‘Office Christmas Party’ Review: Jason Bateman and Jennifer Aniston Stuck in Bah-Humbug Comedy

A busy but witless and stale comedy that rehashes every raunchy gag we expect from R-rated comedies, it also wears its hackneyed sentimentality and cookie-cutter underdog story beats as proudly as adhesive nametags.

For a movie supposedly built around the anything-can-happen suspense of work colleagues letting their freak flags fly for one crazy night, there’s nothing surprising or shocking-funny about the shenanigans on display here, unless you find Jason Bateman wryly reacting to bad behavior or Jennifer Aniston appearing in another vulgar comedy alarming.

Part of the problem is the nature of why Christmas parties in the workplace are amusing to begin with: knowing the professionals around you so well in their 9-to-5 life that their loosening up after a drink or two is either a giggly treat or a lawsuit in the offing.

What happens, then, when you populate a fictional business with characters you only get to know for 30 minutes before everything gets crazy, and played by comedians (T.J. Miller, Kate McKinnon) you’re already hardwired to view as nutty?

If you’re directors Will Speck and Josh Gordon (“Blades of Glory”), and screenwriters Justin Malen and Laura Solon and Dan Mazer, you ratchet up the engineered insanity (copiers, meet body parts, and body parts, meet drugs and prostitutes), stick on a save-the-company plot, throw in the Russian mob and a car chase, and hope nobody notices.

First 'Office Christmas Party' Trailer Is Here - And It Looks Like a Crazy Good Time