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<\/p>\nBeck Bennett stars in this funny, familiar Comedy Central sports movie, but Joel McHale steals the show.<\/p>\n
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By <\/span>Calum Marsh<\/span><\/p>\n When you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.<\/p>\n \u201cOffice Race,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n 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 \u201cFast and Furious\u201d movies in succession, but in a bid to woo a client who is zealously athletic, Pat claims a love of long-distance running \u2014 a lie that doesn\u2019t land him the deal, but does commit him to participating in a marathon in three months\u2019 time with the client\u2019s enthusiastic running club. Thus Pat aches, sweats, groans and generally hates his life. In other words, he learns to run.<\/p>\n Bennett makes for an adequate schlub, and his journey from the couch to 26.2 miles is satisfying if a bit too familiar \u2014 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 \u201cOffice Race\u201d M.V.P. is Joel McHale as Pat\u2019s maniacal, pun-loving boss and race rival, Spencer, who chugs energy drinks, has sex with Pat\u2019s girlfriend and goes insane in obsessive pursuit of marathon glory \u2014 a minor comic master class whose only fault is that Spencer doesn\u2019t appear in every scene.<\/p>\n