Office Christmas Party (2016)

“Office Christmas Party” stars Jason Bateman, Olivia Munn, T. J. Miller, Kate McKinnon, and Jennifer Aniston.  Released on December 9, 2016, the film is about a hard-partying employee and his friend who host an epic Christmas party in order to impress a potential client and save their jobs.

The film is directed by Will Speck and Josh Gordon, who also directed Blades of Glory and The Switch.  We’re just one week away until the release of the Star Wars spinoff, Rogue One, so I’m guessing now would be a good time to party with the big boys.  By big boys, I mean, the employees in an office building.  There were plenty of reasons why I went to see this first this weekend.  One of them is that it has two actors that will be appearing in the upcoming 22nd Critics’ Choice Awards: T. J. Miller, who is hosting the event, and Kate McKinnon, who is one of the nominees for the Best Actress in a Comedy Movie category.  Another reason was that it looked like a possible fun time at the movies....for the adults, I mean.  Now that I witnessed the “craziest night of their lives”, was it worth my time?

Pros:
The main cast did a nice job carrying this film forward.

Its humor was a hit-and-miss, but a couple of jokes made me laugh.

Kate McKinnon...still got some laughs.

Cons:
There’s nothing special about the story.  Pretty predictable, but had some charm in it.

The film wasn’t as over-the-top or insane as I thought it would be, especially since it’s rated R.

Final thoughts: “Office Christmas Party” adds nothing new to the “crazy R-rated party” story nor does it get even more ridiculous in terms of the concept.  However, the talented cast and its share of laughs convinced me to stay a bit longer.  If you’re looking for some decent laughs over the holiday season, you might have a good time with this as well.  Just don’t bring your kids.  They’re much too young for this kind of stuff.

B-