Drew Turney
The tagline says everything you need to know about this film; ‘new plan, same tools’.
Depending on what you got out of the original ”Horrible Bosses”, that’s either great or terrible news. The first film was a comic joy because of the irrepressible chemistry between leads Jason Bateman as straight man Nick, Charlie Day as panicky Dale and Jason Sudeikis as the absent minded (unless it’s about pussy) Kurt.
In fact it was less about the plot and set-up that it was about then-director Seth Gordon letting the trio loose to relay (and freestyle) the scattershot, realistic dialogue. It made them seem like they’d been friends for years, and it was also extremely funny. Incoming director Sean Anders cleverly does the same here, and the combo is just as energised and funny.
Once again the story is far less interesting than the Bateman/Day/Sudeikis show. After freeing themselves from the yokes of their various horrible bosses from the first film (all of them either in in jail, therapy and the grave), the guys have formed a company to market a product they hope will make their fortunes.
But when unscrupulous industrialist Bert (Christoph Waltz) steals it out from under them, they have a whole new horrible boss to deal with. Bert’s slick son Rex (Chris Pine) – who they thought was an enemy all along – approaches them with a scheme to extort money out of his unloving father by staging his own kidnapping, letting the guys collect the ransom and splitting it four ways.
Of course, with the criminal equivalent of The Three Stooges at the helm it all goes horribly wrong, and everybody from their usual crime consultant Dean Motherfucker Jones (Jamie Foxx) to Dale’s former boss, the insatiable Dr Julia (Jennifer Aniston) all return to either gum up the works or help the guys when they’re once again in over their heads.
There’s little original in it, so if you didn’t like it first time round, you won’t like this either. But if the cheap gags and bumbling lovability of the leads had you laughing, you’ll do it just as much again.
DVD : Few special features, but the Blu-ray has more.
