2875. Employee Of The Month (2006)

Starring: Dane Cook, Dax Shepard, Jessica Simpson

Director: Greg Coolidge

Running Time: 108 mins

Employee Of The Month is an American film about a slacker supermarket employee who, in order to get one over on his high-achieving colleague and win the affections of a new female worker, pulls out all the stops to win employee of the month.

In all honesty not much more than your average Hollywood comedy, Employee Of The Month delivers easy-going laughs and fun antics all the same. With a charismatic lead turn from Dane Cook playing alongside light-hearted and simple humour, it’s the perfect comedy to sit back and relax to.

If you’re looking for laughs, then Employee Of The Month may not be an absolute riot, but is still enjoyable to enough to satisfy. Its strongest suit is its fun-loving, easy-going atmosphere, telling a fairly ridiculous and trivial story with good energy throughout.

It’s by no means a work of comedic genius, but there are a good few laughs here and there. And along with its thoroughly likable cast, from the charismatic Dane Cook to the enjoyably arrogant Dax Shepard, there’s more than enough to entertain here.

The problem with Employee Of The Month is that, beyond its superficial easy-going antics, there isn’t all that much to write home about. Fortunately, it’s not a film that’s too wrapped up in its own story to make that a problem, meaning laughs are still its main objective throughout.

But its romance is almost entirely unconvincing throughout, with uninteresting development and a far from stellar performance by Jessica Simpson.

Likewise, the film attempts to develop a couple of quirky side characters alongside the central battle between Cook and Shepard, but falls flat both when it comes to laughs and general interest.

It’s never as clever or as quirky as it thinks it is, often coming off as a half-hearted attempt to rehash some of the characters from the US version of The Office.

As a result, Employee Of The Month isn’t a masterpiece, nor is it the funniest film you’ll ever see. But, with a light-hearted, fun-loving and easy-going atmosphere throughout, it does more than enough to entertain on a superficial level, and that’s why I’m giving it a 7.2 overall.