After the surprise success of “The
Hangover,” Hollywood hastily responded with a few high-concept,
men-behaving-badly comedies to cash in on the trend. 2011’s “Horrible Bosses,”
while not a laugh-a- minute classic by any means, was one of the better
copycats. Though the plot was merely serviceable, it was at least highlighted by a few
uncharacteristic performances from the likes of Kevin Spacey doing his
gleefully-mean “Swimming with Sharks” thing, a bald and bug-eyed Colin Farrell,
enjoying a break from being the heartthrob, and Jennifer Aniston being
completely and unapologetically filthy. The film also reminded us of the
comedic prowess of Jamie Foxx, who, after his Oscar success, was scrambling to
find his footing again (and has yet to stabilize), and it successfully introduced
Charlie Day, of FX’s “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” to the big screen.
“Horrible Bosses 2,” however,
continues to prove that comedy sequels usually can’t deliver the oftentimes
incalculable chemistry of the first, which isn’t to say that the proceeding
film--a little sitcom-ish and sloppy in its execution--was all that effective
or original to begin with. Here, the leading trio of Jason Bateman as the
straight-man, Jason Sudeikis as the Vince Vaughn-esque, man-child player, and
Charlie Day as the expressive over-reactor, never perform as naturally or as
effortlessly as did the first time. Instead, their interactions appear forced
and tired, the screenplay is thoughtlessly slapped together, and the movie’s
exertion to stimulate laughs becomes increasingly unfunny as the plot lumbers
from incident to incident.
This
time around the boys try to make it as their own bosses, creating and
mass-marketing a Sky-Mall ready bathroom device called the Shower Buddy.
After accepting a shady deal with a larger cooperation to help fund and
sell their product, new boss Bert Hansen (Christoph Waltz) and his petulant son
Rex (Chris Pine) steal most of the profit for themselves, as well as the rights
to their invention. This then, or course, leads the three dim-wits to go back
to their criminal scheming, as they try to enact a complicated and illogical
plan to fake the kidnapping of Bert Hansen’s son, using the ransom to buy back
their company.
With our leads now visibly bored and ineffectually improving their way through
the entire film, the movie’s comedic success is thrust upon the efforts of the
supporting cast, but the screenplay’s 1+?=comedy approach gives none of these
actors anything substantial or funny to work with. Barely in the movie, Waltz
is totally wasted and serves as nothing but a tedious mechanism for the
majority of the film. Aniston returns as the nympho-dentist but is now stripped
from the comedic place of power and irony that made her performance in the
first film vaguely clever and is instead reduced to the butt of a sexist, male
fantasy joke. Jamie Foxx is clearly still having fun playing the criminal
with a heart of gold but he too is chained to a messy script that gives his
character a lack of believable motivation. Chris Pine ends up with the
best lines in the movie and the funniest stuff to do here but as game as he is,
even he can’t keep this boat from sinking.
Nobody asked for a “Horrible Bosses 2”, really, so nobody should be surprised
that it basically sucks. Evenly-lit and comprised of mostly mid-shots and
close-ups, the movie lacks just as much ambition visually as it does
narratively. And neither of these problems would be particularly damning if the
film could at least deliver the laughs, but, minus Chris Pine doing some
entertaining sleaze and a too-little-late gag involving a chain-link fence,
sadly, it does not.
Grade: D
Originally published in the Idaho State Journal/Dec-2014
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