Beck Bennett stars in this funny, familiar Comedy Central sports movie, but Joel McHale steals the show.
“Office Race,” a ribald comedy from Jared Lapidus about an inveterate deadbeat reluctantly training for a marathon, understands one of the great unspoken truths about running: that it is a miserable, arduous, soul-destroying pastime, and also deeply, profoundly rewarding.
Beck Bennett stars as Pat, a lazy, quasi-oafish sales rep at an investment app start-up. His idea of a marathon is watching all of the “Fast and Furious” movies in succession, but in a bid to woo a client who is zealously athletic, Pat claims a love of long-distance running — a lie that doesn’t land him the deal, but does commit him to participating in a marathon in three months’ time with the client’s enthusiastic running club. Thus Pat aches, sweats, groans and generally hates his life. In other words, he learns to run.
Bennett makes for an adequate schlub, and his journey from the couch to 26.2 miles is satisfying if a bit too familiar — we get the usual sports movie beats, from training montages to motivational speeches. The supporting cast, though, is uniformly great, including the always-wonderful J.B. Smoove as a champion racewalker who advises Pat to partake of dipping tobacco to fortify his lungs, as well as Kelsey Grammer, in a small but funny part as a wise former coach turned owner of a sports store. But the “Office Race” M.V.P. is Joel McHale as Pat’s maniacal, pun-loving boss and race rival, Spencer, who chugs energy drinks, has sex with Pat’s girlfriend and goes insane in obsessive pursuit of marathon glory — a minor comic master class whose only fault is that Spencer doesn’t appear in every scene.
Office Race
Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 22 minutes. Watch on Comedy Central platforms.
Source: Movies - nytimes.com
