Fiesta de empresa

I was looking to watch a funny Christmas movie that isn't Elf or A Christmas Story so I gave this a chance since I really like Jason Bateman and I can say I was entertained throughout the whole thing. It's not the greatest movie ever but it checked the boxes I was looking for while watching. It's definitely stupid humor but it gave me a few good laughs

If you study film, you know that entire texts have been written on the importance of "grounding" in a script.

The ground, also known as the glue, is the character that the viewer finds most relatable, most sympatico, when the story itself starts fray around the edges. Which is not to say that all scripts require a strong ground or glue, merely that the more outrageous scripts, the scripts with the least internal cohesion, require as much ground as they can get.

Which brings us to OFFICE XMAS PARTY, one of the more blatant examples of a "spaghetti on the wall" script. In other words, not a lot of fine tuning was done to get this baby ready for shooting day. The writers just took every gag they could think of, threw it against the wall, and then waited to see what stuck.

Some of it stuck, most did not.

But Bateman and Munn hold the film together by holding the attention of the viewer. In fact, they are so effortless at it that, every now and then, for just a split second, you almost think they are acting in another movie entirely, a romcom in which they are the only characters, and you are imagining the other 400 extras in this overdone extravaganza.

Is it funny? Not really. This reviewer laughed exactly once.

Is it engaging? Well, because of Bateman and Munn, actually it is.

It is a few days to Christmas but you wouldn't really know it at the Chicago branch of Zenotec. Due to political correctness and the overzealousness of HR, there is very little in the way of celebrations. A quiet get-together is arranged but this is cancelled when the uptight, money-is-everything CEO (who happens to be the branch manager's sister) puts the kibosh on it. She also intends to retrench 40% of the staff at the branch. In a last ditch attempt to save the staff their jobs, the branch manager tries to land a major client. In order to show the client that they're not cold and uncaring, he (without his sister knowing) throws a huge Christmas party, and invites the client. Things could get rather festive, as long as HR don't have anything to do with it...

Funny and fun. I had low expectations for this movie. It looked a lot like the silly sort of thing that Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill and/or James Franco would appear in. The fact that it starred Jason Bateman (and not Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill or James Franco) gave me some hope and from the beginning, the hope was vindicated.

Turns out the humour is quite irreverent and non-PC, even anti-PC, (just the way I like it) and reasonably clever in that regard. Definitely not a movie for the easily offended, especially find-an-offense types (even more reason to like it).

It does get a bit predictable and silly towards the end but the first act was excellent and if that sort of quality had been maintained this could have been a classic comedy.

Good for a laugh, plus for pointing out how stupid companies (and individuals) have gotten in their aversion to Christmas celebrations.

I just wish I could get to a party like that !!

On a different note , I can't off much where Jason Bateman hasn't been great , this is his sort of film light , happy and a bit troubled !

Overall just a great fun film . Along with lots of childish humour !! What's not to like.

Just watch it and enjoy and smile.

Nothing nothing awkward or cheesy. Perfectly paced, perfect characther building in such a short amount of time. Perfectly timed and subtle jokes and pretty great acting.

Even the hundreds of extra's were flawlessly directed.

Good laughs and no restrictons. They went all out in a very un-American way.

Kudos to the director.