SummaryLucy (Demi Moore) is the egotistical megalomaniac CEO of Incredible Edibles, America's premier provider of edible cutlery. In her infinite wisdom, Lucy leads her staff including her long-suffering assistants, Freddie (Karan Soni) and Jess (Jessica Williams), on a corporate team-building caving weekend to New Mexico. When disaster strikes...
SummaryLucy (Demi Moore) is the egotistical megalomaniac CEO of Incredible Edibles, America's premier provider of edible cutlery. In her infinite wisdom, Lucy leads her staff including her long-suffering assistants, Freddie (Karan Soni) and Jess (Jessica Williams), on a corporate team-building caving weekend to New Mexico. When disaster strikes...
Hard to believe this came from the same guy who brought us The Overnight and Creep 1 and 2. It just feels so flat and pedestrian. Of course, unlike those three aforementioned films this is the first time Patrick Brice is working with someone else's script. So perhaps that's why this isn't up to his usual level of quality.
It is fitfully amusing. There are actually some really good lines here and there. The problem is that it's often trying way too hard to actively be funny. Something that can be seen in things like the poorly conceived, hallucination induced animated sequence that's ugly to look at and comes off as a desperate, unnecessary attempt to inject some life into the proceedings.
It also doesn't go as far with the premise as it could have. Trapping a bunch of corporate jerks underground and forcing them to survive could have led to a lot of messed up scenarios, but outside of a singular act of cannibalism things are shockingly tame throughout. They don't even squabble all that much. Mostly saving the bickering for their manipulative, self-absorbed boss rather than turning on each other.
This is good for the occasional laugh. You get some particularly humorous performances from Calum Worthy and Karan Soni. The latter of whom finally gets something larger than a supporting role, which is great because he really is a special talent on the scene right now. Shame it didn't happen in a better film. Here's hoping Brice can get back on track with Creep 3 and his upcoming Netflix exclusive. His prior work has been good enough for me to give him another chance. I would just hate for this to mark the beginning of some kind of decline.
6.5/10
Poor Demi Moore — playing the self-centered CEO of a failing company — comes off as stiff and shrill, setting the tone for a movie that’s stilted from start to finish.
It’s good to have Demi Moore making a comeback after a prolonged absence from the screen, but not in a load of unmitigated crap called Corporate Animals. It’s never smart to make up lists of the worst movies ever made, because every time you do, something comes along that is even worse than what you saw before. But I think it’s safe to say that in the final top ten tally, this abysmal dreck will come in close to the top.
(Mauro Lanari)
The satire against corporate culture adopts the weapons of black comedy and of splatter with funny ambitions, but the screenplay doesn't guess a good idea even by mistake and the only real horror element is the taxidermy Demi Moore has undergone.
This is the darkest film ever. I realise they are trapped in a cave but we can't see anything. And that is a huge problem with a comedy film. If you can't see the actors faces or body movements then it's not funny. It also feels horribly unoriginal hollow Hollywood waste of effort. The characters are just about watchable enough to stay with the film to the end, but only just. Try Severance (2006) for a better version of the exact same film. Or The Descent (2005) if you want to watch something set in a cave.