“The new Jessica Simpson comedy” is hardly a tag to inspire confidence. But if there’s one smart thing Greg Coolidge’s semi-decent debut does, it’s reducing the ex-Mrs Lachey to the role of cleavage-spilling spectator in the battle of wills between warehouse-store workers Dane Cook and Dax Shepard. The former’s a lazy-ass box boy who bucks his ideas up when he hears tell that new gal Simpson has a thing for winners of Employee Of The Month – a prize Shepard’s snotty show-off has snagged the last 17 times on the trot.
Our sympathies are steered towards slob rather than snob, yet it’s the peerlessly petty Shepard with his unchecked ego who bags the honours. At its best, the balance of lowbrow laughs and wage-slave satire plays like a discount Office Space. But at 108 minutes, Coolidge keeps us waiting in line far too long for the predictable wrap-up.
