REVIEWED - EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH:Contrived, puerile, dim-witted lowbrow fodder for the New Year.  Need Michael Dwyersay more?

MASOCHISTS intent on starting the year with dim-witted lowbrow fodder should rush to Employee of the Month, which, at this very early stage, has staked a place on the worst list of 2007.

The setting is a US megastore that sells everything from televisions to reading glasses to coffins. The customers are so easily amused that they clap and cheer as head cashier Vince (Dax Shepard) emulates Tom Cruise in Cocktail when he juggles their purchases in the air.

Obnoxious and conceited, Vince has been rated employee of the month for the 17th consecutive time and is in the running to take the title again. This carries the prospect of winning a car and a promotion from his boss, who happens to be named Glen Gary and to have a brother named Glen Ross. David Mamet is unlikely to be chuffed at this nod from such a feeble picture of workplace politics.

Unexpected competition emerges in the gormless form of Zack (Dane Cook), a twentysomething slacker who goes for the title when he learns that new cashier Amy (Jessica Simpson) has a predilection for sex with winners of the award. Or, as one staff member puts it, "When that picture goes up on the wall, she slides into the sack like a singed koala looking for an all-night burn centre."

The movie's dialogue continues in this contrived, puerile vein with obvious double entendres about Amy's cleavage - and some wholesome advice from Zack's grandma when he's going on a date: "Don't forget to wash your balls."