Office Christmas Party
Office Christmas Party
R | 09 December 2016 (USA)
Office Christmas Party Trailers

When Carol Vanstone, CEO of the technology company Zenotek, expresses her intention to close the Chicago branch, run by her brother Clay, he and his co-workers organize a Christmas party in an effort to impress a potential client and save their jobs. But the party gets out of control…

Reviews
jrthawk86

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.

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Neil Welch

Josh works for a software company, supervising hot Tracey, and answerable to idiot boss Clay who is, in turn, answerable to iron lady older sister Carol. Carol's threat to shut the branch down pivots on getting an important order from Walter Davis which they determine to achieve via reinstating the office Christmas party which Carol cancelled.What can I say? If I add that the office is populated by weirdos and cranks, then you can probably fill in the rest of the movie yourself. Suffice it to say that everyone plays exactly the character you expect them to: Jason Bateman is the easygoing everyman schmuck Josh, TJ Miller is the profoundly irritating idiot Clay, Jennifer Aniston turns in another lazy cookiecutter performance as Carol and, as she did in Ghostbusters, Kate McKinnon completely steals the show.It's not without chuckles, but it has an undeserved air of likeability to it which is almost entirely due to Bateman.The happy ending derives from Aniston's character having an unbelievable and dramatically unjustified 180-degree personality change as the end of the movie approaches (see also: Christina Applegate in Bad Moms, Melissa McCarthy in The Boss etc.).In short, the entire movie is lacking in credibility even allowing for the hyperbolic personalities demanded by movie comedies.And it's very sweary. Some is OK - funny, appropriate to the situation - but much of it adds nothing apart from gratuitous offence.

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Fallen Eye

Jason Bateman is awesome with comedy, and he has his own type of style, and it comes through with this movie too, however, not nearly as much as one would prefer.Olivia Munn is a hon, Jaime Chung is hot, T.J. is exactly who he always is in every movie he's in and Jennifer was okay. The script got lazy at some points, dry at others, however there were some pretty funny lines and moments here and there, sadly though, the type that upon a second watch, would probably fall way flat.The "anywair" concept was quite cool though, but again, sadly it felt wasted on a story that was never going to utilize it nearly as efficiently as it could or should. Also, the romance between Josh and Tracey was, uninteresting.Office Christmas Party was okay all around. It's nothing special, but there definitely is worse out there. 5.3/10.

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The Movie Diorama

It's literally what you expect it to be. An office Christmas party where it goes slightly chaotic towards the end (like all parties should do). The company that our characters work for is undergoing some radical changes by the manager's sibling who is a CEO filled with tyranny and bitterness. In order to save the company, they come up with a plan of throwing a Christmas party for a rich prospect. As always though, things get out of hand. I will say this, it's perfectly enjoyable and fine to watch. Yet the same issues occur with the likes of "The Night Before" and "A Bad Mom's Christmas" where it just feels too random with no focus on a cohesive plot. Don't get me wrong, watching a drugged up man swing from a balcony holding onto Christmas lights is a good time. Even the malicious CEO cursing and destroying the Christmas magic in front of a little girl is amusing. However, when the characters and plot are so bland and formulaic you can't help but feel disconnected. It's another case of random scenes are strung together to gross you out or make you laugh, seemingly more fit into the former category. That, for me, does not make a coherent narrative. Not to mention the various office employees that the plot tried to incorporate. A newly hired worker who has a fetish, a boss who hires a prostitute for the night, an employee who pretends (badly!) to be a DJ...a plethora of minor characters, not enough focus on a substantial plot. If you like your comedies random, then you are sure to like this. Oh, then the typical conclusion arrives where everything is fantastic again. Yay. Merry Christmas. Jason Bateman plays the same character in everything, Olivia Munn was the funniest, Jennifer Aniston was surprisingly good and TJ Miller was fine to watch. The acting was just fine. A few witty lines from the script, but most of the comedic moments are visual. Like I said, it's a fine film but an utterly forgettable one due to its lack of structure and infrequent laughs.

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