Review of Horrible Bosses (2011) by Doug L — 27 Sep 2012

This is an awful film. I saw it with one of my closest friends (who is also a cinephile) and we both wish we'd walked out halfway through the film. The script is a mess. The actors aren't funny. And if a comedy has a lousy script and unfunny performances there isn't much else to say.

But, for the poor delusional reviewers who think this is an "okay" comedy I'll try. Let's deal with the lack of plausibility. Jennifer Aniston is cast as a sexually aggressive dentist who harasses her assistant. We're supposed to believe that despite him loving his fiancee he has no interest in Jennifer Aniston whatsoever. JENNIFER ANISTON. As in one of the most beautiful women on earth! The film had two simple, honest options: 1.) He had slipped up once in their past and slept with her and she's been blackmailing him ever since. 2.) Or, they told this story but cast a different (far less attractive) person in the role. Someone far older, someone far less attractive, someone with a serious flaw...it could have been that she was stunningly beautiful, they had sex one time and everything from massive mental baggage to a horrid case of chronic, incurable halitosis could have served to why this man found his boss repugnant. The irony of a dentist with halitosis could have been quite funny as well.

Kevin Spacey's character is plausible but boring. He's played this exact character before (Swimming With Sharks and Superman Returns are simply two of the many times he's played this exact role.) But that simply makes it boring. Again, his power over Jason Bateman is completely implausible. In today's day and age Jason could simply initiate the audio record function on his iPhone.

Colin Firth plays the only plausible villain (which is rather ironic considering how over-the-top his performance is...and yet it is true!) I buy that this loathsome son would inherit his father's business and make life hell for the company's star employee. It's both honest and (sadly) funny.

Jamie Foxx's character earns a few chuckles but is also completely unrealistic. He doesn't have a gun? WHY ON EARTH NOT? He's a ex-con who doesn't understand crime and is only pretending to be a master criminal to teach these white boys about racial profiling? REALLY? He has time to hang out in a bar and contrive complicated morality lessons for strangers? COME ON! He's a worse (failed) trope than a hooker-with-a-heart of gold. He's a hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold-who-is-secretly-a-virgin. Once you discover who his character is you don't laugh...you scratch your head in disbelief.

You'll note I didn't mention anything about our three protagonists. That's because there isn't anything worth mentioning. They are utterly forgettable and unfunny.

But, the plot that involves all of these ridiculous cliched-characters-trying-not-to-be-cliches is more contrived than an episode of Diff'rent Strokes. It's not worth repeating. It's only worth stating that it is contrived, unrealistic and a disastrous mess.

I believe the writer & director's #1 goal was to subvert audience expectations of cliched characters. However, that ambition is not realized in this movie. The writer & director would have been far better off simply writing something honest, plausible and realistic...laughter is born from truth. Unfortunately, this film completely lacks truth and is a waste of your time.