Horrible Bosses (2011) review

During my years in high school, I found that being the biggest cinema fan around made myself feel relatively lonely. Usually, the only films that those kids admitted they loved were the comedies; The Hangover, Airplane, Blazing Saddles, you name it. While I do love those films, I would never consider a comedy a masterpiece. As I see cinema more as an art than just a fun time at the theater, I tend to get more into the dramatic material than the comedic material. Comedies usually feel too cheap, silly, and farfetched for me to consider them anything more than just flat-out fun. Not a bad thing, but films like that never inspire me enough to rank up with some of the films that I do consider masterpieces. I like being moved by what's on screen. I just wanted to throw that out there before I talk about the most fun film I've seen in a long time, Horrible Bosses.



The film follows three workers who all hate their bosses. Nick Hendricks, played by Jason Bateman, works at a big business corporation led by a psychotic, power-hungry, self-indulgent president named Dave Harken, played by Kevin Spacey. Nick had been working hard to earn the VP position, and even missed the death of his grandma to work for it, but Harken decides to give himself the responsibilities of the VP alongside his already huge duties as president. Kurt Buckman, played by Jason Sudeikis, works at a chemical company, and the boss that he liked died in a car crash. The reins of the company were then handed over to his even more self-indulgent son, Bobby Pellitt, played by Colin Farrell, who doesn't even like where he's working and is attempting to suck out as much profit from the company as possible so he can live on a beach with martinis and hot women. Dale Arbus, played by Charlie Day, works as a dental assistant with Dr. Julia Harris, played by Jennifer Aniston. Dale is engaged, but Julia is attempting to get him to sleep with her. Because these three hate their bosses, they do what many people would only imagine doing.... try to kill them. They get the advice of a "supposed" assassin known as Dean "MOTHA F**KA" Jones, played by Jamie Foxx. From that point on, it's just one wild antic after another, and in this case, "wild" is a great thing to say.


To me, there are two types of good comedy; unpredictable, and predictable, but in a well-delivered manner. Horrible Bosses sometimes mixes in the latter, but for the most part, it's unpredictable. There were many moments when I thought I knew what was coming, but it threw something completely different at me. The best example I can give is when the three men try to hire a "wet worker," which they think is a code word for an assassin. At first, I thought they were talking about a plumber, but without spoiling too much.... IT'S NOT. In fact, the entire story, while not exactly an original concept, is unpredictable in itself. I kept wondering whether or not these men would make it out of their sticky trap alive, but again, I don't want to spoil anything.


The performances pretty much make this movie. Jason Bateman, five years after his role on Arrested Development, still has what it takes to make his lead role smart, confident, and even a bit wacky. Charlie Day is another one of those screaming characters that some people might find annoying, but personally, I thought he perfected that type of role. Perhaps that's due to his dialogue, as comedians like Chris Tucker tend to think that shouting just about anything makes it funny. Charlie Day never has to worry about that, as his dialogue is pretty darn funny. Even Jennifer Aniston is tolerable as Julia. Maybe that's just because she has so little screen time compared to everyone else (Seriously, I F**KING HATE JENNIFER ANISTON IN OTHER MOVIES!), but here, she did a fine job, though I could probably think of about five other actresses that could play the role of a whore better. Jamie Foxx is awesome as "MOTHA F**KA" Jones. In fact, that character should have his own movie. Let's have a show of hands for who agrees with that, shall we?


There's not much else I can say. It's not entirely memorable, but Horrible Bosses is a very fun time at the theater, and certainly a lot more appealing than Zookeeper. The story is well-paced and unpredictable, all the jokes made me laugh, the characters are a lot of fun, and the performances are spectacular to say the least. Personally, I've never had a horrible boss, so I can't say whether or not its projection of bad bosses is true, but I'll let you determine that for yourself.