"Threat Level Midnight: The Movie" is an American/British co-production that was released briefly before the 2019 Christmas holidays. It runs for slightly under 25 minutes and was directed by prolific television series director Tucker Gates. The script is by B.J. Novak, who received several Emmy nomination for "The Office" and there you also have the connection already. This is very closely linked to the cancelled series, the American version that is. I think what you are watching here is actually part of said show in a way that this movie was made by the characters who played major parts in the show. I am not too familiar with the American version, but watched the British and German approach in their entireties and liked them both a lot. Actually, I will start watching the American version soon. It's way up there on my watchlist and took far too long anyway. So of course the lead here is Oscar nominee Steve Carell, who I think looks still much younger than he actually is. And the rest of the cast are also all(?) actors who appeared on The Office. Craig Robinson for example is an actor I always appreciate and he was interesting here too playing the American President, especially when he turns evil at some point. But still the protagonist is ready to accept his call again at the end of the film, so yeah the movie sure does not take itself too seriously in terms of the plot and that is perfectly fine. It is all about being entertaining and I think they succeeded there. Also I always appreciate if they include many film references, which is certainly the case here. My favorite is probably the one about Karate Kid early on and his unorthodox training. Bruce Wayne is mentioned too and when he gets his self-confidence back near the end already I felt that this was somehat linked to Bale standing up to Bayne in Nolan's final installment of the franchise. Maybe just me though. As for Rainn Wilson though, I never liked him a lot and I believe it is pretty telling that he never managed a great performance or memorable turn away from his trademarkt show. I would not call myself a John Krasinski fan either (from what I have seen him in, not too much I believe), but as I love Bond and Goldfinger, I also liked his turn here and with 007 you must be really bad to leave me unimpressed. Or maybe I would not say I was impressed here, but my rating shows that I liked the outcome overall. Still I feel that even if I was more familiar with the American "The Office", I never would have considered it a great watch, just a good one. The little epilogue was maybe the weakest sequence of the entire film. I would have preferred them to leave this one out, but it is not so bad that it ruins everything before that. Again with Krasinski's character, the parody of the story how he is a tortured soul (which we often see in films) was also a nice spoof. I mean the moment he explains why he has a golden face. Other than that, the film is not scared of being showy, also in terms of violence for example with the guy whose head is shot off, but hey we find out he somewhat deserved it for who he was. So also some obscene talking here. The first scene at the office with the (contract?) killer arriving and taking all these shots and how the protagonist dodges them only to fire back immediately afterwards and not miss a single shot shows you exactly what direction this short film is heading. Quality direction, that is. I give it a thumbs-up. Also worth seeing if you don't care for "The Office", even if the comedy is probably similar to the series (not only because of the writer), but there are a handful familiar faces in here. Best example is Rashida Jones, who's also succeeding as a writer these days, which probably makes her the second biggest star behind Carell at this point, even if she is in it only very briefly. That should be all now, no need for a novel-length review for a film that does not even come close to 30 minutes. Watch it!
