Saturday, January 06, 2007

EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH is a movie crying out for Ryan Reynolds

You're like the drummer from REO Speedwagon. Nobody knows who you are. EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH is a bland, anonymous alleged comedy. About the best thing I can say about it is that, unlike the actually offensive DUKES OF HAZZARD, EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH makes comparatively little use of the "talent" that is Jessica Simpson. Indeed, she is little more than a MacGuffin: the leggy blonde prize that the two equally feckless supermarket employees are trying to impress by winning the much-coveted (I kid you not) Employee of the Month prize. Both employees are played by comedians that are apparently well-known in the US. I'd never heard of them and given their performances in this film, I'm not hugely incentivised to find out more. If ever a film were crying out for Ryan Reynolds to take up his stereo-typed role of wise-ass slacker, then this is it. In fairness, though, it's hard to imagine that Reynolds would be able to do any better with such a formulaic and under-written script. Don't be fooled by PR hype that this flick is a satire on Amercian consumerism. I've seen wittier one-liners on the back of the lavatory door in the Curzon Soho.

EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH opened in the US in October, in Thailand in November, and is currently playing in Iceland and the UK. It opens in Belgium on March 7th and in the Netherlands on March 22nd. It's released on Region 1 DVD in two weeks time.

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