Office Christmas Party

I've always been a fan of the Christmas stoner comedy. Last year's The Night Before was a step above in terms of finding the original concept. With this one, I had high hopes. We've all been to corporate Christmas parties that are one step away from becoming actually enjoyable events and Office Christmas Party takes that to the extreme. However, it shoots itself in the foot by becoming too overcrowded with storylines that aren't at all funny.

The Chicago branch of tech company Zenotek has failed to show any growth in the last quarter, so acting CEO Carol Vanstone (Jennifer Aniston) has threatened to cut forty percent in order to make the branch profitable. She also wants to cancel the annual Christmas party as she considers it an unnecessary use of corporate funds. Her brother Clay (TJ Miller) doesn't want any of his workers to lose their jobs, so he enlists his Chief Technical Officer Josh (Jason Bateman) and his head of tech Tracey (Olivia Munn) to court businessman Walter Davis (Courtney B. Vance) into investing in the company. It turns out the only way to get him to do this is by throwing the best Christmas party ever.

As with all comedy movies, it really comes down to how well the actors are able to perform the jokes. That's the one thing that Office Christmas Party really has going for it. All of the major players have had a career built on performing comedy in one medium or another so there is no one dropping the ball. I've been really impressed with diversity that Jennifer Aniston has been showing in her comedic roles lately. They haven't just been the same thing over and over and her Grinch-esque Carol is a very fun character. I find TJ Miller can sometimes overshadow his costars with his over the top performances, but this time he shares the wealth, being the giving time of the year and all. Kate McKinnon's performance was wonderful as always and she is always able to find particular traits for her characters that are just bizarre and perfect. Despite Jason Bateman once again playing Jason Bateman, I am so comfortable with his character at this stage. He and Olivia Munn have great chemistry too.

The problem with this flick though is that it is way too crowded. Every character that is introduced is given too much character. There's no "here's this accountant character", instead we have to be shown that he has a weird baby fetish (Randall Park does at least try and make it funny). The characters also just end up as stereotypes of people you find in the office and that wears a bit thin quickly. There are too many plot strands as well. Instead of just having the main plot, there's also Jillian Bell's pimp character who is trying to steal everyone's money and something about wifi being accessed everywhere. While they all tie in at the end, the third part of the movie is just distracting and kind of boring.

This is a hard one. If you're a fan of movies like this, as I am, you'll watch it and think this better than you expected. If you wanted a light Christmas comedy, it's probably not for you. Office Christmas Party has a strange intense energy. It's laid on heavy with the jokes and (surprising) destruction with a good mix of hopeful and cynical characters.

Big Hero 6

    "This may undermine my non-threatening huggable design."

Another year, another superb Disney Animation. Big Hero 6 strangely emerges as Disney's response to the critical and commercial successes of The Lego Movie and Guardians of the Galaxy, and steals the hearts of audiences in the post-Christmas movie release boom.

Hiro Hamada is a techno-genius 14-year old high-school graduate making a bad reputation for himself in the underground robot fighting circuit of San Fransokyo, a Japan-ified interpretation of San Fransisco. After being arrested for his behaviour, his college-age elder brother Tadashi attempts to coerce Hiro to enroll at his college by showing him the laboratory he works in. Hiro is amazed by the amazing inventions that his brother, his friends and mentor all create, and is inspired to join the university's science department. After meeting the sweet Honey Lemon, independent GoGo, excitable Wasabi, man-child Fred and the supportive Dr. Callaghan. Tadashi then introduces Hiro to his latest robot, Baymax, a white, inflated humanoid balloon surrounding a robotic skeleton that is built as a cuddly all-in-one medical unit. In an attempt to impress Dr Callaghan at a science fair and gain admittance to the university Hiro develops a horde of micro-robots controlling by a neural headband and after a magnificent performance is approached by both Callaghan and technological magnate Alistair Krei. After rejecting Krei's offer the building is set alight and Tadashi dies attempting to rescue Callaghan from the fire. In a grief-stricken state Hiro discovers Baymax in his brothers room and the two investigate the fate of Hiro's microbots and Tadashi's death. After they are confronted with a Kabuki-masked villain who is controlling the micro-bots, Hiro forms a superhero team by adapting the technologies that his brothers friends were developing, and employing them onto his team.

In typical Disney and Pixar style, the film is directed by a duo, Dom Hall and Chris Williams, whose work at Disney is most prominently as writers for many of their traditionally animated films, though Williams also co-directed Bolt. Being a Disney animated film, Big Hero 6 is fast, witty and vibrant in colour and design. The film works as an excellent slap-stick comedy wherein Hall and Williams, and their editor Tim Merterns (Wreck-It Ralph, Tangeled) display an enviable taste for comic timing with lingering shots repeatedly used for outstanding comic effect, and Baymax rivaling Dave Bautista's performance in Guardians as a hilarious comic foil through his literal interpretation of the world around him. The characters, both main and support, are all wonderfully animated and voiced, with Baymax, Tadashi and Aunt Cass emerging as crowd-pleasers. The action is fast and frantic, but always clear and precise, with appropriate attention given to each hero. The villain and his plot, while certainly nefarious, are nevertheless lacking the depth seen in the rest of the film, as their motivation is nearly absent for three-quarters of the movie and their deisgn is minimal.

Much like the popular Guardians of the Galaxy from earlier this year, Big Hero 6 is an even looser adaptation of an obscure Marvel comic about a superhero team, and they do battle against a horde of what amounts to be semi-sentient Lego blocks, so in some ways the films intentions are fairly unsubtle. In contrast, the internal themes of the film are revenge and grief, and how they shape the actions of people who are lost in those emotions. Hiro is absolutely lost in grief in the wake of Tadashis death and as such, when given the opportunity for revenge, he is as single-minded. The film at times addresses this as a side-effect of puberty, but overall it presents a neat and practical character arc for Hiro because these emotions change him, as well as other characters. The film's dynamic and diverse cast also set it aside from other animated features, with three Asian-American major characters, one black and one possibly Latino (at least the voice actress is) in a city depicted in a cultural mash-up. This shows a maturation of design for Disney that probably has nothing at all to do with appealing to the fastest growing cinematic audience in China. It's a good thing likely done for the wrong reasons.

That being said, Big Hero 6 lacks the thematic and tonal depths that'll resonate with adult audiences in the way that Pixar films like Up!, Finding Nemo, and The Incredibles do, but instead teenaged audiences should walk away supremely satisfied, as will kids.. While the villain is quite flat, the setting, animation, and character arcs are pretty excellent, the action and comedy live up to the high standards of these films, and it's impossible to walk away from this movie without a smile plastered on your face. Big Hero 6 leaves itself open to sequels and they would surely be welcome.