Employee of the Month

Reviewed by:
Pete Hammond

First off, any movie with comedians the caliber of Dane Cook and Dax Shepard in the leads has to be given points for inventive casting. On the other hand, any movie that ruins the comic fireworks by hiring Jessica Simpson as the object of their affection immediately gets dinged. As a performer, Simpson is hot to watch but looks like she's hired Hilary Duff as her acting coach, pretty much destroying every scene in which she appears. Fortunately those scenes are kept to a minimum as slacker Cook and over-achiever Shepard deliver outrageous good fun as rivals in a Costco-type superstore aiming to be Employee of the Month when they discover that transferring cashier Simpson only dates winners. Most of the hijinks are one step above dumb, but become much easier to take in the hands of Cook, who in particular would seem to have a bright future as a Jim Carrey-style leading man. In fact, Cook nicely underplays moments lesser comics would have hit with a sledgehammer approach. You almost wish however, this film had the balls to go all the way rather than taking the very PG-13-safe route. It's fun, but a little too homogenized for its own good, becoming more like a very expensive sitcom pilot. Next time get a better script, Dane and Dax. We look forward to it