We’ve all had bosses in the past that we didn’t like. They made our lives difficult and pushed us over the edge. We’ve all been able to keep our cool and not snap under the pressure, no matter how pleasurable that fantasy may seem. Even so, there are people out there who feel as if their life would be much easier if their bosses weren’t around.
Men such as Nick Hendricks (Jason Bateman), Kurt Buckman (Jason Sudeikis) and Dale Arbus (Charlie Day) would be among this group. What started out as hypothetical fantasies morphs into the real deal, as the three fed up employees embark on the end of their bosses’ lives. Helping them out is Dean Jones (Jamie Foxx), a murder consultant who guides them through their act.
Nick’s boss, Dave Harken (Kevin Spacey), is an intimidating control freak who overworks Nick. The only reason he takes the abuse is he believes he’s in line for a promotion. After all, he’s been here for eight years from sunrise to sunset. Unfortunately, he’s screwed out of the promotion and can’t even quit, as Mr. Harken promises to ruin his career if he leaves.
Dale Arbus’ boss, Dr. Julia Harris, D.D.S. (Jennifer Aniston), sexually harasses the man any chance she gets. This may sound like a plus, but he’s happily engaged to Stacy (Lindsay Sloane). Julia’s jealousy seeps through and she blackmails Dale by knocking him unconscious and taking photographs that appear to be them having sex. If he doesn’t legitimately pleasure her, she’ll show the pictures to Stacy. Just like Nick, getting another job is out of the question, as he’s a registered sex offender and nobody else will hire him (he took a leak in an empty playground in the middle of the night).
Unlike his two buddies, Kurt loves his job and boss. He works for a chemical waste company run by Jack Pellitt (Donald Sutherland), who treats him like a son. After getting into a car crash after a heart attack (which unintentionally brought up bad memories of “Macho Man” Randy Savage’s death), his selfish, cokehead son, Bobby (Colin Farrell), takes over. He doesn’t give a damn about the company’s progress, as he fires those he hates and intentionally puts civilians in danger to save a buck.
Being trapped in dead end jobs that they loathe, the three friends ultimately decide that life would be easier if their bosses weren’t around. They plan on murdering each other’s boss, with Nick taking Bobby, Kurt taking Julia and Dale taking Dave. They sneak into their houses for Intel, which includes Dave’s peanut allergy, Bobby’s coke addiction and Julia’s sex drive. As per Murphy’s Law, everything that can go wrong does go wrong.
All six leads take Michael Markowitz, John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein’s script and breathe life into it, taking already funny situations and making them hysterical. Jason Sudeikis works the facial reactions and body motion to perfection; Charlie Day (who steals the show) plays the nervous, warmhearted guy to a tee; Jason Bateman has the straight man act down pat now; Jennifer Aniston (whose career has been rocky lately) churns out her best performance in ages, spewing out vulgarity like she was proudly giving a commencement speech; Colin Farrell is aces as the sleaze ball who looks like he walked off of a porn set; Kevin Spacey will go down as one of the most hated assholes in cinema. The man was phenomenal!
The actors have no problem in dipping into the raunchiness. They roll around gleefully in it, embracing the risqué humor like it was their children. Bateman especially seems ecstatic to spout out naughty one-liners, as he’s been relegated to more PG-13 material lately. Sudeikis and Day (who worked well together in “Going the Distance” last year) aren’t new to this material, which is evident. The humor comes second nature to them, as if they’ve been doing this their entire lives.
Despite not getting as much screen time, the bosses revel in their fair share of lewd material. I’ve already covered Jennifer Aniston (who, I might add, shares a good amount of skin), but only touched upon Farrell and Spacey. Colin spouts his insulting lines with selfish malice, making it seem as if he honestly doesn’t know what he’s saying is inappropriate. He feels he’s being discriminated against and that he’s king (which he now kind of is). His total disregard for other people’s feelings is shocking, yet hilarious.
Kevin Spacey is appallingly cruel and filthy as Dave Harken and I loved every minute of it! He’ll make you automatically love any horrible boss you’ve ever had, as they’re nowhere near as awful as he is. He’s a manipulative jerk who throws his weight around and blackmails others for his own personal gain. Some of the things he says is downright ghastly, yet uncontrollably hilarious.
Seth Gordon has no problem balancing each circus act, giving each boss and their respective victims enough screen time to tell their story. He ties all three in nicely as the film progresses, as well as sneaking in Jamie Foxx’s role for good measure. He lets his actors roam free with the material, never holding them back and tarnishing the film.
Horrible Bosses is everything a comedy should be. It’s consistently funny, very quotable, has a stellar cast and fills the cup to the brim with raunchy material. If this isn’t your cup of tea, you’ll want to avoid this like the plague (though I believe you’ll still find a few laughs). If you’re like me and enjoy your comedy with a hefty platter of obscenity, Horrible Bosses is the perfect comedy!
Final Rating: A+