A solid cast saves this holiday ‘Christmas Party’
“Office Christmas Party” is a movie that benefits greatly from the newly relaxed marijuana laws in California.
The movie starts with the solid foundation of Jason Bateman as Josh, a newly divorced second-in-command at a data networking firm run by a Type A train wreck of a sister (Jennifer Aniston, channeling Sigourney Weaver from “Working Girl”) at odds with her immature underling brother (T.J. Miller, channeling T.J. Miller).
Yes, the filmmakers have taken a single sequence from “Revenge of the Nerds,” and stretched it out into the entire movie.
Cue the montage featuring a truckload of alcohol, inappropriate things done to the staff copy machine (and, memorably, the 3D printer) plus all the repressed older office ladies cutting loose on the dance floor.
Directors Will Speck and Josh Gordon sully the over-the-top bacchanalian mood with awkwardly straightforward relationship building, that seems as if it belongs in another movie.
Aniston’s admirable efforts are almost ruined by the script, which has her character fluctuating wildly between goofiness and pure evil.
Bateman and Olivia Munn, mostly unconvincing as the code-building engineering minds behind the tech firm’s success, create an unshakeable rooting interest.
(With any luck, it will be the half that includes simulated oral sex with an ice sculpture.) Like most office Christmas parties, “Office Christmas Party” is just good enough to validate your decision to show up.