Horrible Bosses 2 is exactly what you expect it to be — mostly a horrible movie. Like the first film, this too is packed with misogyny, a large helping of perversion and a big dose of mean spirited nonsense passing off as risque comedy
Horrible Bosses 2
A; Comedy
Director: Sean Anders
Cast: Jason Bateman, Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis
Stars:
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Horrible Bosses was a nasty movie. It was packed with misogyny, a large helping of perversion and a big dose of mean spirited nonsense passing off as risque comedy. In short, it was the quintessential fratboy comedy made by and for dudes. It made a boatload of money, so a sequel was inevitable. Fast forward to two years, and we have it, and it is exactly what you expect it to be — Horrible Bosses 2 is mostly a horrible movie.
The not-so-young guns Jason Bateman, Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis return, as does the gross out humour from the original film. This time, their boss Kevin Spacey is in jail, but we have new faces to fill the void, in the form of Chris Pine and Christoph Waltz. The results are more of the same, only less funny by a few degrees.
The plot was probably formulated by writer director Sean Anders on a tissue paper while taking a quick bathroom break — the trio decide to kidnap the son (Pine) of a wealthy investor (Waltz) when the latter tries to muck up with their business plans of launching a shower buddy. Naturally, the plot exists only to shoehorn in some of the predictable sexist jokes and stereotypical characters making fools out of themselves in order to generate a laugh or two.
The film tries so hard to make you laugh it’s incredible — one plot point also involves some laughing gas. Neither does the film deliver any physical comedy nor does it dole out any fresh lines. It’s the same old concoction of car chases and wink wink, nudge nudge references, along with Jennifer Aniston unleashing her nymphomania upon the whole world. There is only so much you could do with Charlie Day running away from a sex-crazed Aniston, and somehow the filmmakers thought that could be the biggest selling point of this movie. When the film isn’t trying to pretend having a plot, we get Chris Pine, who was fun in the underrated Stretch making prissy jokes about being a rich kid.
Bateman has always been intermittently funny in his career, and this is a massive downturn for him. That Sudeikis is one of the most unfunny comedians on the planet is well known but for him to outdo his unfunniness from Hall Pass deserves some applause. It’s clear that everyone in this movie is in it for the money, and the only silver lining is Waltz exercising his comedic chops. If only the film had more of him than the rest of the bungling cast.