Horrible Bosses (1 & 2)
HORRIBLE BOSSES (15)
D: Seth Gordon
Warner Bros./New Line (Brett Ratner & Jay
Stern)
US 2011
98 mins
Comedy
W: Michael Markowitz, John Francis Daley & Jonathan
Goldstein
DP: David Hennings
Ed: Peter Teschner
Mus: Christopher Lennertz
Jason Bateman (Nick Hendricks), Charlie Day (Dale Arbus),
Jason Sudeikis (Kurt Buckman), Kevin Spacey (David Harken), Jennifer Aniston (Dr. Julia Harris), Colin Farrell (Bobby Pellitt), Jamie Foxx (Dean Jones)
Surprisingly enjoyable black comedy about a trio of friends
who have reached the end of their tether after being mistreated one two many times by their overbearing bosses and decide to take revenge into their own hands.
The style of humour is quite similar to that in the first
Hangover movie and some of the jokes are a real hoot. Jason Bateman & Jason Sudeikis are a good double act from the three friends, but Charlie Day is too whiny and annoying to really care
about his plight, especially since his boss is the bitchy (and bitching) Jennifer Aniston who is absolutely brilliant with a very cast against type performance. As proven before, Kevin Spacey is
great at playing arseholes, only Colin Farrell is underused as a coke-addict company owner who doesn't really have a chance to provide many comedy moments with less than 5 minutes screen
time.
Something of a surprise, but not really good enough to merit a
sequel.
6/10
HORRIBLE BOSSES 2 (15)
D: Sean Anders
Warner Bros/New Line (Brett Ratner, Jay Stern & John
Morris)
US 2014
108 mins
Comedy
W: Sean Anders & John Morris [based on characters created
by Michael Markowitz]
DP: Julio Macat
Ed: Eric Massick
Mus: Christopher Lennertz
Jason Bateman (Nick Hendricks), Jason Sudeikis (Kurt Buckman),
Charlie Day (Dale Arbus), Chris Pine (Rex Hanson), Christoph Waltz (Bert Hanson), Jennifer Aniston (Dr. Julia Harris), Jamie Foxx (Dean Jones), Kevin Spacey (David Harken)
The first Horrible Bosses film was enjoyable enough for a
black comedy about disgruntled employees who want to get their revenge.
The main trio of luckless characters from the original film
return, this time in an attempt to go into business for themselves, but when a deal turns sour, the plot rips off the story from Nine To Five (qv) and turns into a kidnapping caper.
The main problem is that there are no horrible bosses here,
it's just horrible. The three moronic main characters are victims of their own naïveté and poor business acumen and deserve to get screwed over. Throwing dick and sex jokes at us doesn't change
that.
With the exemption of Christoph Waltz, the entire cast are an
embarrassment, including Kevin Spacey, Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Aniston, who are relegated to "thanks for the pay cheque" cameos.
It's astonishing that this pathetic sequel made
money.
3/10
