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How entertaining? ★★★☆☆
Thought provoking? ★☆☆☆☆ 23 November 2014
This article is a review of HORRIBLE BOSSES 2. |
"I hate to break it to you, but the American dream is made in China," Rex Hanson (Chris Pine)
Is the HORRIBLE BOSSES franchise an update of THE WIZARD OF OZ? On the Yellow Brick road to employment self-determination, our hapless trio must overcome a myriad of obstacles (though self-discovery is not one of the results). Kurt Buchman (Jason Sudeikis) is without a heart, Dale Arbus (Charlie Day) lacks a brain, and Nick Hendricks (Jason Bateman) is devoid of courage. I'm not good at metaphors, yelps Dale, but there's a big one staring him in the face. Motherf***er Jones (Jamie Foxx) is the Wizard resource providing vague guidance. Who is Dorothy? Maybe the analogy doesn't stretch that far. Actually, how about this: We the audience are Dorothy, meant to be transported from everyday banality and frustration to a place that may have the answers? And like the 1939 classic, there is nothing behind the curtain. Here, absolutely nothing.
Is the HORRIBLE BOSSES franchise an update of THE WIZARD OF OZ? On the Yellow Brick road to employment self-determination, our hapless trio must overcome a myriad of obstacles (though self-discovery is not one of the results). Kurt Buchman (Jason Sudeikis) is without a heart, Dale Arbus (Charlie Day) lacks a brain, and Nick Hendricks (Jason Bateman) is devoid of courage. I'm not good at metaphors, yelps Dale, but there's a big one staring him in the face. Motherf***er Jones (Jamie Foxx) is the Wizard resource providing vague guidance. Who is Dorothy? Maybe the analogy doesn't stretch that far. Actually, how about this: We the audience are Dorothy, meant to be transported from everyday banality and frustration to a place that may have the answers? And like the 1939 classic, there is nothing behind the curtain. Here, absolutely nothing.
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Scraping the barrel of humour (offering, admittedly, regular guilty chortles) is the only recourse for filmmakers who seem to have never worked a normal office job, that is how lacking in insight HORRIBLE BOSSES/2 is/are. THE OFFICE these ain’t. Corporate douchebag behaviour portrayal is at odds with everyday realism. Making peace at the lack of smarts will mean greater enjoyment for you. Humour is derived from the protagonists hitting hard their experiential ceiling, which is at a low height.
Boss comeuppance comedies à la TRADING PLACES and OFFICE SPACE potentially offer escapist catharsis for the drudge; a bone Hollywood throws in our direction - gladiatorial entertainment update to placate the masses. Striking out on their own, the three amigos have invented the “Shower Buddy” (never actually explained as to what it does). They embarrass themselves promoting it on daytime television ‘Good Morning Los Angeles’ – a template set out for the rest of the runtime: Bickering like school age siblings, while throwing in gross-out gags. Overlapping dialogue, not in a smart PHILADELPHIA STORY/GILMORE GIRLS/SOCIAL NETWORK kinda way, though the constant antagonism does amusingly pass the time.
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Looking for business partners on the Shower Buddy, the product comes into the sights of mega catalogue company ‘Boulder Stream’, owned by Burt Hanson (Christoph Waltz) – his office contains a T-Rex skull for extra braggadocio. Getting royally screwed over, in a deal having warning klaxons blaring, the trio have to find $500,000 in a week; so they decide to kidnap and ransom Burt’s heir, Rex (Chris Pine). HORRIBLE BOSSES 2 relishes the humiliating double-crosses of Nick, Kurt and Dale.
Hold on, who exactly are the horrible bosses of the title? Employers are absent to rail against. Talk about lazy conceptualisation. (Unless you count the supposed heroes, who put their factory workers’ livelihoods in jeopardy by partaking in a transaction sans safety net?)
Jennifer Aniston, leaving behind her now staid dream-girl-next-door persona in exchange for a potty-mouthed sex-obsessed dentist, remains the standout character; offering Nick to do a number two on her drops the jaw (for a guffaw). Superior laughs, of friendship at continual loggerheads, can be found instead with TV shows THE BIG BANG THEORY or Charlie Day’s excellent IT’S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA.
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