Review of Horrible Bosses (2011) by Vguru R — 27 Nov 2014

For anyone who has a job with a terrible boss that makes your life miserable each day (which I hope is not a lot of people), did you ever wish at least once, "Man, I really wish I could get rid of this idiot". If so, then your dream became a movie in 2011: HORRIBLE BOSSES. But in all honesty, I do hope everyone does have a good and respectable boss in real life. Horrible Bosses revolves around three friends (Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, and Jason Sudeikis) who each have intolerable bosses (Kevin Spacey, Jennifer Aniston, and Colin Farrell respectively). Having been fed up with their employers' overbearing antics, the trio decide to murder their abusive bosses with their own convoluted and somewhat foolproof plan. I mean, what else would they do? Jamie Foxx and Julie Bowen also star, with a cameo by President Snow himself, Donald Sutherland. Surprisingly enough this movie was directed by Seth Gordon, who earlier directed the documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, which is about the rivalry between two guys at the Donkey Kong arcade game (actually a great documentary by the way). And he is also set to direct the video game adaptation of Uncharted. Gordon did not direct Horrible Bosses 2 however (which opened November 26th).

The first Horrible Bosses is actually a fairly divisive movie among audiences. Some really love it, and others had a lukewarm response to it, but apparently the former group outweighs the latter since the movie got a sequel. Personally, it was a hit and miss comedy for me. I thought all the performances and the chemistry between Bateman, Day, and Sudeikis was awesome, but not all the jokes were hitting the right spot. The best part about the movie though are the horrible bosses themselves. Spacey as the sadistic corporate magnate; Aniston as the sex-addicted dentist; and Farrell of all people playing the cocaine addicted idiot running a chemical company. Yes, you read those descriptions correctly. I could tell they had so much fun playing some really despicable people.

If the performances of the bosses weren't nearly as good as they were, I probably would not have liked Horrible Bosses at all. Kevin Spacey- First of all, Kevin Spacey is one really hilarious actor. I actually wanted to see him in more comedies after this film-he completely embodies this abusive and cruel personality, yet I just want to laugh at his character-Harken-all the time. He would be the boss that I would not want to have or else my life would turn to hell (even more than it already is). Also, word of advice, do not get this guy pissed because he will most likely knock on your front door and try to kill you. Yep.... Now to Jennifer Aniston-Julia Harris. By far my favorite film role of hers; like I said, she is a sex-addicted dentist who harasses Day and attempts to blackmail him into having sex with her. Can you ever imagine that Rachel from Friends would end up like this? Aniston was stepping over the line so many times, but it's something I have never seen her do before that I completely bought into it. She is so inappropriate, so absurd, yet in the end hilarious. I hope in the sequel they find a way to keep pushing this character since a lot of her crazy antics were shown in the first film. The final boss is the standout in my opinion: Colin Farrell aka the incredibly stupid Bobby Pellit. In all honesty, I could barely recognize the guy from the poster itself. He is extremely ridiculous, always high on cocaine, and I'm really sad that he can't be in the sequel. Is he insane? Yeah! Is he a complete idiot? Of course! And is he freaking hilarious in every single scene that he's in? Dear God you have no idea. Farrell is such an underrated actor, and his role does not immensely change his career, but I enjoyed seeing him in it anyway. His scenes were the only ones that I felt the jokes were always hits, no misses whatsoever.

As for the actual trio, they can surprisingly be summed up in a few sentences. Jason Bateman plays a likeable Jason Bateman and is funny. Charlie Day plays a Charlie Day that isn't as dumb as usual (smarter than Sunny in Philadelphia, dumber than Pacific Rim) and was also hilarious. Jason Sudeikis actually plays a character, but nonetheless I'm extremely jealous of him since he somehow hooked up with Olivia Wilde in real life. Jamie Foxx though... He does not have a huge role in this movie, but the best part about him was his name: Motherfucker Jones. Seriously though, don't tell me you don't laugh when you hear that. The cameos were actually pretty amazing in Horrible Bosses; I especially love the little mix-up with Ioan Gruffard.

All in all, Horrible Bosses was somewhat enjoyable, but it wasn't really hitting the right beats to be an amazing comedy unlike. I know a lot of people who love this movie; at the same time I know a lot of people who don't like it. I'm in the middle however, I do think it would be worth watching but it could go one of two ways. If you're not into crude humor and actually want some intelligent jokes, then I suggest reconsidering. See it for the performances at least: all three of those horrible bosses were spectacular in the movie. Though Bateman, Day, and Sudeikis are fine in their roles and carry the film, they just are not as cool and maniacal as their employers. The villains are epic, and this is most likely the same situation with the sequel since Christoph Waltz is playing the villain there. I hope no one has ever had a boss has horrible as Harken, Harris, or Pellit, and if you have I suggest not going the same route as these three - 6.1/10.