Horrible Bosses will appeal to those who already saw Bridesmaids and/or Hangover Two and are looking for a good raunchy comedy. Or, to those who’ve suffered through horrible bosses themselves and fantasized about what life and career would be like if the offending bosses were suddenly out of the picture. (I plead the fifth).

The movie doesn’t rise to any level of fine art, but it is mindlessly entertaining – provided you keep your expectations low. The audience hooted, hollered and laughed a lot more than I did, so either they’re way more twisted – or they were coming off a bad day at work.

As far as I’m concerned, it’s the solid cast that saves this movie from being just plain stupid. Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis, and Charlie Day are generally fun to watch as three friends who devise a convoluted scheme to knock off each other’s bosses. Needless to say, things don’t exactly go according to plan. The bosses include a dentist (Jennifer Aniston) who sexually-harasses her dental assistant (Day), a cokehead loser who doesn’t give a darn about the company he’s just inherited (Colin Farrell), and a CEO who’s just pure evil (Kevin Spacey). Jamie Foxx has a minor role as a presumed hit-man who, for a flat fee, agrees to be the guys’ mentor in the how-to-go-about-killing-your-bosses-without-getting-caught department.

Imagine the 1980 classic ultimate-revenge-on-the-boss movie Nine to Five (Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin) as an R-rated buddy movie with crude language, sexual content, and drug-related material – and you’ve got Horrible Bosses. If only it had a campy theme song…

Any Suggestions?

4 thoughts on “Horrible Bosses”
  1. Sounds more like a raunchy remake of Strangers on a Train (or the more modern Throw Momma from the Train.) Despite the cast, I think I’ll skip it. I expect it will make lots of money though. Not much else out there.

  2. To its credit… the movie DOES pay verbal homage to both Strangers on a Train and Throw Momma from the Train. I think it’ll do okay at the box office, but not make huge gobs of dough. It’ll have to split the difference with the more family-friendly “Zookeeper”.

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