As the tagline for the poster states is your boss a total sleazy too, a sex crazed maneater or even completely incompetent?
Unfortunately all three apply in this black comedy, where old school friends Nick Hendricks [Jason Bateman- Juno, The Change-Up], Kurt Buckman [Jason Sudeikis- Hall Pass, What happens in Vegas] and Dale Arbus [Charlie Day- Going the Distance] have to put up with three bosses who make each of their lives a misery on a day-to-day basis and feel the only way their lives would be better is if their bosses weren’t alive.
The Good:
Jason Bateman is brilliant as he brings his signature combination of dry, deadpan humour and sweet nature with Nick Hendricks who works for a financial firm which is run by Dave Harken [Kevin Spacey- American Beauty, L.A. Confidential], who constantly abuses Nick on a daily basis and is the type of boss who you love to hate and brings the type of qualities the makes you feel for the characters and when the inevitable plot to kill him comes you find yourself rooting for Nick.
The other lead characters are great too, for instance Jason Sudeikis, Kurt Buckman, is witty, sarcastic and dry and is the sort of person who would want to hang out at the pub with and offers some of the films bet laughs, that include a scene where they break in to one of their bosses houses and a chase sequence where they are pursued by Dave. As well as Charlie Day’s Arbus who, after “Going the Distance”, where he played a similar role and isn’t really stretching himself here but still manages to pull off a likeable character that you can’t help but root for.
The supporting cast are brilliant too, Colin Farrell is hilarious and is almost unrecognisable as Kurt’s drug addicted boss, Bobby who is only running the company for his own needs just so he can feed his addiction. Jennifer Aniston, is great as Charlie’s boss as it is fresh turn from the usual rom-com that she is appears in too often these days. There is also Jamie Foxx, who is always watchable in everything he is in and in this case he is sleepwalking as he plays, the cool, calm and collective “murder consultant”, who is not who he appears to be as he offers the advice on how they should go about killing their bosses.
Also director Seth Gordon’s second directing debut is definitely a step up after the poorly received Four Christmases and two episodes of The Office. He has created a smart, funny, witty comedy that never falls short on laughs and constantly keeps you entertained.
The Bad:
The bad thing about Horrible Bosses is it it does its best to provide enough laughs, which it does, there are limitations with the script as you get the sense that most of the dialogue was improvised. It is slightly longer than it should be and tries to include too many set pieces towards the final act that over complicate the plot.
Conclusion:
Overall, Horrible Bosses is a solid, satisfying comedy that offers just enough laughs to keep you entertained throughout and offers great performances from the three leads [Jason Bateman in particular] and an excellent supporting cast [including kevin Spacy], as the much hated bosses.
