Office Christmas Party Six years ago, when the writers of the original Hangover pitched their idea for Office Christmas Party, they envisioned it as another tale of morning-after regret, but centered on a corporate holiday blowout instead of a wedding. Two Hangover sequels and several female-centric versions later, that approach must have seemed passé, because the version of OCP that ultimately got made focuses on an office full of wildmen who have to exploit their Dionysian strengths to retain an important client. Stars Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman are reunited with Josh Gordon and Will Speck, their directors on 2010's The Switch – which audiences and critics alike praised as not the worst thing in the world, and certainly not capable of giving one cancer. I don't know, that doesn't exactly scream "party" to me. But maybe it's just because I work from home. (R)
ALSO PLAYING:
Believe Christian fundamentalism and free-market politics coincide – and when don't they, eh? – in this story of a Virginia businessman who learns the correct way to fund his economically challenged community's equally endangered Christmas pageant. Spoiler: Carrier pays for it! (PG)
Girls und Panzer der Film In this spinoff of the anime TV series, girls' schools exercise their rivalry via energetic bouts of tank warfare. Are we human, or are we Panzers? (NR)
Hard Tide A British Indie about a minor-league drug dealer and the orphan girl he comes to look after. Just what we all need: a cross between Trainspotting and About a Boy. (NR)
Hot Property Downton Abbey and Ripper Street star MyAnna Buring makes her comedy debut as a corporate spy facing eviction from her home after her strategy of embezzling from her boss goes tits-up. Yep, that's totally who I want to root for. (NR)
Man Down Shia LaBeouf plays a Marine whose existential horror doesn't end when he comes home from Afghanistan. So that's what LaBeouf's public behavior has been about these past few years. "Appallingly manipulative," pronounces Variety. (Meaning the movie, not his public behavior.) (R)
The Monster Want to see a movie starring Zoe Kazan and Scott Speedman? Of course you do! Turned off to learn it's a horror flick about a nameless evil that skulks through the woods on a stormy night? Of course you aren't! Not if you still want to get a Christmas card from me, anyway. (R)
