Employee Of The Month 2006

Peter Debruge, Miami Herald: We never love Zack or hate Vince enough to care about the outcome, and Amy is one-dimensional enough that a blow-up doll could've taken Simpson's place. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Employee of the Month, which finds its comedic apex in watching cashiers scanning purchases, is disposable filmmaking, with its shelf life already up. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: There's a great Office Space-style satire to be made about big-box stores screwing their working-poor employees, but Hollywood studios covet DVD rack space at those same stores. Read more

Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle: This will never be the movie of the month, but you could do a lot worse at the multiplex. Read more

Bob Longino, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Before Employee of the Month shoots itself in the foot with an immensely lame finale, the film does cash in with a few comedic bright spots. Read more

Nathan Rabin, AV Club: At 103 interminable minutes, Employee Of The Month affords far too much time to contemplate the abundant plot holes and inconsistencies. Read more

Annemarie Moody, Arizona Republic: Employee of the Month had the opportunity to be a great satirical workplace comedy. Instead, it balked at the challenge and relegated itself to the romantic-comedy basement. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: [Cook's] enthusiasm for speeding through a bulk-item megastore in a race to please his corporate masters might endear him, anecdotally, to Hollywood producers and executives, but it's sad and never very funny. Read more

Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times: This may be a just-for-fun comedy, but that shouldn't mean that it must entirely disconnect from the world. Read more

Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle: Lest anyone mistake this for a Marxist tract, there are additional riffs on Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, fat people and the developmentally disabled. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: There's a crumb of an idea to setting a movie at a mega-mart that makes the Office Space cubicles look like executive suites, but the results in Employee of the Month are toothless. Read more

John Monaghan, Detroit Free Press: For a movie about taking pride in your work, Employee of the Month is on a comedy coffee break. Read more

Jan Stuart, Newsday: I never thought I would have a kind word to say about Wal-Mart, but it deserves better. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Employee of the Month is a stupid comedy. But it's not witless. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Just like a real job, Greg Coolidge's workplace comedy Employee of the Month offers long, slow stretches lightened by a few laughs and some oddball characters. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: Whatever that 'it' is that comic screen stars have, Cook doesn't have it. The timing isn't there, the sparkle, the Ryan Reynolds sneer. He's just bland. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Mostly the film just rattles annoyingly along like a shopping cart with a jiggly wheel. Read more

David Gilmour, Globe and Mail: It's simply too depressing that people sat in a boardroom, read this script and said, 'We're ready to go!' Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: The aggrieved employee movie genre is one of the more puzzling fads of late, since it showcases every vile prejudice and low standard imaginable. Read more

Anna Smith, Time Out: Amy is little more than a pretty face, undermining the film's female appeal and leading one to wonder if Dukes of Hazzard eye candy Simpson is becoming a trifle typecast. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: You're bound to have more fun working overtime than watching Employee of the Month. Read more

Robert Koehler, Variety: Pic's midsection, with the increasingly likable Zack threatening to overcome Vince's early lead, is unexpectedly funny and involving. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: Rarely has an actress exuded such blank nothingness as Simpson, a one-woman vapid delivery system who sucks the energy and joy out of every scene she's in, like some freakishly well-endowed black hole. Read more