Hello everybody! We are gonna round up the year by having the last movie review of **2018**. I started out with it this summer and I had to put in on hold, but we're here again. The movie which I have seen is ***Office Christmas Party*** from **2016**. I recall seeing the trailer for this during the summer of **2016**, and I was like "Okay I'll wait for this until **Christmas**!" but then I forgot about it, and here we are 2 years later. But when I saw the trailer, I was hoping for a funny **wacky comedy** with an office party that goes off the rail. I had plans to **upload** this during the actual **Christmas weekend**, but thing like spending time with the family came in the way.

So it stars **Jason Bateman** in the main-role, who plays a similar character from ***Arrested*** ***Development***. He is a newly divorced **middle-boss** at a tech-company working under his boss, played by **T.J. Miller**. I will get back to him in a second. One of the **tech-geniuses** at the company is played by Olivia Munn, who very much like **Bateman** plays the straight man, or **straight woman** who are supposed to react to the insane comedy. At first I thought their relationship would be strictly **platonic friendship**. Roughly close to the **middle** of the movie, a love **relationship** reveals itself and I would have to say they do have **chemistry** even if he feels a lot **older** than she is. She is working on a **secret project** that will come into play later on.

Then we can take on **T.J. Miller**. So he has done some shitty things in his **personal life**, and **professional** I would say, and I will not defend those things. I do however think he is perfect for playing the **a-hole character** in movies and tv-shows. Now I did enjoy him in ***Deadpool*** at first, but after seeing him in ***Silicon Valley***, that is where I think he shines. In ***Deadpool*** is a bit of a **whimp**, and I think he leans towards a **buffoonish wimp a-hole** with a heart of gold rather than the pure a-hole as seen in ***Silicon Valley***. And I think that was one of the 1st **mistakes** of this movie which I will get back to later on. He has thought about throwing together a **Office** **Christmas Party** that will make the **environment** and **relations** between the co-workers better.

His sister is played by **Jennifer Aniston**, who is also the boss of the **tech-company**. Now I really enjoyed her time on ***Friends*** where she played a **naive character** that slowly grew into a **strong individual** of her own. Seeing her playing a hard ass boss in this movie and the sexually inappropriate boss in ***Horrible Bosses*** is a good change of paste. I think it shows she can play **other** roles than the **sweet girl-stereotype** she was stuck in due to ***Friends***. Either way, she **notices** that her brothers part of the **company** has not reached the **sales-numbers** that she would like, and will shut down his **department** if that doesn't change. When she finds out about the **Christmas Party**, she strictly says nothing of the sorts.

**Miller** then counters that if they would get a **special deal** with another **company**, then they might get the sales **needed** and then their department could stay. So they try and convince this guy, who says he is tired of the standard pitches and boring offices, but then **Miller** has the **brilliant** idea of inviting him to the **Christmas Party** to change his mind. In smaller roles you have for instance **Kate McKinnon** who plays an over-the-top hysterical ***SNL*****-character** working in HR. She feels so out of place with the rest of the cast. She takes PC to the extreme and it's not done in a fun way. If the **character** would be toned down a notch it might have been better.

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Then we also have **Dopinder** from **Deadpool** in the role of an insecure **middle-management** boss who flaunts to his co-workers that he has a modell-g/f and then has to get a prostitute to act like his g/f at the party. So the party goes off the rails, we find out that **T.J. Miller** had spent all of his last cash and ends up with a pimp who threatens his life, but they crash with the car which brings downs the entire internet of the city. Then **Olivia Munn** gets to bring out her top-secret project and save the day and it ends with a cringe-worthy celebration where they both save the internet and the **company-department**.

  
So I think this movie has a lot of problems with it. The actual **Office Christmas Party** feels so left in the **background** that it almost doesn't feel like a part of the story. If I were to be a script doctor, I would remove the pitch of them trying to secure a deal with the guy and then **Olivia Munn** saving the internet. They should also have made **Miller** the a-hole boss who just wants to get drunk around **Christmas** and throws a party under the nose of his sister. The tension could then lay on them trying to keep it under her radar and have the climatic finishing be her finding out about it, and they talks out as siblings and amends their relationship. **McKinnons** character could be the HR-spy-character working for the sister in this regard.

 

They could also develop further the romance between **Bateman** and **Munn** further and they could have more moments of reacting to the crazy stuff happening at the party. Then we have the smaller characters at the party. One of them is trying to hook up with a single **mother-secretary** and turns out to have the weirdest **diaper-fetish** you could imagine. This I think is also where the movie falls flat, other than the completely wrong focus away from the Office Party, which is the jokes. They would have needed to tweek this a lot so they won't fall flat. I don't I think laughed a single time while watching this. This movie also has a few R-rated moments, but they are so few and strewn around they almost feel out of place. Like throwing in nudity into an SNL-sketch.

 

So long story short. I do not recommend this movie. It has the title **Office Christmas Party** but by the end of it, it feels like it falls into oblivion of the actual plot. The actors who succeeds at playing certain roles do not get to role with that and it should have gone more towards the R-rated style and tweeked the jokes a little bit. But with that said, I hope your Christmas Celebrations were good and that you will have a happy New Years. I will round up the year next.

"Office Christmas Party (2016)!" 2018 Summer movie Review.