Employee of the Month

Review by Lori Kapes

Hey! Dane Cook! When you decide to make another disposable movie like Employee of The Month don’t tell people you’re in it, OK? It only spurs us to hand over the greenbacks to see it!

In case you’ve never flipped on Comedy Central, logged onto MySpace, or watched/read any other form of entertainment (he’s seemingly got a stronghold on every medium at the moment) you may not know that Dane Cook is a well-known comedian who’s hilarious and appeals to the college aged masses. Yep, that’s right. He’s hilarious. I like him. Love him. He’s funnier than anything you’ll see at a middle-aged uncle’s wedding.

While riding the fame train in 2005-2006, Cook decided to get off at the ‘must make a movie’ station. Unfortunately, he boarded Employee of the Month.

Not much 'Chugga, Chugga..' here.

The mess centers on Zack (Cook), a box boy at a large warehouse store. His fellow employee’s love him, but for some reason he’s never been able to make to employee of the month status. Cashier Vince (Dax Shepard) has won the title of employee of the month so many times, that he’s seen as no more than a conniving suck-up. When a beautiful new employee (Jessica Simpson, and her chest, no less) arrives, Zack and Vince clash – especially upon discovering that the chick only goes for guys who have won that coveted ‘Employee of the Month’ title.
This had the potential to be funny, and audiences expected Dane’s comedic voice to come through. But nup, that wasn’t the case. Not only is the film devoid of good laughs, it’s lacking a script (though a crack team is still on the case – hopefully they’ll find something soon).

The premise just isn’t interesting - I mean what kind of girl would drop their pants for a guy whose goal is to get their picture up on a wall in a ‘Sam’s Club’ type store? Come on!; Oh, and what’s supposed to be funny about ringing up customers at lightening speed with elaborate manoeuvres? Nothing as far as I can see.

The back-story of the Zack character is also poorly addressed. Some comedies can pull it off, ya know, the main character is goofy/does goofy things/learns a lesson/ends up having a good heart - something a long those lines, but this one hasn’t a clue where to take its story or it’s lead character. Everything just falls flat.

Acting-wise, everyone is a bit lost at sea. Dax’s Vince, the resident jerk, steals a little of Dane’s thunder, at times, but Jessica Simpson is more one-dimensional than an envelope. She really shouldn’t be playing the lead roles yet… she definitely hasn’t proven herself as being able to carry that much weight (or has she? sorry, cheeky joke).

As a fan of Dane Cook, I obviously had high hopes for the film. Look, even if it was as good as say, Waiting – which he also starred in; and is a similar film in stricture – I would’ve been content. The man’s got it down pat on stage… but the film screen is still alien terrain for him.

Wait till it hits Cable.

3 out of 5

Employee of the Month