Tuesday, August 16, 2011

"31 Movies, 31 Days": #12 Horrible Bosses



Movie: Horrible Bosses (2011)

Budget: $35 million

Rotten Tomatoes: 69%
Format: in theater

I fucking hate Jason Sudeikis. The dude just isn't funny. Sorry, ladies, but he's starting to remind me a lot of Dane Cook--which is a comparison no man other than Dane Cook would ever want. Yeah, I guess Sudeikis is kind of handsome in a tall, midwestern blah kind of way, but he's so god damn annoying and I'm struggling to remember ever liking him in anything at all. 30 Rock? Maybe at first, but even that character seemed to become full of himself and less amusing with each successive appearance. While Sudeikis doesn't have to carry the entire comedy load in Horrible Bosses, his mere presence taints even further an already so-so movie.

Horrible Bosses, as you've probably seen from the amusing previews, is about three male friends (Jason Bateman, Charlie Day and Sudeikis) who decide to kill each others boss in classic Throw Momma from the Train fashion. It's a premise rife with comedic potential, but the lackluster script mostly settles for overplayed, obvious jokes that a talented cast (except for Sudeikis---god, I hate him) just can't do much with. Are jokes about the hard-to-pronounce name of the Indian voice on a car's Guidestar system still funny? Were they ever? How about a scene dedicated to a golden showers joke? If so, Horrible Bosses is for you!

Jason Bateman does his usual schtick and does it well, and a small role by Jamie Foxx as murder consultant Mother Fucker Jones gets a lot of mileage, but the funniest moments are in the trailer and there are few other surprises to be had. Jennifer Aniston steals the show as one of the horrible bosses, a dentist who sexually harasses Charlie Day, but these few bright spots just can't change the fact that Horrible Bosses isn't as funny or clever as it thinks it is. It's worth noting, too, that the three friends we're supposed to like are, in some ways, almost as repellent as the bosses they are trying to kill. Forgetting for the moment that they decide to engage in murder, Bateman is a wimpy pushover, Sudeikis an arrogant pussy hound, and Day a moronic dental assistant whose sole aspiration in life was to become a husband. Day's character is also a registered sex offender, though that joke actually plays a bit. Who, again, are we supposed to like?

Horrible Bosses isn't horrible, but when you stack it up against, say, Bridesmaids, the difference is staggering. Yes, Bosses aims a bit lower than Bridesmaids...but not that much lower. It's a sometimes amusing comedy with a cast trying its damnedest, but it's utterly forgettable and a major disappointment given what could have been.

Kraig's Rating: 5/10

Movie #1: Skyline
Movie #2: Killers
Movie #3: The Iron Giant
Movie #4: The Adjustment Bureau
Movie #5: Rubber
Movie #6: The Fighter
Movie #7: The Winning Season
Movie #8: World's Greatest Dad
Movie #9: Hobo With a Shotgun
Movie #10: The Lincoln Lawyer
Movie #11: Stake Land

1 Comments:

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