Film Reviews

Employee of the Month

• Rating:
• Director: Greg Coolidge
• Starring: Dane Cook, Jessica Simpson, Dax Shepard, Efrin Ramirez.
• Details: US / 103mins (12A).

When hot starlet Amy (Simpson) joins the staff of Superclub, a large department store, and makes it known she only dates employees of the month, it kicks off a competition between slacker Zack (Cook) and 17th consecutive winner of the prestigious company award, Vince (Shepard).Zack tries to woo Amy with humour, but when he realises that being employee of the month is the only thing that boils her potato - and that Vince is ahead of the pack - he gets his ass in gear and knuckles down to some hard work. Halfway through writing the synopsis, the writers would have known that the premise of their film is as bland, generic and boring as Jessica Simpson; so getting Simpson so star in their formulaic movie might be a little in-joke between themselves. And if that's true, it's the only joke in the whole movie. If anyone saw last year's Waiting, and felt that it was a lost opportunity for a gag-heavy comedy, you'll be equally disappointed with Employee Of The Month. Concentrating on Simpson's cleavage when they should have been concentrating on getting some good jokes in, you'll be hard pressed to find a decent gag in the whole movie. Employee Of The Month is billed as a romantic comedy, but since it has no romance or comedy in it, does that mean we can sue the producers for false advertising?

Review by Gavin Burke