What’s the best way to avoid bad employers? Be your own boss and kidnap investors of course!
When a business deal goes sour three entrepreneurs, Nick, Kurt and Dale decide to kidnap a business mogul’s son to regain their losses. When the son finds out and wants in on the action they can’t trust him but have no choice but to play along.
It’s impressive Horrible Bosses got a sequel. It’s a funny film but, with three relatively unknown comics in the lead roles and a seemingly impossible story to follow up, it looked a difficult ask. Having said that, the first film made over $200m worldwide which could explain the high profile talent, Kevin Spacey and Jennifer Aniston, returning for part two. The story itself is entirely new and avoids spinning the same yarn twice. In fact this time round the bosses aren’t confusingly diluted into three separate storylines but focused on one undeniably cruel target. This makes for a more to the point and linear storyline with all three of the main characters working together with a better understanding of the dangers and risks, even if their own stupidity stops them from always understanding.
The main characters themselves are brilliantly portrayed with slow witted Dale, Charlie Day from It’s Only Sunny in Philadelphia fame, stealing countless scenes with his out of kilter delivery. Undoubtedly if you’re a fan of the aforementioned TV series then he might appear funnier than if you haven’t. Jason Bateman does his usual straight guy persona with expertise easily knocking the most random ideas before somehow agreeing to most of them. His scene in a sex addiction group with Jennifer Aniston is a highlight, especially once he realises her character isn’t turned on by straight men. The third musketeer Jason Sudeikis, had a stonking 2013 co-starring with Aniston in We’re the Millers but here he can’t compete with the simple characters the other two effortlessly depict. His brash comedy style appears to try too hard, but that’s not a problem with such a great cast and if you’re a fan of Sudeikis and/or Saturday Night Live you may find he’s right on the money.
A new addition to the line up is Chris Pinewho plays Rex Hanson, but after his serious portrayal of a comedy character in 2012’s This Means War I wasn’t expecting big things. Again he plays a reasonably serious character here, but Rex’s wealthy, daring and untrustworthy qualities make him a much more enjoyable component than the rather down the line secret agent he played in This Means War. His charismatic persona and ability to push the three protagonists into unwanted situations makes for brilliant scenarios for the comedians and although Pine isn’t one of them he serves his purpose and shows he can play the wildcard.
The film keeps a quick a pace with a kidnapping being developed with very little planning involved. Stealing a canister of laughing gas from Dale’s old work and creeping into their victim’s house after the cleaner is just one of the early highlights. The film is certainly not original in its basic concept, but in the groups utter stupidity and chaos the creators have made something quite out of the norm. This is a film that manages to balance smart, witty and slapstick comedy into its running time; it doesn’t seem unbalanced for one minute.
Horrible Bosses 2 is a modern day farce and with its structured narrative and excellent comic situations its one of the comedy highlights of 2014.
Author: Matt, Cardiff store
Want a great TV to watch movies on? Check out our great offers!
