The banal setting, as Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant mastered in The Office, is bursting with recognisable characters ripe for dissecting. There's the overzealous HR in an inclusive denomination Christmas jumper, the awkward new IT guy with disturbing depths, the clearly in-love colleagues and the hapless man-baby boss.
Leading man Jason Bateman plays chief technical adviser Josh Parker, a glum divorcee with puppy dog eyes for Tracy (Olivia Munn), the anarchic coder across the cubicles.
Although the big names on the poster, the leading pair have the film completely stolen from them by TJ Miller (Silicon Valley) who plays the buffoon boss, and Kate McKinnon ( Ghostbusters) as the farting HR busybody.
Where something like The Office skewers the minutiae of everyday mundanity, Office Christmas Party knee-slides over the details, does a Jagerbomb and moons the audience whilst cackling maniacally. Expect a lot more binge drinking, effluence and nudity than you might get at your average wine and cheese afternoon. It's a wafer-thin premise with wafer-thin stakes, just trying to claw through time to get to the glowstick-touting, shutter-shades wearing party montage. That's not to say there aren't good moments, TJ Miller delivers meandering observations like no other, from "it's so hard to shop for the bald" to "shoot for the moon and you'll land on the sun."
Office Christmas Party would no doubt be a rollicking night out, if you and some coworkers want to chug a few vodka cruisers at the bowling alley and hit up the nearest cinema. But if you brave it sober, many of the jokes fall flat, the party scenes become grating and the characters become borderline insufferable.
There are large impressive stunts, pratfalls and chaos, but seldom does Office Christmas Party ever actually shock or delight in the way that it thinks it does. The cast boasts some of the greatest working comedy actors, not to mention some novelty cameos. But it's not quite enough to save Christmas this time.
Rated R16
Screening now
