Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Jason Bateman | ... |
Josh Parker
|
|
Olivia Munn | ... |
Tracey Hughes
|
|
T.J. Miller | ... |
Clay Vanstone
|
|
Jennifer Aniston | ... | ||
Kate McKinnon | ... |
Mary
|
|
Courtney B. Vance | ... |
Walter Davis
|
|
Jillian Bell | ... |
Trina
|
|
Rob Corddry | ... |
Jeremy
|
|
Vanessa Bayer | ... |
Allison
|
|
Randall Park | ... |
Fred
|
|
Sam Richardson | ... |
Joel
|
|
Karan Soni | ... |
Nate
|
|
Jamie Chung | ... |
Meghan
|
|
Abbey Lee | ... |
Savannah
|
|
Da'Vine Joy Randolph | ... |
Carla
|
When the CEO (Jennifer Aniston) tries to close her hard-partying brother's branch, he (T.J. Miller) and his Chief Technical Officer (Jason Bateman) must rally their co-workers and host an epic office Christmas party in an effort to impress a potential client and close a sale that will save their jobs.
After the death of her father, Carol is made CEO of his multi- national tech company. Carol's brother runs the under-performing Chicago branch, and he must persuade his sister not to shut them down by throwing a forbidden office Christmas party to impress and sign with a high-powered business associate.
So, now that the "story" is out the way, we can focus on the rest of it. According to IMDb, this movie is a comedy - well you could've fooled me! Not only did I not laugh, I didn't even smirk. Not only did I not smirk, I didn't even smile internally. This is another one of those horrendous seasonal films that compiles a few well known actors and dumps them into a loud, drugged up, semi-nude environment where everyone swears and talks about their genitals. The script is appalling, there's nothing even slightly funny in there, and the comic timing is all over the place. The pathetic, sentimental ending was more infuriating than heartwarming and left more of a bitter taste than sweet.
All that said, it was interesting enough to hold my attention. The acting was pretty poor, but I quite like Bateman, Munn and Aniston (though Miller cancels them out and McKinnon wasn't as funny as usual). It's one of those movies that will probably amuse a certain demographic, but its appeal is fairly limited. Worth a watch at some point, but not worth paying for when it'll be on TV by this time next year.
Lack of effort means lack of amusement. Decent cast, but nothing for them to do. It's fine, but it's not funny.
2/5