Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Loui Blair It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

wes-connors "Director/Writer Mitch Rouse brings you an outrageous dark comedy reminiscent of the Coen Brothers," according to the Lions Gate synopsis scribers, "When David Walsh (Matt Dillon) wakes up, his life is the picture of perfection: a beautiful fiancée, Sarah (Christina Applegate), and a dream job as a manager of a bank - even his best friend Jack (Steve Zahn), an incompetent con artist, can't bring him down. That is, until his entire life dissolves into chaos. Nothing can prepare him for the twists and turns his day takes when a bank robbery and millions of dollars become part of the day from hell." The description is about as fair as it could be, but the film isn't. If you dare to watch, you will see more twists than Chubby Checker. There are enough twists during the last act to leave your head spinning for several minutes after the film, which includes a hiccuping false-footage ending. Any story's best revelations are things that bubble under your subconscious, but don't totally emerge until that moment resembling epiphany. "Employee of the Month" features a bizarre series of twists that make no sense in context; they are just thrown at the screen, causing gaping plot holes along the way.The opening should have been presented in "smell-o-vision" to give you an idea about how much some unmentionable, but frequently mentioned, stuff stinks; neither Mr. Dillon nor the Los Angeles bus passengers indicate the foul smell alluded to in the narration. Now, in reality, someone would react, and move to another seat. As Dillon's potty-mouthed coroner sidekick, Mr. Zahn performs some glassy-eyed "gag reel" material that somehow made it to the finished movie. At least, the women are sexy - watch for Zahn's topless lap dancer, and Dillon's aroused "Office" prostitute Jenna Fischer.*** Employee of the Month (1/17/04) Mitch Rouse ~ Matt Dillon, Steve Zahn, Christina Applegate, Andrea Bendewald

CharlieP-5 I was on the way to give this movie a 7 or 8, and then the writer went twist-crazy at the end. This reminded me a bit of Fight Club, in that the twisting went too far for credibility to survive. In this case, some of the earlier scenes just don't make sense after the plot is revealed at the end. But the film had some interesting moments, like the reading of the letter at dinner by Applegate - that was funny. And as usual, Steve Zahn does a First Class job of playing the quirky wacko. Zahn must be the first person a director thinks of when he sees this kind of part - Jack Black second. So it lost about two points in the last 5 minutes - I gave it a 6.

zephypyre Beyond that point, it's Wild Things.This is a fantastic flick with incredible acting on all fronts. . .for the first hour and 28 minutes. Beyond that, it's an all-out race to the bottom. From a tale of a man breaking down in the style of Falling Down - with an acting prowess nearly equal to that of Michael Douglas - it becomes a tale of who can screw who the most. Within the span of three minutes, these characters change themselves from tortured souls dealing with life's unfairness into caricatures of every gang-crime movie that had the bad sense to be put on film. Either the writer for the first ninety five percent of the film was fired, or suffered a psychotic breakdown. We placed this movie on our Netflix queue by mistake (meant to request the more recent Dane Cook flick - never you mind what that says about our cinematic tastes) and were pleasantly surprised. . .right up until the end.

Claudio Carvalho David Walsh (Matt Dillon) has a perfect life: a gorgeous fiancée, Sarah Goodwin (Christina Applegate); a beautiful house; a fancy car; a job of manager in a bank. On the day he expects to be elected "The Employee of the Month", he is fired; Sarah finds that he had an affair with his colleague Wendy (Andrea Bendwald) and calls off their engagement; and a hooker sent by his friend Jack (Steve Zahn) to stay with him in a motel steals his car. On the next day, in his farewell, there is a heist in the bank and he is abducted. But his fate before reaching Nirvana has not finished yet.While watching "Employee of the Month", I was feeling the story very unpleasant, mostly because of the disgusting character of Jack, and also because of the jinx of David. But suddenly, the story twists with an outrageous and surprising plot point, becoming the perfect bad day of David a masterpiece of black comedy. When I first saw Matt Dillon partially burnt in the beginning of the movie, I believed the actor had had some accident, and only later it was disclosed that the scars were part of his character. The unknown Andrea Bendwald is really a very beautiful woman and has an important participation in the conclusion of the story, inclusive along the credits. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "O Dia Perfeito" ("The Perfect Day")