FILE UNDER MAYHEM
‘Office Christmas Party’ gets predictably wild
’T is the season of the holiday-themed film, and thus in the footsteps of the mostly mediocre “Almost Christmas” comes slightlybetter-than-mediocre “Office Christmas Party.”
The film, which is mostly set in an office building in Chicago, housing a struggling internet technology company called Zenotek, features lots of actors we first met on television playing roles like the ones we have seen them in before.
Jason Bateman, for example, plays one of the firm's bosses, Josh Parker, a newly divorced 40-something. Parker is a nice everyman who has an unusually good way with zingers and one-liners. T.J. Miller of TV's “Silicon Valley” plays the other boss, Clay Vanstone, a ditsy, fun-loving rich kid whose late dad put him in charge of the Chicago branch of the business.
Jennifer Aniston plays Carol Vanstone, Clay's older sister. Carol is a hot-looking control freak and Zenotek's temporary CEO. She may have a kinky streak, and she wants to shut down her spoiled kid brother's branch, or at the very least fire 40 percent of his staff.
Weymouth's Rob Corddry is Jeremy, the office trouble maker, an angry, potty-mouthed complainer always ready to drop his pants, even if you really wish he wouldn't. Kate McKinnon (“Saturday Night Live”) is Mary, the head of Zenotek's HR, a tightly wound, but perhaps secretly wild, parrot-lover, not unlike McKinnon's Hillary Clinton.
“SNL's” Vanessa Bayer is Allison, the office manger and single mother whose ex is dating a stripper. Randall Park (“Fresh Off the Boat”) is new hire Fred, who