Plot
For ten years, Zack Bradley has been working at Super Club as a well-liked and helpful box boy (bagger), but troubled by self-doubt following a failed business venture. He lives with his grandmother and friends with his co-workers Lon Neilson, Iqbal Raji, and Russell Porpis-Gunders. Zack's rival, Vince Downey, earns Employee of the Month repeatedly by being the fastest head cashier of the store chain, but conceited and inappropriate namely engaging workplace harassments including his own box boy, Jorge Mecico, and a skirt-chaser, without management knowing.
When new cashier Amy Renfro is transferred, Zack and Vince each fall for her and compete for her affection. Zack learns from her employee file that she was romantically involved with an Employee of the Month at her previous location, so he decides to win the title.
Zack starts realizing getting Employee of the Month is not easy, but he suddenly earns a gold star after aiding a customer who in turn gives management a helpful review. That gets Zack a fun date with Amy after the store closed, where he arranged as their pleasure ground, with Vince failing to disrupt because of the cluelessness of their location. Amy starts to fall for Zack, causing Vince's jealousy. Vince, however, on account of his limerence, failing to realize that his pursuits for Amy is unrequited after one dinner with her; she despises his lechery including sexual harassing her. When a cashier died, Zack volunteers to take her place, which earns him an official promotion to checkout operations.
Vince tries everything he can to derail Zack's efforts, even breaking into his house one night to sabotage him. Zack retaliates by putting Vince's prized possession, his 81 Honda Civic, up for bargain sale. Jorge, who was promised Vince's car when Vince won the Employee of the Month prize car 05 Chevrolet Malibu, severs their friendship as a result.
Zack agrees to take Iqbal's shift on the day of a softball game against rival chain Maxi-Mart. However, he leaves to play in the game, earning the Super Club corporate's favors, but customers are left with no assistance leading to Iqbal getting fired. Frustrated at Zack's new attitude, his friends think he is starting to be as selfish as Vince and how his pursuit of career advancement is just an attempt to have sexual relations with Amy. She overhears this and estranges herself from Zack, revealing that her ex-boyfriend was unfaithful and their breakup being what led to her transfer.
Zack and Vince are tied for Employee of the Month. On the day of the tie-breaking competition, Zack quits, gets Iqbal his job back, and tells him he took responsibility for what happened. Iqbal accepts the apology, admitting that he does not need his job back because he is now a stay-at-home father. Meanwhile, Vince and Jorge make amends.
When Glen is about to announce Zack's resignation, Zack, Lon, Iqbal, and Russell show up saying Zack never filed the resignation papers. (Russell bribed the human resources manager with a chocolate bar.) Zack tries to reconcile with Amy, giving a heartfelt apology and telling her that no matter what, he is a better man thanks to her. Despite Vince's protests, the competition for the fastest checkout is held.
Vince beats Zack but, during the award ceremony, Semi, the asset protection associate, runs surveillance footage that shows Vince throwing products onto the conveyor belt without scanning them. The management recalculate the items and the pace and conclude that Zack is much more efficient than Vince. Semi exposes that Vince not only cheating but past surveillance proving that he has been skip-scanning all year to attain speed at checkout counter and favors from freeloaders, which has cost the store profits and assets. Vince is fired and arrested for larceny; with every associate he mistreated cheering for his downfall. Zack wins the competition by being honest and reconnects with Amy.
Six weeks later, Vince's life collapse in consequence of the exposure of his crimes, resulting him on probation with a court-ordered ankle monitor, starting over his career goals at Maxi-Mart under careful watch, no cars and girlfriends, and abuses by Jorge.
Release
The film became the #1 requested film on AOL. [6] The film opened to $11.4 million opening weekend at #4 just behind Open Season . The film was made on a $12 million budget and earned $28.4 million in the United States and $38.4 million worldwide.
In the United Kingdom the film debuted at #4 opening with over £1,000,000 in returns.
The DVD and Blu-ray was released on January 16, 2007, and opened at #2 at the sales chart, selling 603,711 units which translates to $10.2m. As per the latest figures, 1,315,439 DVD units have been sold, bringing in more than $61 Million in revenue, exceeding its budget. This does not include Blu-ray sales or DVD rentals. [1]
The 2007 region one DVD release of the film contains two commentaries: one featuring the director (Greg Coolidge) on his own, giving more technical information about the film; the second commentary features the director and star Dane Cook, who spends more time pointing out the origins of gags and actors throughout the film. The disc also contains extra improv scenes by actors Andy Dick and Harland Williams, an alternate opening with Eva Longoria showing Vince and Zack's first day on the job watching a video tape for new employees, an "At Work with Lon" feature showing Dick in character attempting to help to customers at Super Club, plus trailers for other Lionsgate films.
Reception
No laughs whatsoever in this Clerks /Office Space slapstick wannabe, and the performances are awful. Shot in New Mexico; too bad they didn't bury it there.
Employee of the Month was poorly received by both critics and audiences. [8] The film was considered by Screen Daily and Ann Hornaday derivative of 1999's Office Space and the TV series The Office sans the wit and "cutting satire" of either, [9] [10] but The Hollywood Reporter said that even though it was not as strong as its Mike Judge predecessor, it "manages to retain a certain goofy appeal thanks to the stand-up efforts of its comically adept cast members". [11] Nathan Rabin and the Los Angeles Times were critical that the film made no attempts to tackle the drudgery of employment, nor deliver a plausible comedy film. [12] [13] As such, Slant Magazine deemed it a wasted opportunity to comment on consumer culture using its warehouse club location (a sentiment also shared by a TV Guide reviewer), as well as juvenile and offensive that "[f]rat boys and KKK members will surely love it." [14] [15] Screen Daily found the film uninteresting and its plot contrived and formulaic, [9] but IGN described it as "a surprisingly amusing – albeit formulaic – piece of fluff". [16] Although the Miami Herald said the film was indifferently directed by Greg Coolidge, they felt he had done so with "the same eye for detail that made Office Space great" despite lacking Judge's knack for creating fully-developed characters. [17] Ultimately, Rabin called it dumb, mean-spirited, and a "colossal time-waster", [13] and Claudia Puig felt that "you're bound to have more fun working overtime than watching Employee of the Month". [18] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale. [19]
Many critics felt that the well-endowed Simpson gave a dull and wooden performance offset by her physical attractiveness, [9] [12] [15] [20] finding her facial expressions on camera amateurish and ungainly. [14] [18] [21] On that basis, Hornaday "emphatically" suggested that Simpson provided an example of a ditzy blonde, comparing her poorly with blonde actresses she cited for possessing not only sex appeal but also "warmth, goofy accessibility and superior comic timing": Doris Day, Goldie Hawn, and Cameron Diaz, among others. [10] Of Cook's performance, Screen Daily and LAT felt that since he was constrained to play an affable lead role, this inevitably caused deviations in the comedic style he came to be known for: the raw humor and loose-limbed physicality. The result, they lamented, was a dull performance in stark contrast to one he exuded onstage. [9] [12] Conversely, Puig said that while Cook managed to adjust to "the kind of story that would befit Adam Sandler", he should have aimed for material that matched his comedic sensibilities. [18] In addition, IGN and Screen Daily praised Shepard in an antagonistic role that harks back to that of Tom Cruise in 1988's Cocktail , [9] [16] with TV Guide going as far as to say he was "the star of the show" who should have been cast in Cook's role. [14] IGN found the futility of his onscreen rivalry with Cook hilarious, [16] while Puig said the feud itself was only mildly so. [18] Rabin felt that Shepard could reprise his role as a dimwitted lawyer from Idiocracy in Employee of the Month, positing the latter film as "a symptom of cinematic de-evolution run amok", as prophesized by Judge's 2006 sleeper hit on society's devolution. [13]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 20% of 92 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 4.10/10.The website's consensus reads: "Employee of the Month features mediocre performances, few laughs, and a lack of satiric bite." [22] Metacritic , which uses a weighted average , assigned the film a score of 36 out of 100, based on 24 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews. [23] Simpson earned a Razzie Award nomination for Worst Actress, but lost out to Sharon Stone for Basic Instinct 2 . [24]
