Employee of the Month (2006 film)

Employee of the Month is a 2006 American comedy film directed by Greg Coolidge, written by Don Calame, Chris Conroy, and Coolidge, and starring Dane Cook, Jessica Simpson and Dax Shepard. The main plot revolves around two shop employees (portrayed by Cook and Shepard) who compete for the affection of their newest co-worker. The film was shot primarily at the Costco in Albuquerque, New Mexico located at 1420 N Renaissance Blvd NE. The film was released on October 6, 2006 and grossed $38 million.

Plot
For years, Zack Bradley has been working at the local "Super Club" as a box-boy. He lives with his grandmother and spends his free time with co-workers Lon Neilson, Iqbal Raji, and Russell Porpis-Gunders. Despite his slacker-like ways, he is kind-hearted, popular and supportive. His co-worker Vince Downey earns the Employee of the Month title for the 17th time in a row. Vince is egotistical and rude towards his co-workers, including his box-boy Jorge Mecico, whom he berates constantly. When new cashier Amy Renfro is hired, Zack and Vince fall for her and compete for her affection. Zack is told that Amy slept with the Employee of the Month at her last job, so he decides to win the title. Amy has dinner with Vince, but is repulsed when he puts the move on her. Vince does not realize how Amy feels, thinking they had a good kiss, and continues pursuing her. Zack steps up his act and begins going to work on time and working harder, giving Vince competition for the title. He also goes on a date with Amy, which takes place entirely in Super Club.

Within a few days, with Vince still winning the daily star, Zack realizes that getting Employee of the Month is not as easy as he thought. With Iqbal's encouragement, Zack finds his groove and, to Vince's horror, wins the star the next day. A war of attrition begins, as Vince tries everything he could think of to derail Zack's string of stars, even breaking into his house one night to reset the clocks; the sabotage causes Zack to arrive a minute late the following day, but with Iqbal's help, Zack's attendance card indicates that he arrived on time, causing Vince's scheme to fail. Zack takes Iqbal's shift on the day of a championship slow-pitch game against rival chain Maxi-Mart. However, he leaves to play in the game and Iqbal is fired. Frustrated at Zack's new attitude, his friends tell him he is turning into Vince and feel his attempt at getting the title is a result of trying to have sex with Amy. Amy overhears the conversation and is disgusted at Zack for his true intentions, prompting her to compare him to her last boyfriend, also an Employee of the Month with whom she indeed had sex but could not stand his attitude, which was why she requested a transfer.

At month's end, Zack and Vince are tied. On the day of the tie-breaking competition, Zack quits, gets Iqbal his job back and tells him he took responsibility for what happened, making a heartfelt apology to Lon, Iqbal, and Russell. Zack tells them he plans to win the competition, not for recognition or to make an impression, but for pride. When the store manager is about to announce Zack's resignation, Zack, Lon, Iqbal, and Russell show up claiming Zack never filed the resignation papers. It is revealed that Russell bribed the HR manager with a broken Butterfinger. Zack tries to reconcile with Amy, giving a heartfelt apology and telling her that no matter what, he is a better man because of her. Despite Vince's protests, the competition, for the fastest checkout, is held. The Employee of the Month Award will be granted to the person who finishes the task first.

Vince beats Zack by seconds but, during the award ceremony, Semi, the security guard, brings a surveillance video of the competition that shows Vince throwing store products behind his back and onto the conveyor belt without scanning them. Vince denies the allegations of under-ringing, But the store's assistant manager, who had just completed an audit of the tills used in the competition, proved the surveillance video was right about Vince giving customers free merchandise and has been doing this for 18 months, costing the store thousands of dollars. As a result, Vince is fired and required to wear a police tracking device in lieu of jail time. Zack ends up winning the competition, and his relationship with Amy is rekindled.

Six weeks after being fired from Super Club, Vince is on probation and working at Maxi-Mart, a rival store. Jorge finally learns to assert himself and treats Vince the same as he was treated by him. He is still willing to give Vince a ride to the bus stop, knowing that this would put him outside the range of his probation ankle monitor.

Cast

 * Dane Cook as Zack Bradley, a box boy at Super Club
 * Jessica Simpson as Amy Renfro, a new cashier
 * Dax Shepard as Vince Downey, Super Club's head cashier
 * Tim Bagley as Glen Garry, the manager of Super Club
 * Andy Dick as Lon Neilson, Zack's co-worker, the myopic eyeglasses stand attendant
 * Brian George as Iqbal Raji, Zack's co-worker, from the electronics department
 * Harland Williams as Russell Porpis-Gunders, Zack's good friend and co-worker.
 * Efren Ramirez as Jorge Mecico, a box boy and Vince's wingman.
 * Sean Whalen as Dirk Dittman, the assistant manager of Super Club
 * Marcello Thedford as Semi, Super Club's scatterbrained security officer.
 * Danny Woodburn as Glen Ross, Glen Garry's older brother

Box office
Following its release, the film became the #1 most requested film on AOL. The film managed open to nearly $12 million in its opening weekend, debuting at #4 just behind Open Season. The film was made on a $12 million budget, and has earned a little over $28 million in the United States.

In the United Kingdom the film debuted at #4 opening with over £1,000,000 in returns. The film has grossed $34 million worldwide.

Cook posted the following on his official website in regard to the film's box office success: We already made back our entire budget and now the movie is making a profit. Of the top 3 movies, we are the only film already out of the black (sic) and making money! This is great for me and my cast. It has sent a message that I can open a film up against HUGE COMPETITION with huge advertising budgets.

Promotion
The film received heavy promotion from not only TV stations such as MTV, which aired sneak peeks of the film every night after the "10 Spot", but a variety of websites including sites such as Perez Hilton, Myspace, and YouTube promoted the film.

Jessica Simpson also appeared on many TV shows such as The Tonight Show, The Today Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and MTV's Total Request Live, where she was joined by Dane Cook to promote the film release.

Dane Cook appeared as the host of the 2006 season opener of Saturday Night Live to promote the film, though no mention of the film was made during his opening monologue or the subsequent sketches.

Dane and Jessica hosted the 2006 Teen Choice Awards in order to promote the film.

Reception
The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes offers a score of 20% based on reviews from 91 critics—an average rating of 4 out of 10, which provides the consensus, "Employee of the Month features mediocre performances, few laughs, and a lack of satiric bite." The film also has a score of 36 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 24 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".

Robert Koehler of Variety saw some positives in the film saying "Camaraderie in cast is a key to pic's enjoyment, delivered by the charismatic Cook, alongside his buddies, played by Brian George, Andy Dick (for once, not manic) and Harland Williams, with Bagley, Ramirez and Woodburn in hilarious standout turns". Jessica Simpson earned a Razzie Award nomination for Worst Actress for her performance in the film, but lost out to Sharon Stone for Basic Instinct 2.

Home video
The DVD was released on January 16, 2007 and opened at #2 at the sales chart, selling 603,711 units which translates to $10.2m. As per the latest figures, 1,315,439 DVD units have been sold, bringing in $20,942,856 in revenue, exceeding its budget. This does not include Blu-ray sales or DVD rentals.

The 2007 region one DVD release of the film contains two commentaries: one featuring the director (Greg Coolidge) on his own, giving more technical information about the film; the second commentary features the director and star Dane Cook, who spends more time pointing out the origins of gags and actors throughout the film. The disc also contains extra improv scenes by actors Andy Dick and Harland Williams, an alternate opening with Eva Longoria showing Vince and Zack's first day on the job watching a video tape for new employees, an "At Work with Lon" feature showing Dick in character attempting to help to customers at Super Club, plus trailers for other Lionsgate films.