Horrible Bosses (2011)

Living the American dream


Nick (Jason Bateman) is an executive who is tricked into working to the bone for his boss, the ruthless Dave Harken (Kevin Spacey) only to be passed for promotion. Dale (Charlie Day) wants nothing more than to be the perfect husband, but his boss (Jennifer Ansiton) keeps sexually harassing him. Kurt (Jason Sudeikis) loves his job, thanks to his charming boss Jack Pellitt (Donald Sutherland), but when his boss dies of a heart attack, his douchebag coke-head son, Bobby (Colin Farrell) takes over, making Kurt hate his job like his friends. Fed up with their bosses, the three decide to actually kill their bosses, so they get the help from murder consultant, Dean "Motherfucker" Jones (Jamie Foxx). Needless to say, things don't go according to plan...


The three leads all manage to work very well as a group, brilliantly bouncing off one another with great chemistry that you believe their friendship. I did believe Charlie Day was a bit subdued when compared to his character from It's Always Sunny..., but he still managed to come away the best of the three leads. I also liked how his character's story dealt with something we rarely see in T.V and film, sexual harassment on males, which is greatly pushed to comedic effect. Jamie Foxx wisely played his role as Motherfucker Jones with a straight face, which only helped to deliver the laughs.

I do believe that it was the three bosses who pretty much stole the show. Colin Farrell did great as the coke-head tool that gets the job not due to any merits he earned, but only because he was the dead boss' son, but it's not like he had any merits to begin with when he gives Kurt flack for being late to work, despite it being because he was attending Jack's funeral, and wanting to fire the fat people because he described them as "lazy, slow and sad to look at". Jennifer Aniston brilliantly played against type, taking the role of a sex-addicted maneater, delivering great comedy that I had no idea she was capable of. Kevin Spacey, however, is the film's true scene stealer, as he is utterly superb as the very definition of a horrible boss and appears to be having fun in his role. Ioan Gruffund makes a brilliant cameo as, well I don't want to spoil it for those who haven't seen this, but I felt he left much more of an impression on this film than he did in either Fantastic Four film.

Considering this film is a comedy, it's a very good sign that the film is actually pretty funny. A number of the laughs are on the crude and rude side of things, so if you're put off by that kind of humor, just a fair warning. A large amount of the laughs come from how unprofessional the three leads are with committing such a serious task, be it actually saving a boss' life, abandoning the mission for sex or shoving bathroom utensils up a place they really shouldn't be going.

He calls it harassment, I call it a fantasy

While the idea of these men killing their bosses does seem a bit extreme, the film manages to build it up well so that you'd understand how the bosses have made the three leads reach what is pretty much their breaking point and build up their hate and contempt for their bosses, so that it'd be plausible they'd actually go ahead with enacting a plot to kill their bosses.

With all the praise I've been giving this film, I did have some issues with it. I felt that the plot got a bit thin towards the end, while the plot with Aniston's character was dropped at one point and not picked up until the film's end, where both this plot and the main plot were resolved in a rather convenient manner.

Horrible Bosses manages to deliver on the promised laughs, with the six leads not missing a comedic beat and delivering well every single time. While I did have problems with the plot near the end and the resolutions, i'd still say this is a film to watch.