Review of Horrible Bosses (2011) by Thomas W — 17 Dec 2014

The first half-hour of Horrible Bosses is one of the funniest movie's I have ever seen. I was howling with laughter because of something "he said" or something "she did" etc. The hysterical assault didn't let up for a good, long while as the audience is made to understand -- very clearly -- that these three individuals in the title are indeed HORRIBLE bosses.

Things that they say and/or do are unbelievable ... and we go with it. The story's main character, Nick Hendricks (the narrator), is played by Jason Bateman (Up in the Air, Juno, "Arrested Development"), a hard-working every-man who believes that the only way to get ahead in business is to "shut-up and take it".

He employs that strategy everyday as his boss is a mean and volatile Kevin Spacey (Se7en, The Usual Suspects, American Beauty) who verbally berates and tears-down his employees every day. Nick's two best friends don't have it much better: Kurt (Jason Sudeikis - SNL, Hall Pass, What Happens in Vegas) just got a new short-fused, sexist, bigoted, coke-sniffing boss from hell (Colin Farrell - Tigerland, Phone Booth, In Bruges) and Dale's (Charlie Day - "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia", Going the Distance) boss is a sexy horndog (Jennifer Aniston - Picture Perfect, Bruce Almighty, Marley & Me) who does nothing but sexually harrass her employee all day long.

When the three men realize that they have taken all of the crap they can stand, they non-chalantly decide to kill/off their bosses (it is a slightly extreme over-reaction). Jamie Foxx (Ray, Law Abiding Citizen, Dreamgirls) shows up as a hired assassin with an interesting nickname (hahaha); but the movie loses some of his verve and playfulness when the plot shifts to murder as opposed to the banter of harrassment (don't get me wrong, their treatment isn't acceptable; but the mood-shift of the film is apparent).

Towards the latter half of the film, there is a lot of mistaken identity and confusing scenarios that our characters find themselves in ... and while this is still more humorous than most other comedies out today, the merciless thrumping of laughter does not sustain itself throughout the entire film.

Horrible Bosses did start-out as one of the funniest films I had seen in years and it simply ends being a decent one. The laughs are still around ... the tears simply are not.