Review of The Boss (2016) by Jeff B — 20 Apr 2016

For such a supposedly larger-than-life persona, the titular character of seemingly thrown-together comedy The Boss proves such an insignificant construct that not even one of H'Wood's most gifted comedians can salvage her. With great writing, McCarthy's A-Level character work always shines. Without it, she still brings her A-Game (indeed, a few scenes bring the laughs), but not enough to save a story that boils down to a series of mostly lame gags shoved randomly into a flimsily composed three act flick based on the plight of Martha Stewart. Continuing a one-on/one-off formula of good film/bad film output that consists of Bridesmaids, Identify Thief, The Heat, Tammy, Spy, and now this hot mess of a motion picture, Melissa McCarthy's latest inconsistently rotates between slapstick stooging, (very) slight social commentary, and that old chestnut of melting a curmudgeonly cold heart. Granted, W.C. Fields made a career out of incorporating all three but he was a ridiculously talented writer. Unfortunately with The Boss, that job - as well as directing - gets handed to McCarthy's husband, Ben Falcone.

In this R-rated comedy, a titan of industry (McCarthy) convicted of insider trading emerges from prison ready to rebrand herself as America's latest sweetheart, but finds that not everyone she screwed over is so quick to forgive and forget.

Based on Falcone's embarrassingly unfunny screenplay for Tammy, The Boss had nowhere to go but up. The best that can be said of it is that he finally learned some Screenwriting 101, giving the piece somewhat of a three-act structure that Tammy never had. The least that can be said of it is that this structure results in such a boringly formulaic story that audiences color by numbers straight through to the end. The worst that can be said of it is that it never develops much of a character for McCarthy to work with. She spent years honing Darnell while with the Groundlings Improv Group in LA and, with The Boss, all she has to show for it is a woman in pantsuits who occasionally sports some McCarthyisms (not Communist, mind you, but her malapropisms like making bawdy threats THISclose to a person's face or weapons-grade prat falling). So basically, moviegoers get Hillary Clinton with much less of the venom...which is saying a lot because Darnell is a spitting cobra with a spray tan.

Bottom line: Mess Bossypants.