Friday, November 28, 2014

Movie Review: "Horrible Bosses 2" (2014)

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Movie"Horrible Bosses 2"
Director: Sean Anders
Rating: R
Running Time: 1 hour, 48 minutes

After their past experiences with having horrible bosses, Nick (Jason Bateman), Kurt (Jason Sudeikis) and Dale (Charlie Day) have decided to venture out on their own. They have developed a prototype for a new gadget called The Shower Buddy, a shower head that is a soap/conditioner/shampoo dispenser all in one. After doing a local morning show segment, the trio is contacted by a catalog company that wishes to distribute their invention. They meet Bert Hanson (Christoph Waltz) and his son Rex (Chris Pine), who agree to place an order for 100,000 units and convince the would-be entrepreneurs to take out a $500,000 loan to meet the order and create Nick Kurt Dale Inc. Upon completion of production, Bert cancels his order with the intent to bankrupt Nick Kurt Dale Inc. and then plans to buy up their assets for pennies on the dollar. The three men, desperate to save their company, decide to kidnap Rex and hold him for ransom for the amount of money needed to pay off their start-up loan and prevent going out of business.  

Sure, "Horrible Bosses 2" is a bit of a rehash of the first film with a similar plot. Nick, Kurt, and Dale have, once again, found themselves needing to take desperate measures, this time in the form of kidnapping (or "kidnaping," in Kurt's case) and still fumble and bumble their way through that felony, too. But, we don't see comedies for compelling or original stories, well, not really. We go to them to laugh, plain and simple. In that aspect, this movie is at least moderately successful as we actually laughed quite a bit, even though we didn't think we would. A couple of the funniest parts are included in the trailer with some slight expansions and they still made us chuckle even during the movie knowing what was coming. Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day have the same chemistry as they did in the first film, though Bateman tries to be a bigger voice of reason this time around. As always, he uses his classic "serious face that turns into a smirk" over and over again in a deadpan fashion that clashes with the personas of his counterparts, yet makes him slightly more endearing, too. Sudeikis seems to be even more misogynistic and sex-crazed in this film than he did in the original. Now, he a line of cocaine short of turning into his old boss, played by Colin Farrell in the original, someone who he despised and hated for wanting to fire all the fat people in order to hire new, dumb hotties, which is exactly what Sudeikis does when he is part of his own company. Some people may call him smarmy, but we guess it works for him in this movie even though he's moderately offensive to women? Charlie Day is still Charlie Day, this time with more complaining about his wife and kids.

Jamie Foxx reprises his role once again as "MF" Jones, though we thought he would have a more substantial part in this movie compared to how much he was in it in actuality. Kevin Spacey, though in jail, is still brought back to this film to give advice to the three friends, who obviously have no idea what they are doing and seem to thrive on his negativity. He has a lot of epic lines uttered in the way only Kevin Spacey can, with a great mix of gravitas and terror. Newcomers Christoph Waltz and Chris Pine do well with what they are given. Waltz has a minor role here and provided a darker comedy, much like Spacey in both films. Where Spacey is more of an overt asshole, Waltz is much more two-faced and conniving, something we like to see him do in any genre. Chris Pine is your ultimate bro. He is idolized by Kurt and Dale for being rich, charming and handsome and also has tons of useless, cool shit to brag about, despite actually being a total self-centered prick and masochist with daddy issues. Pine was able to not be annoying in this movie and contributed to a lot of laugh out loud moments when paired with Nick, Kurt, and Dale.

Though there are a lot of funny moments throughout the film, mainly those that involve minor dialogue and glances, there are still sometimes where we feel like the filmmakers thought their jokes would be wildly successful and they just weren't. The entire demo of the Shower Buddy at the beginning of the movie during the morning show segment was so obvious that it hurt. It kind of had us worried that all of the film's humor would be blatant and forced. Another example is the entire joke about their company's name. If you say it fast enough, provided you pronounce it wrong, it can sound offensive, but it's really a stretch of a joke. Most of Jennifer Aniston's sexual advances are not subtle enough to be funny and come off as jarring and contrived. Overall, to us, there are more funny moments than those that flounder.

Though no one asked for this sequel, we got one anyway, and we enjoyed it quite a bit whether or not moviegoers and critics hate it. We may have even liked it better than the first, but please, don't make a third in 3 years.

My Rating: 7/10
BigJ's Rating: 7/10
IMDB's Rating: 7.0/10
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 36%
Do we recommend this movie: Sure, why not?
One year ago, we were watching: "Premium Rush"


  1. I just watched this tonight and surprisingly loved it! Like you, I thought it was better than the first.

    1. It's one of the few movies lately where the sequel was better than the original! Glad you enjoyed it!