Office Christmas Party movie review
BFF & I watched Office Christmas Party tonight. My review, with spoilers:
- The basic plot of the movie is that Josh (Jason Bateman) is a recently divorced guy working for a tech company called Zenotek. His boss is branch manager Clay (T. J. Miller), a trustfund baby whose angry sister Carol, the intermediate CEO (Jennifer Aniston) gives them two days to land a major account with Walter Davis (Courtney B. Vance) or she'll shut down Clay's branch. The main theme of the movie is "we have to throw a wild Christmas party to win Walter's account, because he's old school business & it's what he wants." There is also a side story about how Olivia Munn's character Tracey is head of tech & working on some internet project "that's not ready yet, but we should use it to impress Carol."
-Side characters include: Nate (Karan Soni), a geeky boss whose employees bully him for having a fake girlfriend; Clay's assistant Allison (Vanessa Bayer), a single mother; ambitious security guard Clara (Da'Vine Joy Randolph); Mary, the by-the-book head of human resources (Kate McKinnon)
- Nate tries to produce a girlfriend for the party by hiring an escort. The escort brings along a pimp & bodyguard. The trio kidnap Clay once they think he has a safe of money. A high speed chase ensues, which ends with all of Chicago's internet being knocked out. It is revealed that Walter had been let go of by his own company that day, and therefore Zenotek didn't really win any contract.
- The ending is that Josh & Tracey get together (after some vague story about him pulling away from her in the past). Tracey gets her project to work, which is basically making the internet run via every electronic device; she's able to do this because a "perfect storm" of internet outage was somehow what she needed. This invention pushes Carol to not close Clay's branch.
-Jennifer Aniston did a fantastic job playing the cold hearted CEO that (literally) kicks people's asses. The scene where she got revenge on a child at the airport was A+
- OCP relies heavily on minor sight gags & random throw away lines rather than plot substance. Our audience cracked up at "It's a Kia. It's what God would drive", while jokes like "my wife made us dress like One Direction for our Christmas card" fell flat.
-You're going to see several butts and at least one actual penis in this movie. There's also a gross gag involving eggnog & a penis ice luge; you get the feeling that scene was thrown in just for the sake of "please don't stick us with a PG 13 rating."
- The wild Christmas party behavior: people making photocopies & 3D printer models of their butts and genitals; heavy drinking; group sex in bathroom stalls; a child left alone overnight so his parents could enjoy edibles; a man having sex against Allison's desk (which she calls out the employee for); Allison trying to hook up in the office daycare, with the blinds still open to the party; Nate's employees tricking women into taking their clothes off based on "we hack their online accounts & parrot that information"; a drunk employee peeing on the roof in front of Tracey & Josh; Clay snorting cocaine at the pimp's building; Nate's date selling cocaine and giving handjobs to men in the bathroom; Walter accidentally getting spritzed with cocaine & later trying to swing from Christmas lights on the ceiling (resulting in very serious injuries once he falls)
-Despite all the nudity & drugs on screen, OCP feels like it was dreamed up by people who've never been to a wild party. Having Clay on stage rapping "I say Zenotek, you say Zenotek" seemed like a half assed time filler
- I wish Karan had gotten a better storyline besides "lolz, you can't get a real girlfriend."
- Kate's character was vaguely similar to Stephanie Weir's Karen from Crazy Ex Girlfriend
- Vanessa Bayer's acting skills were a bit limited in this movie. Her character gets complimented for being a good single mom & for always "taking care of everyone" in the company, although you don't really find out why she is supposedly amazing at either task. She tries to hook up with one co-worker, who randomly reveals he has an adult baby fetish. It adds nothing to the story. To add insult to injury: after Josh & Tracey kiss (and jokingly challenge Mary to HR approve it), Nate repeats the same joke & tries to kiss Allison. Allison tells him no & that they should just get a cup of coffee first; I felt like the answer should've been straight up "no", end of story.
- Da'Vine's security guard character Clara looked primed to save the day. And yet all she got to do was be the sassy black lady who loves weapons.
- This movie is either a C+ or a B-. It's not an Oscar winning movie. There are plot holes you could drive a truck through. There's no ah hah moment where you really care about the characters or hope their efforts pay off. You'll see it because the other choices at the theatre are meh & you have time to kill. Don't take kids to this movie; I shouldn't have to say that, but you know...
- The basic plot of the movie is that Josh (Jason Bateman) is a recently divorced guy working for a tech company called Zenotek. His boss is branch manager Clay (T. J. Miller), a trustfund baby whose angry sister Carol, the intermediate CEO (Jennifer Aniston) gives them two days to land a major account with Walter Davis (Courtney B. Vance) or she'll shut down Clay's branch. The main theme of the movie is "we have to throw a wild Christmas party to win Walter's account, because he's old school business & it's what he wants." There is also a side story about how Olivia Munn's character Tracey is head of tech & working on some internet project "that's not ready yet, but we should use it to impress Carol."
-Side characters include: Nate (Karan Soni), a geeky boss whose employees bully him for having a fake girlfriend; Clay's assistant Allison (Vanessa Bayer), a single mother; ambitious security guard Clara (Da'Vine Joy Randolph); Mary, the by-the-book head of human resources (Kate McKinnon)
- Nate tries to produce a girlfriend for the party by hiring an escort. The escort brings along a pimp & bodyguard. The trio kidnap Clay once they think he has a safe of money. A high speed chase ensues, which ends with all of Chicago's internet being knocked out. It is revealed that Walter had been let go of by his own company that day, and therefore Zenotek didn't really win any contract.
- The ending is that Josh & Tracey get together (after some vague story about him pulling away from her in the past). Tracey gets her project to work, which is basically making the internet run via every electronic device; she's able to do this because a "perfect storm" of internet outage was somehow what she needed. This invention pushes Carol to not close Clay's branch.
-Jennifer Aniston did a fantastic job playing the cold hearted CEO that (literally) kicks people's asses. The scene where she got revenge on a child at the airport was A+
- OCP relies heavily on minor sight gags & random throw away lines rather than plot substance. Our audience cracked up at "It's a Kia. It's what God would drive", while jokes like "my wife made us dress like One Direction for our Christmas card" fell flat.
-You're going to see several butts and at least one actual penis in this movie. There's also a gross gag involving eggnog & a penis ice luge; you get the feeling that scene was thrown in just for the sake of "please don't stick us with a PG 13 rating."
- The wild Christmas party behavior: people making photocopies & 3D printer models of their butts and genitals; heavy drinking; group sex in bathroom stalls; a child left alone overnight so his parents could enjoy edibles; a man having sex against Allison's desk (which she calls out the employee for); Allison trying to hook up in the office daycare, with the blinds still open to the party; Nate's employees tricking women into taking their clothes off based on "we hack their online accounts & parrot that information"; a drunk employee peeing on the roof in front of Tracey & Josh; Clay snorting cocaine at the pimp's building; Nate's date selling cocaine and giving handjobs to men in the bathroom; Walter accidentally getting spritzed with cocaine & later trying to swing from Christmas lights on the ceiling (resulting in very serious injuries once he falls)
-Despite all the nudity & drugs on screen, OCP feels like it was dreamed up by people who've never been to a wild party. Having Clay on stage rapping "I say Zenotek, you say Zenotek" seemed like a half assed time filler
- I wish Karan had gotten a better storyline besides "lolz, you can't get a real girlfriend."
- Kate's character was vaguely similar to Stephanie Weir's Karen from Crazy Ex Girlfriend
- Vanessa Bayer's acting skills were a bit limited in this movie. Her character gets complimented for being a good single mom & for always "taking care of everyone" in the company, although you don't really find out why she is supposedly amazing at either task. She tries to hook up with one co-worker, who randomly reveals he has an adult baby fetish. It adds nothing to the story. To add insult to injury: after Josh & Tracey kiss (and jokingly challenge Mary to HR approve it), Nate repeats the same joke & tries to kiss Allison. Allison tells him no & that they should just get a cup of coffee first; I felt like the answer should've been straight up "no", end of story.
- Da'Vine's security guard character Clara looked primed to save the day. And yet all she got to do was be the sassy black lady who loves weapons.
- This movie is either a C+ or a B-. It's not an Oscar winning movie. There are plot holes you could drive a truck through. There's no ah hah moment where you really care about the characters or hope their efforts pay off. You'll see it because the other choices at the theatre are meh & you have time to kill. Don't take kids to this movie; I shouldn't have to say that, but you know...