Horrible Bosses (2011)

** ½ out of ****

Since the sequel is coming out soon, and since my girlfriend had never seen the original, I figured it was time to revisit with her this comedy from 2011. I remember watching it when it first came out on video and recalled it as a nice time waster, but not much more.

But I have to admit, on second viewing I thought it was much more entertaining than that. Three high school buddies (Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day) have nice careers that would be much improved if their ridiculously bad bosses were to “go away”. Bateman is an executive, in given my personal experience his boss is pretty much run-of-the-mill; corporate execs that AREN'T douchebags are the exception, not the rule. Day's job is as a dental assistant, and his female boss (Jennifer Aniston) is a sexual predator that won't leave him (a one woman man with a fiancee) alone. Horrors. Finally, the one with the greatest beef is Sudeikis, whose great boss at at a chemical company dies and leaves his cokehead son in charge.

The cokehead son is played by Colin Farrell, and it is obvious Farrell had a great time playing this idiot character. I wouldn't be surprised if Farrell himself came up with half the character's woeful flaws – he looks to me to be on the verge of breaking out laughing at any second.

Given their “desperate” situations, they decide to try to find someone to “take out” their bosses. All attempts are futile until they run into “Motherfucker” Jones (Jamie Foxx) at a bar who provides them with some consulting. Now left to kill their bosses themselves (using a “Strangers on a Train” ideology of “you kill mine, I'll kill yours”) it become basically a comedy of errors, as nothing ever goes the way they plan. Break-ins and attempts at covert information gathering basically show they can't possibly pull it off, but they push on with the plan until all hell breaks loose.

This isn't a great movie, but on second viewing it had a lot more laughs than I remember. In particular, Charlie Day (as Dale, the sexually harassed dental assistant) is hysterical. His uptight stiff-necked character (with an unintentional criminal past) has some of the most comical reactions you'll ever see. Even his dialogue, which on paper would look pretty ordinary, is delivered with such hyperactive zeal that you find yourself laughing at almost everything he says.

I guess now I'll bother to go see the sequel when it comes out, just to see if it can match the level of humour in the original. Even if it only delivers half the laughs, it should be good enough to pay the admission.

“Horrible Bosses” is well worth the watch.