Employee of the Month: Movie & DVD Review (2006)

(Originally published 2006)

By virtue of its title alone, is it too much to expect "Employee of the Month" to be something special, perhaps a cut above your everyday comedy? Shouldn’t the jokes make that extra effort, as well as the cast? Is it unreasonable to come to this particular movie seeking fresh ideas — maybe even just a few?

Without the film attempting to break free from the old jokes that undermine it, how can one pin a gold star to it?

The movie, which director Greg Coolidge co-wrote with Don Calame and Chris Conroy, isn’t a bust — it’s likable enough. Sometime it makes you smile. Occasionally an actor nails a good line. But big laughs? You won’t find them on Aisle 11 — or any of the film’s other aisles, for that matter.

The movie stars Dane Cook as Zack Bradley, a bright yet unmotivated box, uh, boy (he crested 30 some time ago) at the big-box superstore, Super Club. Zack lives with his feisty grandmother and appears to be stuck in a rather large rut. His mode of transportation, for instance, isn’t a car or even a scooter — instead, it’s a motorized mini bike, one perfectly suited to embrace Zack’s bruised inner child.

Turning Zack’s bruise a shade darker is Vince (Dax Shepard), a cruel, corporate brown-noser who is Super Club’s fastest and, to the public, its most adored cashier. The man is a veritable juggling act behind the register, where the ladies love him — and the industrial-sized can lights above his head appropriately turn his bleached blond hair into ringlets of fire.

From the start, these two loathe each other to the point of distraction, so it’s only natural that war ignites between them the moment a lovely new employee comes aboard and catches their eye.

That would be Amy (Jessica Simpson), who arrives at Super Club on a scarlet red carpet of rumors that suggest she is sexually available for any man who wins employee of the month. Lovely girl. Since Vince is on the fast track to win the store’s award, Zack believes the only way he will have a chance at Amy’s red carpet is if he steps up to the plate and pulls off the win himself.

What ensues is porridge, though at least it isn’t served cold. Warming the film are faint echoes of Mike Judge’s "Office Space," which helps. Also, a few scenes do connect, such as a date shared between Amy and Zack in which he woos her at the store after hours (the boxed wine is a hit, as are Amy’s oversized ears).

More clever is the idea that high up within the towering stacks of products you find at such industrial-sized stores, Zach and his box-buddy pals (Andy Dick, Brian George, Harland Williams) have created a hideaway niche in which they can steal away for a round of cards while forgetting the minutiae shuffling below them.

Sometimes, you sense the more interesting, funnier movie would have taken place there.

Grade: C