Office Christmas Party (2016)

When his uptight CEO sister threatens to shut down his branch, the branch manager throws an epic Christmas party in order to land a big client and save the day, but the party gets way out of hand...

Directors:

Josh Gordon, Will Speck

Writers:

Jon Lucas (story by), Scott Moore (story by)

Stars:

Jason Bateman, Olivia Munn, T.J. Miller

1 win & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jason Bateman	...	Josh Parker
Olivia Munn	...	Tracey Hughes
T.J. Miller	...	Clay Vanstone
Jennifer Aniston	...	Carol Vanstone
Kate McKinnon	...	Mary
Courtney B. Vance	...	Walter Davis
Jillian Bell	...	Trina
Rob Corddry	...	Jeremy
Vanessa Bayer	...	Allison
Randall Park	...	Fred
Sam Richardson	...	Joel
Karan Soni	...	Nate
Jamie Chung	...	Meghan
Abbey Lee	...	Savannah
Da'Vine Joy Randolph	...	Carla

Storyline

When the CEO (Jennifer Aniston) tries to close her hard-partying brother's branch, he (T.J. Miller) and his Chief Technical Officer (Jason Bateman) must rally their co-workers and host an epic office Christmas party in an effort to impress a potential client and close a sale that will save their jobs.

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Plot Keywords:

christmas party | female nudity | group sex | sex on a desk | debauchery | 

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Taglines:

Party like your job depends on it.

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Genres:

Comedy

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for crude sexual content and language throughout, drug use and graphic nudity

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English Russian

Release Date:

9 December 2016 (USA)

Also Known As:

Untitled Office Holiday Party Project

Filming Locations:

Chicago, Illinois, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$45,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$17,500,000, 9 December 2016, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$54,730,514, 20 January 2017

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$114,455,140

Company Credits

Production Co:

Amblin Partners, Bluegrass Films, DreamWorks

Technical Specs

Runtime:

105 min 111 min (Unrated)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Karan Soni co-starred with T.J. Miller in Deadpool (2016) and with Kate McKinnon in Ghostbusters (2016)..

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Goofs

When Clay is talking with Trina, there is a woman sitting to the left of him. She disappears just a few shots later.

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Quotes

Lonny: My name is Carol, I'm so old I died in the beginning of "Up!"

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Crazy Credits

After the Paramount Pictures logo ends it goes directly to the Dreamworks Pictures logo, and when the Reliance Entertainment almost ends, a star is added on top of the "A" and four black dots is added on the bottom of the "A" and when the logo is fading out the "A" on the logo is changed to a Christmas tree on a pie in the office. During these logos a mix of ''Merry Christmas and happy new year'' and "Deck The Halls" is played.

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Connections

Featured in Late Night with Seth Meyers: Kate McKinnon/Benjamin Bratt/The Hold Steady/Abe Cunningham (2016)

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Soundtracks

Holiday
Written by DJ Kay Gee (as Keir Gist), Vin Rock (as Vincent E. Brown), Anthony 'Treach' Criss (as Anthony Shawn Criss), Davide Romani and Tanyayette Charlaiss Willoughby
Performed by Naughty By Nature
Courtesy of RCA Records
By arrangement with Sony Music Licensing

User Reviews

Avoid this party at all costs

If you skip one Xmas party this year then make it Office Christmas Party.

A criminally unfunny and underdeveloped high concept comedy, trying to recapture that Hangover like tone, Blades of Glory directors Josh Gordon and Will Speck fail to ignite the spirit of Xmas with this comedy caper that brings the festive vibe, but fails to bring the laughs.

Like receiving a lump of coal in your Xmas stocking, Party offers up an interesting proposition but delivers nothing but disappointment, as a talented cast are laboured with material that should've been left in Santa's screen writing workshop as the appealing idea of a wild office party complete with outlandish shenanigans is instead overrun by a totally unappealing story of a struggling company trying to win a big contract, with added bi-polar pimps, sister/brother in-fighting and misuses of the office 3-D printer instead taking over.

It's like you're constantly waiting for the true laughs to kick in as a rather labour intensive lead up to the party hitting full swing seems to drag on for far too long then once the party actually starts we are taken away on a consistent basis to revert back to one of the films countless other side stories, it's almost as if Gordon and Speck didn't trust their core concept enough and in the end failed to even unlock any of its potential to be a festive themed riot.

Making matters worse for the film's tired scripting and plotting is a collection of equally tired performances from a well renowned cast.

Lead by the ever the same Jason Bateman (looking and acting like he couldn't care less), Party wastes the comedic talents of T.J Miller (who seems better suited to cameo like turns rather than high screen time), Jennifer Anniston, Rob Cordry and worst of all Kate McKinnon while Olivia Munn just feels out of place in the whole wild night. The cast clearly had chances to improvise a large portion of the films dialogue and situations but barely any of the films payoffs actually work and at the end of the day most of the material here is below the performers talents.

Looking to strike that cord between festive joy and raunchy comedy gold, Office Christmas Party ends up failing to find a winning balance in either denominator and with a collection of recycled jokes and confused stars, this is the worst kind of party where no one seems to be having fun other than the ones that organised the whole shebang.

½ a Kia out of 5