Employee of the Month

This is an ’81 Honda! How dare you!





What it is about
Laid-back box boy Zack (Dane Cook) is a total slacker at work. When the beautiful Amy (Jessica Simpson) transfers to his store, Zack learns that she is only interested in the “Employee of the Month”. This drives Zack to enter the running for the “E of M” award, pitting him against 17-time Employee of the Month Vince (Dax Shepard). Will Zack win the award, and the girl?

What I think about it
The premise of this film provided an infinite amount of material to work with, and yet it did nothing with it. As most people have at one time or another, I have worked in the retail industry. Although the job itself is meaningless, the co-workers and customers can provide endless entertainment. Sadly enough, I laughed more in two hours of working retail than I did watching this movie. It completely failed to make anything beyond the shallowest of observations and utilized none of the material an environment like SuperClub (the Costco-like store around which the movie is centered) has to offer. There were no absurd customers and only about seven of the thirty store employees had any personality. This may have been forgivable if the film had focused on developing the main characters instead of providing a rich environment, but the movie failed to do either. The movie never makes you love Zack or hate Vince very much, and Amy had no personality at all.
Although the film is not as great as it could have been (or even as mediocre as it could have been) it did manage to provide a laugh here and there. Many of the interactions between Zack and Vince were entertaining, but this movie really could have benefited by using some of the comic fodder it had at its disposal.

Why I wanted to watch it
I am a fan of Dane Cook’s stand-up comedy, and I had hoped that some of that humor would make it into the film. I also like comedies about the workplace, such as Office Space and Clerks.

The Scores
BetweenTheScreens: 5.0 / 10.0
Movies.com: D+
Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer: 21%
Yahoo! Movies: C

Similar Movies
Clerks
Clerks II
Office Space
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Film Facts
Cast: Dane Cook, Jessica Simpson, Dax Shepard, Efren Ramirez, Harland Williams, Andy Dick, Brian George
Genre: Comedy
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for crude and sexual humor, and language
Running Time: 103 minutes
Release Dates: October 6, 2006 (Theater); January 16, 2007 (DVD)

Movie Links
Official Website
IMDb
Movies.com
Rotten Tomatoes
Yahoo! Movies
Buy Employee of the Month (Widescreen Edition)from Amazon.com