? Box boy Dane Cook vies with an ace cashier to impress the store manager and, more importantly, the newest employee (Jessica Simpson), at a warehouse club store. Cook plays a PG-13, slacker version of his regular-guy stand-up persona. Writer-director Greg Coolidge’s last credit was Sorority Boys.
+ Dax Shepard makes
something interesting out of a pretty ordinary villain role, and Cook turns out
to be likeable enough. The script comes out foursquare in favor of the work
ethic, so that’s all right. It gets better as it goes along. (All the fart
jokes are in the first half, and after that the cheap laughs mostly disappear.)
- Simpson is as
charismatic an actress as she is a singer. Okay, she’s not that bad, but this
comedy is as bland as they come. Cook’s got the usual group of coworker pals,
including the annoying Harlan Williams, and Shepard plays the sort of obvious
tool most commonly found in just this sort of movie. The humor doesn’t so much
fall flat as not rise very high, but the setup is particularly limp. And why
are a box boy and a cashier trying to clean up the same spill?
= **1/4 This just
might be the best comedy ever set at a warehouse club store. It’s the kind of
easy-to-get into movie you might enjoy on cable, but not worth eight bucks.
