Employee of the Month <!-- none onestar twostar threestar fourstar fivestar --> (12A)

Linda Lear's biography of Beatrix Potter is reviewed on page 23

The spirit of The Office inhabits this nugatory workplace comedy, but writer-director Greg Coolidge simply can't compete with Gervais et al in terms of comic observation and performance. Zack (Dane Cook) is the likeable loafer in a warehouse supermarket where head cashier and brown-noser Vince (Dax Shepard) regularly wins the employee of the month award; then new girl Jessica Simpson arrives and battle lines are drawn in pursuit of her affections. Their contest of wits is generally puerile stuff, but just occasionally a good line surfaces above the dreck.