Stop the presses- the most improbable news story of the year has to be that not one, but two, that’s right two extremely funny movies have been made this year starring cast members from Saturday Night Live. That show is so devoid of humor I don’t know how both Kristen Wiig and Jason Sudeikis have done it, but they’re great in Bridesmaids and Horrible Bosses, respectively. Perhaps they save up all their humor for the big screen, not wanting to waste it on a show that everyone knows should have been canceled when Phil Hartman died. Now that that’s out of the way, on to the review.
If you’ve ever had a job, you’ve probably had a horrible boss. You’ve probably also had fantasies of doing terrible things to them, and pictured what it would be like to employ some of our CIA’s non-Geneva convention sanctioned techniques on them. But no matter how bad your bosses have been, the ones in Horrible Bosses are worse. Like Bill Lumbergh from Office Space worse. Well, 2 of the 3 are worse. 1 is waaaaaaay better.
Kevin Spacey is fantastic in the role of a bad boss- he’s an egomaniacal sadistic boss, the type who would sell out his employees in a heartbeat if that’s what it takes for him to get even one penny more in compensation. Colin Farrell is great in the role of the cokehead dipshit boss, the type that probably needed to take the short bus to school but didn’t have to because his dad owned a successful company. And Jennifer Aniston shines as the sexual harassing boss, which leads to the one issue I have with the film.
I’ve always thought that Jennifer Aniston is a beautiful woman, but she’s always seemed to be, well, boring. Every man totally understood when Brad Pitt dumped her for Angelina Jolie- At the time Jennifer seemed like the type to just lay there and take it, while Angelina oozed sexuality from every pore. In this movie, however, Jennifer Aniston totally changed my mind. I don’t think I’ve seen a woman be this sexy in a film since Zoe Saldana in Avatar. OK, bad example if you don’t like giant blue women. Um, since Megan Fox in the first Transformers movie. That’s better.
So what straight man in his right mind is going to complain about being sexually harassed by this woman? Charlie Day in this movie does just that. He’s engaged, and finds the sexual overtures from Aniston to be too much. Sure, Lindsay Sloane is beautiful, but given the choice of her character vs. Jennifer Aniston’s character in this movie, I’m going with Jennifer 100 times out of 100. Perhaps that just means Charlie Day is a better man than I, but I dare any man to watch this movie and tell me if you don’t agree. So I think the movie needed some scenes where they show why she’s a better choice than Aniston.
The three protagonists set out to kill one another’s bosses, a la Strangers on a Train. They enlist the help of Jamie Foxx as a murder consultant, and along the way run into all kinds of problems with their plans. I won’t reveal what actually happens, because it may spoil the surprise, but it all is written and acted well, and is very funny throughout. Normally, I find drug humor in movies to be a bit dull, but what is done in this movie is far more clever than what I’ve seen elsewhere, and is actually quit funny.
Everyone in this movie is great, and the cast is just one fantastic actor after another- Donald Sutherland, Kevin Spacey, Jason Bateman, Bob Newhart, Jami Foxx, Julie Bowen, etc. And especially Jennifer Aniston. Yes, especially Jennifer Aniston. Her scenes alone make this movie worthwhile, and when you add in the rest of what goes on, it becomes the 2nd best comedy of the year after Bridesmaids.
I’ll rate this film on a scale of difficulty of beating bosses from video games, from the incredibly easy Bowser in the first Super Mario Brothers, to the impossible to beat Icon of Sin in Doom 2: Hell on Earth. Horrible Bosses is a very difficult Dark Falz from Phantasy Star.