EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH

"Welcome to the checkout lounge"

Zack (Cook) is wasting his time away being the ultimate slacker at the Super Club store but when new cashier Amy (Simpson) walks through the door he suddenly starts to pay attention. After winning employee of the month seventeen consecutive times, Vince (Shepard) is the king of the store and instantly makes a play for Amy. The only way for Zack to have any chance of getting Amy to notice him is to take on Vince and become this month's employee of the month.

Setting a comedy in a superstore should be lead to comedic high jinx but can 'Employee of the Month' keep delivering the laughs or will it check out early?

Movies set is stores have the potential to be comedy classics. Hits like 'Clerks', 'The 40 Year-Old Virgin' and 'High Fidelity', all featured ordinary people doing mundane jobs but provide some genuine laugh out loud moments. These movies appeal because they do not feature upper class, gorgeous people who life decadent life styles that we can only dream off. This is the regular people doing regular jobs and fighting off the boredom by goofing off and making fun of the people who take the job far too seriously. 'Employee of the Month' tries to do this but it doesn't go far enough.

The premise of the slacker becoming the best in the store to get the girl should have had all comedic potential to be a classic of the genre but the problem with 'Employee of the Month' is that the comedy is a little limited. This was a chance to gross out and push the envelope, having some real fun at both the employee and costumer's expense but they never take it far enough. The movie only ever manages to raise a smile and never delivers the real big belly laughs.

The cast try their best however. Dane Cook does a decent job as the work-shy Zack who tries to turn his life around jus to get the girl of his dreams. Dax Shepard is suitably over the top as Super Club's top employee Vince. Andy Dick and Harland Williams have real fun as Lon and Russell and 'Napoleon Dynamite' star Efren Ramirez is good as Jorge. Jessica Simpson still hasn't proves that she can actually act but she is very nice to look at.

'Employee of the Month' is fun but not as good as it could have potentially been. The superstore setting has plenty of comedic potential but it doesn't push it to the extremes it could have easily have gone.