Horrible Bosses' strength lies in its spot-on ensemble cast. In fact, you can't really talk about the movie without going into detail about the cast and the characters they play, which is exactly what I'm going to do now.
Some of the roles are played by the very actor who you would expect in that role, and they fit like a glove. For example, Kevin Spacey as the smirking, sadistic Dave Harken. Dave is Nick Hendricks's boss, played to a T by every-straight-man Jason Bateman, who grimly accepts that in order to get ahead, he must put up with Dave's cruelties and abusive behavior. Jason Sudekis and Charlie Day play Nick's buddies, Kurt and Dale. Kurt is a laid-back womanizer who is lucky enough to work for a great man, Jack Pellitt (Donald Sutherland). That is, until Jack has a heart attack, leaving his self-made company to his son, Bobby, a coke addicted weirdo who simply wants to milk his father's legacy for every penny it's worth. Dale is a talkative, slightly manic dental assistant who is a true romantic. In a voice over, he tells the audience that when he was a kid, he wanted to grow up to be a husband. He's about to get the chance to fulfill this dream after proposing to his fiancee. If only it weren't for his boss, Julia Harris, who enjoys sexually harassing and humiliating Dale on a daily basis, and threatening to blackmail him if he doesn't submit to her outrageous advances.
In addition to the actors who fit perfectly into their roles, there are some surprises. Jennifer Aniston (who is, by the way, secretly a good actress. See The Good Girl) eats up her role as Dr. Harris, the nymphomaniac dentist who has a mouth so filthy, all of the dental instruments in the world wouldn't be able to clean it up. Colin Farrell, hot under normal circumstances, is unrecognizable as Kurt's cokehead boss with a bad combover and beer gut. Also, Jamie Foxx, has a hilarious cameo as "murder consultant" named Motherf*cker Jones (nee Dean Jones--he didn't want to be confused with the actor from The Love Bug). It turns out that MF Jones never actually served time for killing anyone, but for pirating a movie.
Unfortunately, the strong cast doesn't change the fact that Horrible Bosses is, well, highly derivative. Of course, the very premise of the film--the three friends conspire to kill one another's horrible bosses--recalls Strangers on a Train. But in addition to that, Horrible Bosses has a number of jokes that are pretty much stolen from other movies. You know the scene in Annie Hall where Woody Allen sneezes on some expensive cocaine? Yeah, there's a scene like that in Horrible Bosses. And the scene in Dodgeball where Ben Stiller brings Vince Vaughn a briefcase with ten thousand dollars, and it's this tiny stack of bills? Also in Horrible Bosses. And the scene in High Fidelity where John Cusack fantasizes about beating up Tim Robbins with his coworkers cheering him on. You guessed it...Horrible Bosses has a similar scene.
I guess you could argue that there's very little new under the sun and that most movies steal from other movies. True enough. But it just seemed more noticeable in this film. Don't get me wrong--I laughed a lot during the movie. I just wish it had been a little more original.
Also, there were a lot of jokes about rape and sexual harassment. Rape and sexual harassment of men, to be specific, because apparently it's funny when that kind of thing happens to men. I mean, I expected a couple of jokes about how Dale is "lucky" to be harassed by his sexy, female boss, but I didn't expect all the prison rape jokes. It felt gross after a while. And worse than gross--tired.
Despite its flaws, Horrible Bosses isn't a total waste. It's got some legitimately hilarious moments. But, like Cedar Rapids, which I saw earlier this year, it's more of a Red Box rental than a full price ticket movie.
3 out of 5 stars
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