Country:
USA
Recognizable Faces:
Jason Bateman
Charlie Day
Kevin Spacey
Jennifer Anniston
Colin Farrell
Jason Sudeikis
Donald Sutherland
Chad Coleman
Jamie Foxx
Wendell Pierce
Directed By:
Seth Gordon
Comedy is a hard nut to crack in Hollywood. Whenever you shoot one, the attention will be on you, because it's a genre that everybody loves. But if your movie even REMOTELY looks like anything less than hilarious and keen, you're going to be crucified by the public opinion. The Coen brothers' BURN AFTER READING unjustified bad press despite being one of the smartest cinematographic jokes I've ever had the pleasure to watch. The common moviegoer wants light-hearted escapism when he pays to see a comedy and whatever doesn't make him laugh as much as his favorite movies of the genre will make him feel like he wasted time and money. It's a hard mistress, I'm telling you. Did HORRIBLE BOSSES passed the test or did it bite the dust? Well, while it's not the funniest or the smartest movie I've ever seen, it offers a few brilliant knee-slapping moments of laughter. That's already better than most comedies and I did ask more from it.
While you could say HORRIBLE BOSSES has an all-star cast, the three main characters Nick (Bateman), Dale (Day) and Luke (Sudeikis) are lesser known up-and-comers *. They're all going through hell at work, but for different reasons. Nick's boss (Spacey) is a raging asshole, Dale's boss (Anniston) is a nympho pervert and Luke's (Farrell) is a fucked up spoiled brat. One night, they come with this idea ** that killing their respective bosses would solve their dead end situation. They first go to the shady part of town where they hope to find a respectable hitman, but they end up with Motherfucker Jones (Jamie Foxx) a murder consultant who's going to guide them into murdering their superiors. Hilarity (almost ensues).
Bateman, Day and Sudeikis, while being a believable trio of childhood friends, are capable of the best and the worst in HORRIBLE BOSSES. First, who the hell keeps typecasting Jason Bateman into this boring, responsible type? He was a good Michael Bluth in ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT, but I dare to believe his acting game can go beyond "boyscout". He's the good conscience of his two castmates, yet he has almost zero funny lines. Charlie Day as Dale was the biggest surprise. He has a natural knack for slapstick humor and eclipses Batemand and Sudeikis more often than not. The bosses also deliver great performance, even Jennifer Anniston who's casted outside her typical role of Jennifer Anniston, the-cute-girl-who-can't-get-a-stable boyfriend. Of all three, if I had to chose my favorite (worst) boss though, I'd pick Colin Farrell who's absolutely unbearable as Bobby Pellit. You want to punch him off screen.
While the acting is above average, the script of HORRIBLE BOSSES contains a few very funny scenes (the break-in scene is an instant classic, thanks to Charlie Day), but it can sink into coma-inducing lulls. I have to admit the idea behind the movie was razor-thin to begin with. Killing your bosses? In a comedy? Come on. This is stuff dramas are made of and if you want it to work in a comedy, you need a very aggressive slapstick or a-joke-a-line approach, because if you verse in any kind of subtlety, it's not going to be funny at all. While the brilliance of Charlie Day makes for some unforgettable scenes, it's a movie that is uneven and poorly paced. A few more weeks (or a few more months) in scripting would have done HORRIBLE BOSSES a great service and make it go from a decent to an awesome comedy. It's not must-watch, yet it's worth watching for Charlie Day alone.
SCORE: 67%
Recommendation: Wait for it to be on TV. It's a decent late-night film with a beer.
* Except maybe for Bateman, but we will discuss his case at length this week.
** I don't really remember how they end up having the idea. Which is a sign this movie wasn't really marking.
While you could say HORRIBLE BOSSES has an all-star cast, the three main characters Nick (Bateman), Dale (Day) and Luke (Sudeikis) are lesser known up-and-comers *. They're all going through hell at work, but for different reasons. Nick's boss (Spacey) is a raging asshole, Dale's boss (Anniston) is a nympho pervert and Luke's (Farrell) is a fucked up spoiled brat. One night, they come with this idea ** that killing their respective bosses would solve their dead end situation. They first go to the shady part of town where they hope to find a respectable hitman, but they end up with Motherfucker Jones (Jamie Foxx) a murder consultant who's going to guide them into murdering their superiors. Hilarity (almost ensues).
Bateman, Day and Sudeikis, while being a believable trio of childhood friends, are capable of the best and the worst in HORRIBLE BOSSES. First, who the hell keeps typecasting Jason Bateman into this boring, responsible type? He was a good Michael Bluth in ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT, but I dare to believe his acting game can go beyond "boyscout". He's the good conscience of his two castmates, yet he has almost zero funny lines. Charlie Day as Dale was the biggest surprise. He has a natural knack for slapstick humor and eclipses Batemand and Sudeikis more often than not. The bosses also deliver great performance, even Jennifer Anniston who's casted outside her typical role of Jennifer Anniston, the-cute-girl-who-can't-get-a-stable boyfriend. Of all three, if I had to chose my favorite (worst) boss though, I'd pick Colin Farrell who's absolutely unbearable as Bobby Pellit. You want to punch him off screen.
While the acting is above average, the script of HORRIBLE BOSSES contains a few very funny scenes (the break-in scene is an instant classic, thanks to Charlie Day), but it can sink into coma-inducing lulls. I have to admit the idea behind the movie was razor-thin to begin with. Killing your bosses? In a comedy? Come on. This is stuff dramas are made of and if you want it to work in a comedy, you need a very aggressive slapstick or a-joke-a-line approach, because if you verse in any kind of subtlety, it's not going to be funny at all. While the brilliance of Charlie Day makes for some unforgettable scenes, it's a movie that is uneven and poorly paced. A few more weeks (or a few more months) in scripting would have done HORRIBLE BOSSES a great service and make it go from a decent to an awesome comedy. It's not must-watch, yet it's worth watching for Charlie Day alone.
SCORE: 67%
Recommendation: Wait for it to be on TV. It's a decent late-night film with a beer.
* Except maybe for Bateman, but we will discuss his case at length this week.
** I don't really remember how they end up having the idea. Which is a sign this movie wasn't really marking.