Horrible Bosses Review

"Horrible Bosses"
Release Date: July 8, 2011
Directed by: Seth Gordon
Screenplay by: Michael Markowitz, John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein
Rated: R for crude and sexual content, pervasive language and some drug material.
Review by: Sean Kayden

This summer has shown us that R rated comedies are all the rage. So far, The Hangover II, Bridesmaids, and Bad Teacher have been financially successful. The same will go for Horrible Bosses, I’m sure. While Horrible Bosses was far from horrible it felt overwhelmingly pedestrian. This high concept/low brow flick had a promising premise, but didn’t fully travel into the dark terrain it well could have. There are a few big laughs spread throughout the film, but consistent it is not. The cast seems to be having a lot of fun and for the most part it’s entertaining to watch the likes of Jason Bateman, Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis screw up royally over and over again. The majority of the film’s strong points are credited to the chemistry between these guys. Basically, Horrible Bosses is continually hit or miss, but unfortunately the misses are more apparent.

The setup is that Bateman, Sudeikis and Day all hate their bosses with a passion. After a night of drinking and the appearance of an old comrade, the very idea of just killing off their bosses is brought up. Soon after that night these guys seem to have no other choice, but act upon that crazy impulse. Couldn’t they just quit their jobs, you say? Well, it’s not that easy. They all have specific reasons why they can’t merely walk off the job. The reason for Day’s character is pretty funny, I admit. As for the other guys, it’s fairly standard given their adverse situation. So who are these horrible bosses, anyway? The vicious Kevin Spacey plays Bateman’s boss. Spacey’s character is a colossal a-hole with absolutely no sense of humor or lightheartedness. Bateman is deemed his personal “bitch” and is going to be stuck at his humdrum job for the long haul. Jennifer Aniston, a complete psychotic and sexual predator of sorts portrays Day’s boss (for the record, I wouldn’t be complaining). Her character is crass and crude, but at the very least, a welcoming departure from Aniston’s typical goody two shoes persona. Lastly, we have Colin Farrell (with a comb over, I might add), playing a cokehead tool that’s taking over his father’s business. He’s utterly unabashed, but I found the thought of his character funnier than he actually ended up being. Farrell’s character is ill prepared to run his father’s business and uses the profits for coke and Asian hookers. The dude is living the dream, but for Sudeikis, his job at the company is in jeopardy since Farrell is running it into the ground. Spacey, Aniston, and Farrell seem to find pleasure with their ridiculous characters, but at the end of the day, any laughter you’re about to have will surely come mostly from the three leads.

For good measure, Jamie Foxx is thrown into the mix. He plays the “murder consultant” to the three guys. While he doesn’t have a lot of screen time, Foxx nails it. He even has a ludicrous and uproariously funny name (with a back story) to boot. You’ll also find out about his “nasty” past that landed him in prison for ten years. Director Seth Gordon doesn’t restrain his cast, but I still find him to be a bit green (given that this is only his second feature film). The writers (three in all) had a fairly original concept to work with, but opted to become a distant cousin to the Hangover series. Then again, can you really blame anyone trying to do that these days? Anyway, Horrible Bosses had the on-screen pedigree to be preposterously amusing. While it treads into that territory briefly, overall, I found the big laughs to be scarce. The premise was absolutely solid and the build-up too, but the execution was slapped together half-heartedly. I found the story to be a bit contrived in places and I’m really not 100% sure how I felt about the way act three played out (especially with Spacey’s outlandish actions). At the end of the day, Horrible Bosses is an adequate comedy to please most moviegoers. But for guys like myself (that tend to have high expectations for high concept comedies), I walked away from Horrible Bosses with merely a smirk on my face rather than a big, goofy, ecstatic smile.

Grade: 3 out of 5

Published on July 16th, 2011 by Mountain Views News.
http://mtnviewsnews.com/v05/htm/n29/p11.htm