Employee of the Month

A lowly box boy (Dane Cook) in a Costco-like shopping mecca looks to dethrone the long-running employee of the month (Dax Shepard) in order to impress the new cashier (Jessica Simpson). The film isn’t outright bad, and it has some amusing bits. It just never really catches fire. Cook is a likable enough actor, but he’s not altogether funny, while Shepard overdoes it as his nemesis. Simpson has a nice screen presence, but she doesn’t really tear the place up with her acting abilities. The film doesn’t embrace the chance to mock the warehouse-shopping craze, and actually resorts to a softball game for laughs. There’s not that much that can be done to make a guy ringing up toilet paper all that funny. The likes of Harland Williams and Andy Dick probably provide the most laughs in bit parts. Efren Ramirez, Pedro from Napoleon Dynamite, is good for a giggle or two.