The idea of doing a movie based on Between Two Ferns seems natural in many ways, if not a little daunting for a web series that’s typically presented in small doses. The streaming world has changed quite a lot since its parent company Funny or Die launched in 2007. With Netflix able to provide the budget and platform for a feature release, it feels only inevitable that Zach Galifianakis’ awkward talk show would expand.

The biggest challenge presented for Between Two Ferns: The Movie is the staying power of the gag. For a web series that only put out a few short episodes a year, an expansion requires the concept to grow, at least a little bit. The movie version sort of rises to the task, taking the gag on the road in an effort to secure Galifianakis the character a bigger late-night television show.

Comedy is generally not a form of entertainment that lends itself well to explanation. If you have to describe why something’s funny, part of the joke has a habit of losing its humor. For ten years, Galifianakis savaged celebrities on Between Two Ferns without offering a reason behind the rudeness.

Perhaps understandably, the worst part of Between Two Ferns: The Movie is the explanation. Will Ferrell plays a fictitious version of himself as the founder of Funny or Die, having picked up Galifianakis’ public access show due to the unexpected comedic nature of his interview style. It’s hardly the worst explanation in the world, serving as an obligatory plot device, but it’s not very funny either. As a result, the first half of the film drags quite a bit, learning how to be a movie at a cost to its funniest bits.

The film does get quite a bit funnier when it figures out its kinks. Lauren Lapkus, Ryan Gaul, and Jiavani Linayao play the parts of Galifianakis’ crew, serving as suitable counterweights to their host’s abrasive nature. The spotlight rarely moves off Galifianakis, but the film does a good job fleshing out its supporting cast a bit.

The celebrity cameos are mostly pretty hilarious, with Brie Larson and Benedict Cumberbatch providing the most laughs. An exchange with David Letterman gives a glimpse of a direction that the film could’ve taken itself in, shining a critical lens on Galifianakis that’s mostly absent from the rest of the narrative. The biggest disappointment of the celebrity cameos is that the film doesn’t take the chance to explore the emotional turmoil that could be brought on by his abrasive style of questioning.

Between Two Ferns: The Movie is a competent film that delivers plenty of laughs, while never quite aiming for the high bar set by its source material. Diehard fans of the web series will undoubtedly find much to enjoy in this narrative. The combined comedic genius of Galifianakis and director/co-screenwriter Scott Aukerman were certainly capable of putting out something better. The film never runs the risk of soiling Between Two Ferns’  legacy, but does little to improve it either.

Workplace comedies often age better than other forms of humor, possessing an easy to relate to quality regardless of the industry being depicted. Incompetent, self-centered bosses are hardly a dime a dozen. Neither is the idea of a company spending money it doesn’t really have on something as silly as a cave spelunking retreat.

Corporate Animals is a film that aims to capture the zeitgeist of worker disenfranchisement. Demi Moore plays Lucy, a racially insensitive fool running Incredible Edibles, a company that makes consumable crockery. Lucy has no trouble stealing her employee’s ideas, or claiming indigenous heritage. Her bits are funny for a few minutes, but the character is so one-dimensional that she starts to grow tiresome not very long into the movie.

To make matters worse, Moore looks increasingly bored as the film goes on. Lucy starts off the film uttering cliché after cliché, before taking on more of a leadership role as the group becomes trapped in a cave. Given Lucy’s importance to the narrative, it doesn’t really make a lot of sense that she was initially depicted in such a superficial manner.

In many ways, Corporate Animals feels like it was written as a spec script for a sitcom that ended up being stretched out for a feature film, much to the detriment of the narrative. The jokes are fairly frontloaded, leaving the second half of the movie rather empty as the gags wear thin. The film has a fairly talented ensemble cast, with Karan Soni and Isiah Whitlock Jr. giving performances that help buoy the film through some of its boring parts. Unfortunately, there’s just too much downtime to make up for.

Much of the film takes place in a single cave location, the kind of set you see a billion times on various Star Trek episodes. The minimalist setting gives the cast a much more heightened sense of responsibility to entertain the audience, something the script doesn’t seem all that prepared to handle. The narrative just kind of strolls along with little sense urgency, even when cannibalism is introduced.

The film’s lackluster second half exposes a broader problem with the narrative. The characters constantly hint at broader problems with the company, stuff that this film doesn’t have the time, or likely the budget, to explore. The script establishes a lot of strong rapports between the ensemble, but it can’t cover up the sense that there’s so much missing from this story. Perhaps making matters worse is the presence of Ed Helms in a minor role, naturally evoking comparisons to The Office that don’t do the film any favors.

Thematically, the film is totally all over the place. It tries to poke fun at corporate incompetence, start-up culture, and green innovation among other topics, never really sticking with one subject for very long. You get the sense that Corporate Animals wanted to be some kind of satire, but its messaging is too scattershot to resemble actual commentary.

Corporate Animals is a mess of a comedy that wastes its talented cast with a meandering script that’s too light on jokes to make for a worthwhile experience. The plot might have made for an interesting twenty minutes of television. Even with a runtime of under 90 minutes, this narrative is stretched far too thin to carry a feature-length film.