Simpsonian

Jessica Simpson, Dane Cook and Dax Shepard star in "Employee of the Month." Photo Courtesy of www.movies.yahoo.com [Click to enlarge]

No one since the beginning of the Employee of the Month award has made it look this cool.

I looked.

All right, I didn't look it up, but the sentence still stands.

"Employee of the Month" is your typical romantic comedy starring the hilarious Dane Cook as Zack Bradley, a slacker "box-boy" employed at Super Club (comparable to a Sam's Club or Costco). Jessica Simpson plays Amy, the new cashier only attracted to the employee of the month.

The movie entertains and has a valid life lesson, but the movie is clich� and the theme has been overdone. Cook and Simpson are supposed to be the center of laughter, but the supporting cast scores most of the laughs. The movie entertains, but you forget the movie in 30 seconds.

Zack and his co-workers (and friends) do as little work as possible through the day until they punch out and meet up at a local pub. Zack's mortal enemy and company brownnoser, Vince Downey, played by Dax Shepard, has been employee of the month for the last 17 months. If he receives the award one more time, he breaks the all-time store record and receives a "newish" Chevy Malibu and a promotion.

Zack has no intentions of being employee of the month until a really attractive new cashier named Amy (Simpson) transfers from a different Super Club. Zack and his friends get their hands on Amy's personal file and realize she always dates the employee of the month.

As you guessed it, Zack sets his eyes on both prizes. Most of the comedy comes from the cutthroat competition between Zack and Vince. Amy and Zack start dating and Zack starts working his way to his goal, leaving his close friends in the dust. As the race tightens, Zack realizes being a checker and not a slacker has its advantages.

Even though Zack saves the company softball team, he neglects to cover a shift for one of his close friends, Iqbal, who ends up getting fired.

Zack loses his friends and then Amy overhears a conversation about the competition and leaves him as well. The only reason he was fighting for the award just left him and so did his friends.

Just like any other romantic comedy, Zack hits rock bottom then has a self discovery.

The employee of the month award ends in a tie. Zack and Vince have to compete in a check-off, winner take all.

From the guy's perspective of the movie, Jessica Simpson is ridiculously attractive and Dane Cook is funny. You won't be repeating this moving like "Anchorman," but the one-liners guide the story. This works as a great date movie because the movie has something for everyone, including humor, style and attractive people.

While Simpson's low-cut shirts and the crude humor from Cook and gang help, those qualities don't help the movie from getting a price check of a C-.

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