REVIEW
Employee of the Month Take Top DVD Rental Slot

Automatic Sliding Doors Keep Humor Out and Boredom In

There are different types of movies – some are designed to make us think, some are designed to make us cry and still others are designed to make us laugh our faces off.  Certain films climb to great heights and make us gasp with wonder and delight.  Others simply entertain.

Employee of the Month was a movie designed simply to entertain.  No gripping emotional content.  No powerful punch delivered swiftly to your gut that makes you believe humanity can step forward and is indeed capable of greatness.  It was purely mindless entertainment.

There is nothing wrong with that – Not every movie will win an Oscar after all.  But when a movie is meant to serve the solitary purpose of entertaining its audience . . . it can do better than Employee of the Month.

Focusing an entire movie around the inner-workings of a huge, bulk food store is in and of itself an intriguing concept.  Let’s be serious here.  What child hasn’t looked around Costco in awe, spying possible secret hide-outs and tools for mischief around every corner? The problem is however that the very intrigue of this zany location served to suffocate any and all forward momentum of Employee’s plot and succeeded in creating paper-thin one-dimensional characters. 

When Zack and Amy have a moment within Super Club, it is (acting aside) believable.  If you stretch it, it’s almost cute.  They are two people within this goofy, crazy work environment that you can pull for.  You wish them well and hope that they will succeed and find love within the wonderland that is Super Club.  But once they step outside the sliding automatic front doors and attempt to be real people living genuine lives, it feels . . . awkward . . . and fake.  Very fake.

It seems that the writers, Don Calame and Chris Conroy, couldn’t find a way out of this predicament for as the film continues, the plot shrinks further and further within itself.  By the time events lead our heroes to the end-all-be-all of the company softball match and on into the great “Check-out Race”, the actors are playing characters, who are playing characters, who are playing characters.  The result is a story removed from itself and disconnected from any real emotion or power.

In spite of the story dragging awkwardly along, there were the stand-out performances to enjoy.  Oh wait – no.  My bad.  I was thinking of a different movie.  Not even Dane Cook’s humor could awaken the role of Zach Bradley – a slacker who quite literally skates through life.  By movies end, he is supposed to have learned something about himself and rediscovered that the best way to live life is to “live for your own sense of pride.”  I don’t buy it.  He was just excited to kiss Jessica Simpson.

As for the other performances - Dax Shepard and Efren Ramirez had the power, wits and comedic timing between the two of them to deliver some incredible scenes.  If the writing hadn’t revolved around body humor and sex jokes then maybe just maybe they could have done just that.  And I’m not even going to start in on Jessica Simpson. 

All in all, Employee of the Month lacked humor and believability.  It did not deliver the entertainment value it so glibly proffered.  If you rent this film, rent it with the belief that it won’t demand anything from you and will offer nothing more than a few bleak moments for pathetic laughter.  Then and only then, will you not be disappointed.