Employee of the Month

Remember when Dane Cook was a thing?

I mean I'll be totally honest, I enjoy his stand up, I think he has a lot of energy as a comedian. As far as people who have made the jump from another job to actor, Dane Cook is not the worst example of this. I mean the worst example of this in recent years is unfortunately Seth MacFarlane.

Yeah he did a good job in Ted but that was voice work. When you move to actual acting, MacFarlane didn't do that good of a job in A Million Ways to Die in The West. So yeah, its hard to make that transition and in comparison, Dane Cook actually had a better transition than others.

Does that mean Employee of the Month is a good film? Well...

Zach Bradley (played by Dane Cook) is a box boy working at a Costco or Sam's club like grocery store. Zach slides by under the radar. While he's not that hard of a worker, he's a nice guy, helping out his co-workers every way he can. He's a nice guy, that's his thing.

On the other end of things, you've got Vince Downey (played by Dax Shepard) who is the head cashier of the store. Vince is a douchebag, that's his thing.

Zach is pretty good with the way things are until a new employee, Amy (played by Jessica Simpson) comes to the store. And I mean, yeah, its Jessica Simpson. She's hot. So obviously Zach has a thing for her and wants to get involved with her. However, there is a rumor going around that she only goes for the guys in the stores who win the employee of the month.

So Zach decides that he is going to win Employee of the Month in order to sleep with Amy and piss off Vince.

Now, this movie has the potential to be a smart comedy set in a strange unorthodox setting. You don't see too many comedies set in a store you can buy stuff in bulk. Its creative, it really has the potential for some funny moments.

But here's the thing. These people take this store INCREDIBLY serious. They're making up competitions for cashiers, their job is their life. Now to be fair, I've never worked at a store like this, I don't know the people that work here, what brings them to work at a store like this. And that could be a really funny idea. You could throw in a kid trying to make money for college, there are a lot of jokes and stereotypes you could pull in to make this movie pretty funny.

But for some reason they really don't take advantage of the setting or the jokes just waiting for them. Why in the world does Jessica Simpson work at a store like this? What do other people think about people working in a store like this. I'm not saying make employment in a warehouse store a joke, just bring in some humor to something people may not know about.

Unfortunately, the way its done, its just Dane Cook, Jessica Simpson, and Dax Shepard working in a warehouse store.

And unfortunately by not giving funny stories to these characters, you kind of make the audience draw their own assumptions and that can get kind of offensive if you leave people to their own conclusions.

Like Zach has a friend who is box boy along with him who is Indian played by Brian George. Does that mean old Indian men work at these kind of stores? You see how people could assume the worst?

But moving away from a couple missed opportunities when it comes to the setting, how are the performances?

Well again, its Dane Cook. You've got a guy coming from standup and trying to make a film career. Its not exactly A-Grade acting but its kind of fun and again, I kind of like Dane Cook. He's now kind of a joke of my middle school years but I like him in this film. I think he plays the "nice guy" stereotype pretty well. There's not much story to him besides something about him investing his grandmother's retirement money into a business that went under (its mentioned but is forgotten very quickly)

Dax Shepard is kind of funny. I'm not a huge fan of his work honestly. The fun part about this is his relationship with Pedro from Napolean Dynamite (Efren Ramirez), his box boy. Its kind of fun seeing that relationship deteriorate as he competes with Zach.

What's interesting about this film is that its a pretty predictable comedy. Zach is trying to win employee of the month for one reason, he turns it around but gets kind of cocky near the end, there's falling out with his friends and the love interest, but he wins it all back in the end. The weird thing is that they showed Vince kind of fall from grace. I don't think you're suppose to feel bad for him, but you kind of do. At the beginning, Vince is a douche, but at least he's a challenge to Zach. Halfway through the film, Vince is just kind of a loser and Zach's biggest challenge is his own arrogance.

Seriously, I almost felt more bad for Vince by the end of the movie more than I felt bad for Zach. At least Zach made a choice when he decided to be a douchebag, Vince was brought down by poor writing and everyone figuring out that he's a douchebag.

But by far the worst performance of this movie had to be Jessica Simpson. I say that because Jessica Simpson was not in this movie. Jessica Simpson's boobs were in this movie, Jessica Simpson was not.

I don't mean that in a crude way, I'm sure the writing, costume, even director probably had something to do with that. But my god, Jessica Simpson could have been a cardboard cut out and it would have been the same movie.

She's just the thing the guys chase after. Its not like she could go after the Employee of the Month or anything.

And what's worse is that there's nothing to point to her being so easily persuaded by someone winning employee of the month besides what they read about her. She goes on one date with Vince and then immediately is very visibly interested in Zach. As horrible as her performance is, I could tell she was suppose to be interested in Zach and that's what always confused me about this film.

She always seems like she's into Zach. They have this really awesome date together. They become really good friends. And yet he still kind of thinks that she's only into him because he's going after Employee of the Month. And that ties into the whole thought that the people in this movie take their jobs way too seriously, and honestly it kind of takes you out of it.

All I'm saying is that the plot of the story is a little bit convolute and not really the best. Its not horrible, and at times it can be a lot of fun. Its probably best you don't think about it too much as this is a 90 minute comedy starring Dane Cook.

And that's the bottom line of this film. Its a 90 Minute comedy starring Dane Cook, you know what you're getting into from the beginning. Yeah he's not jumping around, he's not doing his stand up, or narratives from his stand up but he's trying to act. The movie will probably not have you on the ground holding your side in laughter but its a decent time. But that's me speaking as a Dane Cook fan. There is a very good fan you will not like this film and if that's the case, here is my warning. Its not a great film. Its fun, it probably could have done more. I think I'd want to see this movie updated and done a little bit better because I think a comedy set in a warehouse bulk store is a really creative idea.

But have you seen Employee of the Month? What did you think? Comment and Discuss below! Also follow me on Twitter @cmhaugen24 to get movie news and reviews. You can also send me a tweet with your thoughts and requests for future reviews.

I'll leave you with this. You know that really annoying song that you hear every once in a while and you're not totally sure where its from? Yeah that's the one from this movie. Try and get this one out of your head! Enjoy!