14th Sep2023

‘Office Race’ Review

by Kevin Haldon

Stars: Beck Bennett, Joel McHale, Alyson Hannigan, Tywayne Wheatt, Geoffrey Arend, Katlyn Carlson, Kelsey Grammer, J.B. Smoove, Kylie Bunbury | Written by Jared Lapidus, James McCarthy | Directed by Jared Lapidus

In a slight change of pace from my recent viewing pleasures I decided to check out Office Race. A movie that by all accounts was to be a laugh-out-loud comedy about a work-shy losers quest to train for a marathon and beat his asshole boss.

I think we have all gone through this particular event in our lives, right? No? Just me then? To be completely honest, I needed to close my brain off for a little while and have a bit of a laugh so this was as good a time as any to check Office Race out.

Pat (Beck Bennett) is stuck in his dead-end job, but to be fair he actually kind of likes things that way because it means he doesn’t really need to give any more than the bare minimum effort and he can just skate by. After being passed over for promotion in favour of his somewhat annoying colleague Spencer. Pat must put any issues aside so that he can seal the deal on a new account.

A few crossed wires later and Pat has signed himself up to a 26-mile marathon for charity. He will however need to train. One thing leads to another and he makes a silly bet that he can beat Spencer, his girlfriend might be cheating on him and all he really wants to do is watch Tokyo Drift with his best mate. Could this be the making of Pat or will he do as usual and just give up?

Office Race follows in the tradition of recent movie friends playing games with hilarious consequences, the likes of Tag, Buddy Games and such. While lacking the big notable names some of these movies had Office Race does have a host of committed-to-the-cause cast members who genuinely seem to be having a pretty darn fun time.

On the cast Beck Bennett as Pat plays this lovable down-and-out slacker real well, he ain’t no Ron Livingston (Office Space) but his chemistry with the rest of the cast shines through and you can actually relate to the character of Pat in a real way. His boss slash nemesis for the movie is Joel McHale. I was somewhat surprised to see McHale show up and a little more surprised at the lengths he went to with this character. American Pie’s Alyson Hannigan shows up as Pat’s girlfriend Pat.

MVPs of the film are Tywayne Wheatt as the scene-stealing best friend of Pat. Geoffrey Arend puts in another one of his classy dependable brilliantly subtle yet low-key hilarious performances. The surprise introduction for me was Katlyn Carlson as running enthusiast Kiki, this actress was a standout bright star of the flick and just upped her levels every passing minute on screen.

So yeah Office Race is a cracking little comedy that was better than I thought I was getting myself into and left me with a smile on my face a fair few times; it’s worth 80 minutes of your day if you are willing to embrace the crazy.

**** 4/5

Office Race debuted as a Comedy Central original movie on September 4th 2023.

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