Office Christmas Party (2016)

I have a soft spot for Jason Bateman so I don't care about how bad a movie sounds or how low it's rated, I'm gonna watch it anyway. I did pass Office Christmas Party though and kept putting it off for the past two years because I'm not much of a Christmas person and I had read some negative reviews and I was not in the mood for another crappy Christmas comedy. 

In this one, Clay Vanstone (T.J. Miller), the Chicago branch manager of IT sales company Zenotek, his Chief Technical of Technical Advancement, Josh Parker (Jason Bateman), and Tracey Hughes (Olivia Munn), his Chief of R&D, throw a big office Christmas party in an effort to impress a potential client (Courtney B. Vance) so that they can save the branch and all of their employers and co-workers' jobs. 

The plot is very simple and predictable —actually, there's barely a plot. However, it's not very important as this is the kind of movie dudes like James Franco and Seth Rogen would make, a kind of movie that doesn't need a fancy plot to engage and entertain its audience because the interactions between the characters and, especially, their silly shenanigans do the trick.

In addition to the plot, Office Christmas Party also lacks solid characters as every single person in this film is shallow and underdeveloped not developed at all. Also, they do try too hard to be funny, and they talk too much about doing crazy things but rarely do them. However, some of them are quite memorable and fun and they are all women: an ultra-sensitive HR representative who is nowhere as depressing as Toby from The Office, and a bi-polar pimp.

Of course, the standouts are the two actresses who play those characters, Kate McKinnon as the HR representative —I didn't like her at all in The Spy Who Dumped Me, so she really surprised me in here—, and Jillian Bell as the pimp. Bateman, who yet again plays the nice guy who wants to try new things, isn't bad —actually, he nails the role. I didn't expect any less from him though—, and Jennifer Aniston does a good job playing the bitchy, uptight CEO/Clay's sister.

Paramount Pictures

The comedy is a hit and miss. Some jokes and gags are funny, some others make you wish you were deaf or blind. Also, there some gratuitous nudity that adds absolutely nothing, and it's definitely not funny.

Overall, Office Christmas Party isn't a terrible film, but it isn't a good one either. It's okay if you want something different than your typical, feel-good Christmas movie. But don't expect a masterpiece because this sure isn't one.