Plot
For ten years, Zack Bradley has been working at Super Club as a well-liked and helpful box boy, but is troubled by self-doubt following a failed business venture. He lives with his grandmother, and is 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 Downey is conceited, and is inappropriately harassing, without management knowing, his own box boy, Jorge Mecico, and women.
When new cashier Amy Renfro is transferred to the store, Zack and Vince each fall for her and compete for her affection. Zack learns from Amy's 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 begins to realize that being named Employee of the Month is not easy, but he unexpectedly earns a point after aiding a customer who in turn gives management a positive review. That gets Zack a date with Amy after hours, where he arranges the store as their pleasure ground, with Vince being clueless as to the location. Amy starts to fall for Zack, provoking Vince's jealousy. Vince, however, on account of his limerence, fails to realize, after one dinner with her, that his pursuit of Amy is unrequited; she despises his lechery. When a cashier dies, Zack volunteers to take her place, and gets a promotion.
Vince tries everything he can to derail Zack's efforts, even breaking into Zack's house one night. 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 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 becomes estranged from Zack, revealing that her ex-boyfriend's unfaithfulness was 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 because he is now a stay-at-home father after his wife's promotion. Meanwhile, Vince and Jorge make amends.
When Glen is about to announce Zack's resignation, Zack, Lon, Iqbal, and Russell show up saying that 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 loss prevention associate, runs surveillance footage that shows Vince throwing products onto the conveyor belt without scanning them. Management recalculates the pace and concludes that Zack is more efficient than Vince. Semi shows, from past surveillance tapes, that Vince has been "skip-scanning" all year to attain speed at his checkout counter and gaining favors from freeloaders, which has cost the store assets and profits. Vince is fired and arrested for grand larceny; with every associate he mistreated cheering his downfall. Zack wins the competition and reconnects with Amy.
Six weeks later, Vince's life collapse in consequence of the exposure of his crimes, resulting with him acquiesced being on house arrest in lieu of prison, starting over at Maxi-Mart under careful watch, no cars or girlfriends, and being abused by Jorge.
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 as a 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 of the fact that the film made no attempt 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 by using its warehouse club location (a sentiment also shared by a TV Guide reviewer), as well as employing sophomoric humor and being so otherwise 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 the Los Angeles Times 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]
