Office Christmas Party Review

Office Christmas Party Review

If you just look at the title of “Office Christmas Party” you should have an idea of what to get. The movie’s main focus is getting to the Christmas Party that everyone at the office has every year. However what you might not expect is that this party might be the most insane and destructive party in movie history. 

The best way to describe “Office Christmas Party” is it’s a combination of Office Space, Project X, and Bad Santa. It is crude, loud, insane, bizarre, and destructive. However, it is also at times really funny thanks to some great performances and some really insane scenarios. But at other times the movie drags with a mediocre plot and some really lame characters. 

The story is pretty basic. Carol Vanstone (Jennifer Aniston), the CEO of a company called Zenotek, is threatening to fire forty percent of the staff of the Chicago branch as they have not made enough money. Josh Parker (Jason Bateman) and her brother Clay (T. J. Miller), the Chief Technical Officer and the manager of Zenotek's Chicago branch, then convince her that if they can partner with Walter Davis (Courtney B. Vance) then they would not let anyone go. 

However Walter rejects their offer as he feels Zenotek is not a great place to work.  The two then decide, with the help of Tracey (Olivia Munn) who is the head of technology, that they would invite Walter to their annual Christmas party to show him that Zenotek is a great place. So now it is up to everyone at the Chicago branch to throw the most awesome party ever. What they do not expect is that the party ends up turning into chaos. 

The best part of the movie is some of the performances. T. J. Miller is great at playing the manager who likes to party hard but also cares about his workers. Jason Bateman is also pretty good at playing the straight man to T. J. Miller’s crazy antics. I also bought Jennifer Aniston as the heartless and evil CEO who makes children cry. We also get funny performances from Olivia Munn, Courtney B. Vance, Kate McKinnon, Rob Corddry, and Da'Vine Joy Randolph.

I also was kind of amused by how insane the movie would go. At the party there is an ice slide, people throwing things out of windows, a guy riding a horse, and the Iron Chair from Game of Thrones. Walter even swings across the office with Christmas lights. There is even a surprise cameo from someone related to Chicago. 

The biggest problem with the movie, however, is with the story. The set up for the movie is fine but there were some subplots in the movie that I felt were either lame, underdeveloped, or unnecessary. There is a subplot around the third act of the movie about a pimp named Trina (Jillian Bell) and a prostitute that few really unnecessary. 

There is also a romance between Jason Bateman and Olivia Munn that I felt could have used a bit more development. I also thought most of the other characters were kind of lame like Fred (Randall Park) whose joke is he does not talk like a normal person. Also, some of the jokes just seemed like easy gross-out humor. 

“Office Christmas Party” is a pretty disposable film unless the premise really excites you. While it does have some funny performances and jokes, it also has a average story and some unfunny characters. If you want a film to watch around the Holidays while drink this would definitely be the film. Other than that say to yourself “Office Christmas Party” and you will know if this movie is for you.

Grade: C+