Employee of the Month: C+

Dane Cook, with his quick wit and scruffy mug, makes one charming blue-collar worker. What he doesn't make is a good cashier. At least, not good enough to beat the resident guru on the subject, Vince (Dax Shepard), and win the daffy "slut" who would sleep with any Employee of the Month - played of course by Jessica Simpson in a flight of geez whiz ma, I am smart enough to mock myself!. The story, as you can tell, hinges on alot of disbelief. In fact, you'll have to swallow alot but I tell - surprisingly - that it may be worth it.

Amy (the aforementioned Jessica Simpson) has a history of sleeping with each of her store's best employees. Her latest conquest has yet to be determined since she's just been tranferred but don't think that she doesn't have options! Both Zach (Dane Cook), the apathetic "cool guy", and Vince have their eye on her. The problem is that Vince has been EotM for the last 17 months and there is no way he's stopping now (nor should he since he's so insanely good at what he does). But you see, Zach has friends and a wierd grandma on his side. He can't lose! And of course what he wins is his pride back (from some vague and stupid economic tragedy that befell him 10 years ago) and the girl.

As movies go, I have seen "meet-cute-try-and-get-the-girl" romantic comedies that are better and far worse. Employee of the Month falls squarely in the middle. Why? Because the movie is funny and sweet...at least most of the time.

Directed by Greg Coolidge, the film turns the gargantuan Super Club into a world of wonder (opera singing janitors you say? indeed!). And the people that populate the world - Dax Shepard, Andy Dick, Tim Bagley, the midget from "Seinfeld" - are on the wavelength of such strangeness, even if the movie isn't always with them. It should have been, since they earn the majority of the laughs.

This romantic fable though is too cutesy for it's own good, too earthbound (and too stupid, as when it tries to ascertain the level of "cool idiocy" that was Pedro's claim to fame). In the end it's too average, too rote. I've seen a dozen like it and more that are better. As laughs go, it mildly delivers, and I had no trouble blowing 100 minutes watching it, but next time set the store in Oz. Still...Andy Dick is hilarious.