Employee of the Month

Record-breaking cashier Vince (Shepard) is a superslick jobsworth comfortably in the pocket of the supermarket management and heading for his 18th employee of the month award.

Failed dotcom entrepreneur and slothful shelf-stacker Zack (Cook) is happier chillin' with his chums than making a play for any sort of employment that demands application or dedication.

Then into their retail battleground - SuperClub - struts new cashier Amy (Simpson), a bombshell-bosomed blonde who apparently sets her sights on the guy who wins the star staffer award.

If you're looking for a penetrating satire of a byzantine hierarchy where cowed workers are humiliated by bullying bosses, then Greg Coolidge's bargain basement comedy is not for you.

However, in Shepard and Cook it does have a couple of genuine comedy players and a script that does throw up the occasional surreal gem "You're like the drummer from REO Speedwagon. Nobody knows who you are."

Shepard has fun with the role of preening rotter, hamming it up as a cut-price Bond villain in a revolving chair that revolves just a little too much or throwing Cocktail-style shapes while manning the till.

Stand-up comic Cook, bizarrely a doppelganger in manner and appearance to Ryan Reynolds, plays it just the right side of smug thanks to his low-key style.

Simpson, on the other hand, is never going to trouble the members of the Academy, her cleavage acting her dizzy head off the screen.

Overlong and featuring too many paper-thin characters, this is more a comedy Lidl than a Harrods. Worth picking up if going cheap, though.

Tim Evans