Monday, December 19, 2016

3 Thoughts on Office Christmas Party


1. The cast - Holy Hell, what a group of funny people - and they are all perfectly cast. Jason Bateman as the straight, boring dude; Jennifer Aniston as the uber elitist bitch; T.J. Miller as the lovable fuck-up; Olivia Munn as her Newsroom character (just swap genius economist with genius coder); and Kate McKinnon as the weirdo HR lady. It's all perfect. There's also plenty of smaller roles as well - like Jillian Bell as a pimp (LOL) and Rob Corddry as literally every character he always plays (still LOL). Overall, they all work really well together, have impeccable comedic timing, and all steal the spotlight at some point in the movie - I would argue that Munn is the highlight performance (dry, subtle wit will always win for me), but I think most would argue that it's McKinnon. However, just like she did in the new Ghostbusters, she over-sells her character. It's like she's still performing on SNL - instead of becoming a character, she just is a character (does that make sense?....she just doesn't feel like a "real" person to me). She's still hilarious, but I just don't like her style of acting.

2. The ridiculousness - Holy Hell, what a ridiculous plot - it's funny, but sooo ridiculous. In order to keep their company, they need to get this super important guy (another sterling performance from Courtney B. Vance) to sign on with their firm (which does Internet stuff?? I guess?) so they decide to throw a massive (i.e expensive) Holiday party to show him how fun they are as a company. Because that's what people with millions of dollars care about - fun. Like I said, sooo ridiculous. However, it never quite crosses the line that I think it wants to cross, instead it's rather pg rated (aside from the eggnog fountain. And the orgies.). It's not as wild as The Hangover, Project X, etc. However, they stuck with the plot, had some sweet moments, a satisfying conclusion and some great one-liners. I would call that a success!

3. That one line... - Holy Hell, what a funny line - I can forgive this movie for any faults simply because it had this one line that I will remember for all eternity and quote on a consistent basis. A line that made me laugh so hard that I had to force myself to stop thinking about it in order to pay attention to the movie. And that line is "this isn't my first rodeo" (with rodeo pronounced like "Rodeo Drive"). It's not even that funny, but it's the fact that he says it in such a matter-of-fact manner, and that no-one corrects him, that made me laugh. And laugh. And laugh.

No comments:

Post a Comment