Horrible Bosses is vulgar, silly, and most importantly—hilarious.
The film explores the deep, dark recesses of the minds of three thoroughly emasculated men, Nick Hendricks (Jason Bateman), Dale Arbus (Charlie Day), and Kurt Buckman (Jason Sudeikis), driven to exact due justice on the sources of their pain and suffering—their bosses.
Nick’s boss, Dave Harken (Kevin Spacey), is a sociopathic tyrant who enjoys playing cruel tricks on his employees and dominating over them in the workplace with an iron fist while exhibiting uncontrollable jealousy over his (understandably) promiscuous wife.
Kurt’s new boss, Bobby Pellitt (Colin Farrell), is the coked-up and irresponsible son of the recently deceased caring and admirable former boss, Jack (Donald Sutherland).
The incredibly gorgeous Dr. Julia Harris (Jennifer Aniston), the third and final boss under whose employ Dale must endure, is a crazy nymphomaniac who is ceaselessly and tirelessly coming on to Dale and attempting to overcome his faithfulness to his fiancée.
The trio of since-college buddies meets weekly at a pub for drinks, where, after considerable griping over their maniacal and evil bosses, they concoct a plan to kill all three of them. In order to conduct their plan, the trio ventures into an inner-city bar where they meet and pay an apparent thug (Jamie Foxx) $5,000 to be their “murder consultant.”
From there, the movie turns into a teen-like frat-boy odyssey of break-ins, blackmail, cocaine, and murder infused with pop culture references and half-attempts at witty jokes. The immaturity of the humor beckons to “Hangover”-like audiences. Set against the fairly common backdrop of adult professional life, meshing in clear themes recurring from “Office Space” ideology, it points a satirical finger at the very inhibited, very modern man.
The incredibly gorgeous Dr. Julia Harris (Jennifer Aniston), the third and final boss under whose employ Dale must endure, is a crazy nymphomaniac who is ceaselessly and tirelessly coming on to Dale and attempting to overcome his faithfulness to his fiancée.
The trio of since-college buddies meets weekly at a pub for drinks, where, after considerable griping over their maniacal and evil bosses, they concoct a plan to kill all three of them. In order to conduct their plan, the trio ventures into an inner-city bar where they meet and pay an apparent thug (Jamie Foxx) $5,000 to be their “murder consultant.”
From there, the movie turns into a teen-like frat-boy odyssey of break-ins, blackmail, cocaine, and murder infused with pop culture references and half-attempts at witty jokes. The immaturity of the humor beckons to “Hangover”-like audiences. Set against the fairly common backdrop of adult professional life, meshing in clear themes recurring from “Office Space” ideology, it points a satirical finger at the very inhibited, very modern man.
The character development is virtually nonexistent. Through decently well-acted roles from a cast that luckily combined in exceptional harmony, we do see a reserved and subdued Nick, a balanced and lady-chasing Kurt, and an idiotically unknowing Dale; however, none of these characters is ever given an identity that is readily associable or explored beyond surface tension.
Collin Farrell’s hilariously performed role of Pellitt, the most disappointingly under-explored character and arguably the most entertaining, receives minimal screen time and disappears all too quickly. The movie itself ran at only around 90 minutes, making a short trip to cross over so much potential.
Despite these shortcomings, the film still strikes a kind of primal chord during many parts that are well distributed throughout the plot, delivering a refreshingly enjoyable pace of consistent humor that, no matter how old or veteran an audience, will garner loud and vocal laughs.
It is this youth-inspired ability to force a viewer’s face to break into a few good hard smiles that makes this comedy what it is. Horrible Bosses takes a classless and immature plot with generic themes and underdeveloped characters played by an uncommonly strong ensemble cast, and churns out a movie that is truly very funny.
[etRating value=“ 3”]
Collin Farrell’s hilariously performed role of Pellitt, the most disappointingly under-explored character and arguably the most entertaining, receives minimal screen time and disappears all too quickly. The movie itself ran at only around 90 minutes, making a short trip to cross over so much potential.
Despite these shortcomings, the film still strikes a kind of primal chord during many parts that are well distributed throughout the plot, delivering a refreshingly enjoyable pace of consistent humor that, no matter how old or veteran an audience, will garner loud and vocal laughs.
It is this youth-inspired ability to force a viewer’s face to break into a few good hard smiles that makes this comedy what it is. Horrible Bosses takes a classless and immature plot with generic themes and underdeveloped characters played by an uncommonly strong ensemble cast, and churns out a movie that is truly very funny.
[etRating value=“ 3”]
