Office Christmas Party

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

I understand why people might be down on this movie but I really enjoyed it. It had the right elements of the great party comedy. Great cast. Great party. Maybe I really enjoyed it because I was drinking along with it and wanted it to be good. But is that such a problem to have? It did feel like it couldn't quite hit the punchline as well as I wanted it to. But if you want to have fun with it you will.

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.

I always like a good Bateman flick but this one has everyone else too. It's a bit of an obnoxious and almost surreal film that gets me with every watch. It's kinda like an actual Office movie but without a censor or Steve Carell.

The story is pretty straight forward with characters that are too real and simultaneously unqualified for their job. What's great about it is it's a people movie. Personalities shine through the main cast, supporting cast and even the bit parts. The pacing never drags and the movie almost feels like it could've gone a little longer. I doubt we will ever see a sequel, but one can hope.

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.