Over the last five or so years, there’s been a kind of renaissance for the R-rated comedy, starting with the 2005 one-two punch of Wedding Crashers and The 40 Year Old Virgin. This raunchy, vulgar brand of humor has since become a big draw for audiences and high profile actors as their popularity has continued to grow. However, just as these two movies rebooted the sub-genre, they also created a rift, causing each forthcoming release to fall into a specific kind of category: the Farrelly Brothers brand of shocking scatological and sexual humor, and the Apatow brand of improvisationally based frat boy humor with heart. And then along comes Horrible Bosses, the latest comedy from former documentary filmmaker Seth Gordon, that attempts to take the best from each of these directors, but, while providing many great moments and laughs, unfortunately leaves out many of the things that help each of the different brands succeed.
As one might be able to gather from the trendily simple title, Horrible Bosses follows three friends (Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day) who find themselves in impossible work situations with equally inhuman employers. Naturally, after feeling as if they’ve been pushed to the edge, the men decide to kill each other’s bosses in a Strangers On A Train inspired plot devised by a seemingly dangerous man named Motherfucker Jones (Jamie Foxx). As you can imagine, with such comedic talent involved, mixed with some unexpected and unexpectedly hilarious appearances by Jennifer Aniston, Kevin Spacey and Colin Farrell as the bosses, there is a lot to laugh at here. While most of the dialogue is seemingly improvised, it works due to the great chemistry between everyone in the cast, especially the three leads, who make many of the situations they find themselves in fantastic opportunities for hilarious interactions and one-liners. It’s this kind of ignorance of scripted dialogue that makes Horrible Bosses feel so similar to many of the more adult-themed comedies being released these days, but the ability of the leads to keep the improvisation funny while maintaining focus makes Horrible Bosses work far better than many of the other similar comedies that are released.
However, while the funny never quite slows down, after Horrible Bosses ends, it’s apparent that the one thing that keeps it from being very memorable or great is its lack of seemingly any original or creative ideas. The mere fact that the basis of the story is based off of another movie that is a remake of yet another movie, and that this fact is referenced several times, keeps the reality of the situation or characters, as well as any investment the audience might have in either of them, to a minimum. And while most of the dialogue is very funny, references to Angry Birds and Toyota Priuses (or Prii), as well as sequences of characters sitting alone and dancing along to pop songs in their car, feel far more lazy than inspired attempts at comedy (except for a hilarious reference to the Ethan Hawke romantic-drama Snow Falling On Ceders), especially compared to some of the other, funnier moments of the movie. And while there are a few cool twists and connections made in the story that divert it from the natural course you’d assume it takes, these diversions cause the movie to ignore other storylines for extended periods of time, and make the rest of the movie’s general predictability all the more apparent.
Horrible Bosses is not a bad movie. In fact, it’s really, really funny, especially when allowing free reign to It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia’s Charlie Day, who is quickly becoming one of the funniest comedians to watch in entertainment today. But the biggest problem here seems to be the lack of effort put forward in the construction of any kind of interesting plot or characters, and an overreliance on the movie’s stars to make the movie funny without any help from behind the camera. Sadly, this keeps Horrible Bosses far from becoming an instant comedy classic, leaving it as something closer to a good comedy with a great cast, that never quite reaches the potential its premise or the talent involved seemingly promise.
7 out of 10.
