Review of Horrible Bosses (2011) by Les E — 24 Nov 2012

There are hints of a brilliant film here: Jamie Foxx as a "hard core thug", Jason Bateman as the straight-laced man, and Colin Farrell as a character thats way out of the norm for him. Unfortunately, outside of a couple jokes involving these things, "Horrible Bosses" falls flat, and it falls hard.

The film follows three friends who each have three bosses that annoy them to the point where they want to kill them, which is exactly what they plan to do. Its a fun idea, but most of the jokes are either drawn out to the point of exhaustion or they're thrown at the audience in rapid succession and with such vulgarity that the only thing that registers is an uncomfortable feeling.

Now, I enjoy raunchy comedies, but there has to be a limit as to how many times certain words can be used until the audience starts to feel either uncomfortable or stressed. The pacing is all over the place along with the tone.

The acting from Jason Bateman, Colin Farrell, Charlie Day, and Jamie Foxx is very good, but the fate of the film shouldn't have to rest on them alone, which it does by the end. Overall, it had a couple of really good laughs, but it missed the mark entirely.