Office (Christmas) Party (Blu-ray) – Movie Review
Office Christmas Party, which is called Office Party in other countries, was one of those movies that pops up at Christmas, to spread some holiday cheer, in a fairly cheap fashion. When we thought we had seen all of these movies, Office Party came out quite surprisingly with a few interesting choices, albeit with a very familiar cheesy plot. Even though Christmas has passed for several months now, we present to you a bit of holiday spirit, which is sorely needed until it’s that time of the year again.
Josh Parker (Jason Bateman) works for an IT branch for Zenotek, a massive corporation, which isn’t faring all that well, at least according to the CEO Carol Vanstone (Jennifer Aniston), who simply despises her brother Clay (T.J. Miller) who just happens to lead said branch. She decides to cut the bonuses this year, tells Clay to lay off 40% of his workers and even cancels the Christmas Party, which was already only a small get-together. Clay and Josh however promise to turn things around, and they even promise to reel in a big account, namely the Walter Davis’ (Courtney B. Vance), who has a few million dollars to spend. When Walter initially states he’s going with Dell’s offer, Josh, Clay and Tracey (Olivia Munn) invite him to their Christmas party, to show what kind of business they’re running, as Walter said he heard bad things about budget cutbacks, people who are getting fired etc. From here on out, it’s an attempt of creating the biggest and best party ever, which of course means that many people will get drunk, naked and the office nearly destroyed in the process.
For the most part the movie follows a very typical format, where everything begins with a problem, then followed by a makeshift solution that makes things even worse, to be followed by a happy ending. While the latter may sound like a spoiler, don’t fret, it’s just a standard formula for movies such as this. Nonetheless, the usage of music in the movie truly gets you in a party mood, which is something rather commendable. Other than that, dive in with low expectations and you’ll certainly have a blast with this somewhat typical flow.
Acting performances are actually a lot better than expected, but this is probably thanks to the rather big names supporting this title. While Jenniferl Aniston is often seen in romantic flicks nowadays, as it is seemingly all she is ‘used’ for, she was still a rather pleasant unpleasant character. Other than that, Jason Bateman is also seemingly stuck in movies such as this, but it’s fun to see that he actually handles them with grace, instead of playing the same persona over and over again, even though we have seen him in this role several times as well. The rest of the cast is backed up by comedy actors seen in older movies, as well as newer ones. When it comes to the latter, Jillian Bell plays yet another character that is seemingly off the rails, and while she does the role rather convincingly, we would actually love to see if she could handle something out of this comedy comfort zone.
The bonus features on this Blu-ray release are quite standard, as you’ll get a feature that’s pretty much the equivalent of a making of, and two menus with outtakes and extended/deleted scenes. Overall this is more than enough for a movie such as this, but with the massive cast backing up this flick, it would have been nice to see them a bit more involved with the bonus material presented to the potential buyer.
Conclusion
While Office (Christmas) Party will not reel in any Oscars anytime soon, the movie proved to be rather fun when you’re having a slow night. Mainly the music gets you in that party atmosphere, but it’s the actors that put the icing on the cake of this somewhat cheesy, cliché holiday movie. If you’re in the mood for something lighthearted, this one will add some humor to your day.
Office (Christmas) Party (Blu-ray) - Movie Review,
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