries to be warmhearted, but it only
succeeds in parts. The biggest gripe I have with this movie is that when I
walked out of the theater I felt like I've seen the film before. I could
predict almost everything that was going to happen. "Office Christmas
Party" is a paint-by-numbers film that is as conventional as a fucking
monkey is to trees. If you don't like that analogy, you can fuck off. I don't
mean that in a rude way though. Anyway, "Office Christmas Party"
doesn't do anything new; however, that isn't the worst thing you can do with a
movie that builds up to a free-for-all party extravaganza. I quite enjoyed the
film for the most part. It was entertaining, which is all I asked for from this
movie. I wanted to laugh and I laughed. Sometimes the script got too carried
away in surface level character development when it either could have used much
more or much less. Nevertheless, the charm of the characters got to me and
that's one of the major reasons why "Office Christmas Party" was entertaining.
I've got to admit, the costume probably made T.J. more likable.
When the characters are the best part of a
movie, you know it can't be that bad...well, I think my review of "Suicide
Squad" may beg to differ. Still, I assumed that most, if not all, of the
characters in "Office Christmas Party" would fucking blow. They
didn't! In fact, the majority were damn funny and/or tolerable. Jason Bateman
does his normal Jason Bateman shit ("been there, done that" kind of
performance) and I didn't really care for the people involved with the prostitution
ring like Jillian Bell's Trina and Abbey Lee's Savannah. I just didn't find
those characters as delightful as T.J. Miller's Clay Vanstone, Jennifer
Aniston's Carol Vanstone, and Kate McKinnon's Mary. Yeah, Kate McKinnon
surprised the hell out of me here. She, like her true persona and not those portrayed
on screen, is hilarious in "Office Christmas Party". T.J. is just a
likable douchebag to me. I think it's because I'm a likable-ish douchebag
too...I have to rethink my life now. *Life thought over*. Unfortunately, I had
expectations that I was going to laugh more often than what I actually got.
What I thought would suck was the story, which is partly true considering the
end started to drive towards a fantastical element. consequences happen
incredibly coincidentally. Some of the events that occurred, I just don't buy
for one second. I could believe the raging party up to a point, but what the
fuck? How can you get away with shit like a car crash into a power grid? Also,
there's a point when an invention of Olivia Munn's Tracey Hughes connects
people to the internet via light bulbs and it saves the day...What? I'm not
believing that shit for a fucking second.
The biggest mystery of all was how nobody succumbed to fucking alcohol poisoning. It blows my mind.
Even after the unbelievable scenarios that
happened in the third act and the poor story that I wasn't too involved or
excited for, I still enjoyed "Office Christmas Party" for pure
entertainment. I think it's a movie that you can get drunk with your friends
and watch. I wouldn't make watching this film a holiday tradition because there
are plenty of other better films to watch as tradition. "Office Christmas
Party" makes me laugh at times and it keeps me connected with the
characters. It's a film that gives and keeps on not giving. Give yourself a
couple of weeks and you'll forget this movie existed.
2.9/5
PRO
- Entertaining enough
- Characters keep the film going
CON
- Nothing new with story; standard
- Face-palm worthy scenarios in third act
"Office Christmas Party" is rated R for crude
sexual content and language throughout, drug use and graphic nudity
Click here to watch the
trailer
"Office Christmas Party" is in theaters everywhere
now
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