It may seem strange watching a Christmas themed movie just as Spring is about to begin, but really Office Christmas Party doesn’t make it feel weird. The jokes throughout the movie work no matter what season, or what party is taking place. And now you can watch it on Blu-ray.
The plot for Office Christmas Party is pretty thin. A CEO of a large company decides to lay off forty percent of her brother’s branch’s workforce just in time for the holidays, but gives him one chance to avoid that fate. If he can land one large contract just before Christmas she’ll let him keep running things the way they are. He decides to throw an epic office party to try and attract a big shot client, and prove the work environment is better than their competitors. And just as you can imagine, things don’t go exactly as planned.
Really, you don’t watch Office Christmas Party for the story. It’s really basic, and it’s been done many times before. What you do watch it for however are the jokes. With T.J. Miller, Kate McKinnon and Rob Corddry leading the pack of comedians, you really don’t know what will come out of their mouths next. In fact you can pretty much guess that they don’t know either. Jason Bateman plays the straight man, like usual, and he’s joined by Olivia Munn who plays a hot shot programmer/love interest for him. While their parts in the story are necessary to help the thin plot advance, you don’t really find yourself caring about their time on the screen very much. Jennifer Aniston has been doing a good job redefining herself in movies like Horrible Bosses and We’re the Millers lately, and in this one she plays an extremely overbearing CEO who ends up getting more than a few laughs herself. It’s really amusing watching her beat up men much bigger than she is. As funny as the movie is, you’ll have to make sure you watch the special features afterwards as well.
The Outtakes on the Office Christmas Party Blu-ray are pure gold. You really get a good sense that the cast were having a blast filming the movie, as they tried several different lines for certain scenes. It’s always fun to see the cast cracking up at some of the jokes that were made. It makes you wonder how much improv played a part in the film, because you can tell some of the cast weren’t expecting the lines that were spoken. The deleted scenes are nothing to write home about, and the alternate ending really isn’t as good as the original one, but they didn’t have a lot of extra footage to use considering they used the best stuff in the Unrated version of the film. You will want to watch the Unrated cut of the film too, instead of the theatrical release, because it adds in about an extra 5 minutes of footage not seen before, and they add just a bit more of the funny stuff.
Office Christmas Party is good for a laugh, and a movie you won’t want to miss. Even if it’s released in the middle of the spring.
