Film Preview: Office Christmas Party (2016)

Page Revisions:

(August 21, 2016) Original
(November 6, 2016) New Trailer (#2) / New Posters (#1-#4)
(December 4, 2016) New Posters (#5-#20)
(December 11, 2016) New Trailer (#3) / New Poster (#21)

Release Date:

December 9, 2016

Synopsis:

From IMDb: “When his uptight CEO sister threatens to shut down his branch, the branch manager throws an epic Christmas party in order to land a big client and save the day, but the party gets way out of hand…”

Poster Rating: B+ / B- (7) / B (8) / B- / C+

SEE ALL POSTERS BELOW
Review: (#1) The abject destruction left in the wake of a killer Christmas party is completely fitting to this film’s success and the poster reflects that. (#2-#4) These “character” posters are distinct, but feel a bit too forced and inconsequential.

(#5-#11) Continuing the set that I previously posted (posters #2-#4), this continues the character set with the rest of the cast. While there’s not much improved over the prior references, I realize now with these new designs that the actor names are highlighted in the cast list at the top of the poster. While that doesn’t improve them much, it makes them a slightly bit more interesting. (#12-#19) This series of posters has a fascinating, what-could-go-wrong party aspect that makes them humorous. Their color schemes are also fitting to the season and theme. (#20) This seems to be the odd-duck out of the white-blue-red designs previously as this one features a phrase, which the others don’t have. It doesn’t add anything and is, if anything, more of a distraction.

(#21) I’ll give the designers credit for doing something utterly unexpected. It isn’t entirely successful, but it’s a change from other character-inset poster designs I’ve seen.

Trailer Rating: C+ / C / B-

SEE ALL TRAILERS BELOW
Review: (#1) The shocking moments in the trailer give it a leg up over its R-rated comedic competition. It looks like one giant, supersized episode of a comedy variety show, but at least one that could be fun.

(#2) There are some interesting bits of humor here and it reminds me of movies that were far better than I expected; however, all those niggling details that caused problems in those other films and their sequels, are strongly present in this trailer and that’s disconcerting.

(#3) Instead of focusing on the “we shouldn’t be doing this” aspect of the first two trailers, this one doubles-down on the antic elements, even giving Jennifer Aniston, who seemed like a stick in the mud previously, some funny bits to go with her tough-as-nails character.