Office Christmas Party: Movie Review

“Office Christmas Party” sports one hell of a comedic cast.  Jason Bateman, T.J. Miller, Kate McKinnon, and Rob Corddry are just a few of the names on hand.  Jennifer Aniston, Jillian Bell and Olivia Munn are also along for the ride.  The problem with this R-rated film about an out-of-control office party is that it feels quite tame compared to something like 2012’s “Project X”.  Although the cast gives it their all, the party lacks the shock-value needed to deliver a healthy dose of laughs.

Clay (Miller) runs the Chicago branch of his late-father’s tech company, along with his Chief Technical Officer Josh (Bateman). Unfortunately, that branch isn’t seeing much of a profit and the CEO/Clay’s sister Carol (Aniston) is threatening to fire 40% of the staff.  The only way that Clay, Josh, and their tech wizard Tracey (Munn) can save the company is by getting Walter Davis (Courtney B. Vance) to sign a lucrative deal with them.

With the fear of losing Davis to a competing computer company, they decide to invite him to their wild office Christmas party.  Needless-to-say, the party gets out of control.  There are prostitutes, cocaine, and reindeer drinking out of toilets. Much like in this year’s “Ghostbusters” reboot, McKinnon is the scene stealer here, and she has a whole lot more people to steal from this time around.

I did chuckle a few times here and there during “Office Christmas Party”, but it just felt like everyone was playing it too safe.  I am not saying the filmmakers should have made it more vulgar just to be vulgar (“Bad Santa 2” is a perfect example of why that doesn’t work), but they could have tried to get a little more-dirty with it.  One of the film’s best sequences involve eggnog and a Santa Clause ice sculpture.  It was gross, but oh so awesome.  A little more of that creative spirit could have really helped.

By: Marc Ferman