Employee of the Month

Like ‘The 40 Year Old Virgin’, this uses workplace politics as a springboard for romance and comedy – although less successfully on both counts. Slacker Zack (Dane Cook) carries boxes in a superstore where cashier Vince (Dax Shepard) is the only guy who bothers to try for the Employee Of The Month title. When Amy (Jessica Simpson) arrives, all that changes, and Zack goes for the title in a bid to impress her. And so the two rivals go head to head in some moderately amusing scenes, racing to answer customer calls and get a nod of approval from their watchful boss. The characters seem inconsistent, though: one minute Vince is a slick ladies’ man, the next he’s a socially clueless figure of fun. Zack seems bright and inherently ambitious, and the explanation for his under-achievement is supplied too late. Amy is little more than a pretty face, undermining the film’s female appeal and leading one to wonder if ‘Dukes of Hazzard’ eye candy Simpson is becoming a trifle typecast. Her next film? ‘Blonde Ambition’: a workplace romantic comedy.