Review of Office Christmas Party (2016) by Russell H — 03 Apr 2018

Jason Bateman is Jason Bateman in a Jason Bateman comedy!

Office Christmas Party combines two of my least favorite things: Christmas and passable Hollywood comedies. In this time of the year, there are some films that I can't miss: The Sound of Music, It's a Wonderful Life, Home Alone and The Nightmare Before Christmas (and yes, I also watch it on Halloween), these are classics that encapsulate what Christmas should be all about: joy! How can you not sing when Maria twirls on the hill, or try to guess what's going to happen in the next scene of Kevin's mishaps, or even gasp when Jack sees Sally. Every year there are studios that try milk this holiday spirit producing poor offerings and this film is just another tail of an industrial meat grinding process. These unfunny comedies are nothing but annoying. They don't make enough money, they are dim-witted and lazy in equal measures and so on and so forth. This was one of the worse movies I've seen in the theatre this year. It's a 1h45min bore fest that doesn't step out of what's expected, it could have been directed by my drunk aunt or by some wanna be director in Hollywood who think he's going to make art, it doesn't make an difference. I haven't discovered the reason why T.J. Miller is considered "funny", so having a whole feature film being carried out film is unappealing to me. Jennifer Aniston manages to be slightly engaging and the comedy genius of Vanessa Bayer and specially Kate McKinnon are wasted. These powerhouse comedians, alongside everyone else, are trapped in flat, unrealistic and sketchy characters that you don't give a crap about. Comedy is the genre whose effectiveness relies on the social upbringing and on what's currently funny, more than any other kind of movie. This movie misses the target on the latter while not being relatable when it comes to the former. Also, the plot is as senile as the script and every minute feels tenfold. Bottom line: when you misuse Kate McKinnon and when there's a scene of using a 3D printer to make a penis, I'm out!