Three years ago on July 8, Director Seth Gorbon and producers Jay Stern and Brett Ratner released Horrible Bosses. The movie stared Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day. It centers on the trio’s lives and their awful bosses.
Bateman plays Nick Hendricks, who works as an executive for a financial firm. Nick has been working tirelessly for months hoping for a promotion that his boss has been implying he would be given. Sudeikis plays Kurt Buckman who works for a chemical company as a manager. Kurt is forced to work for a cocaine addict who makes Kurt do all the dirty work. The final member of the trio is Dale Abrus, portrayed by Day, who works as a dental assistant. Dale, recently engaged, is being sexually harassed by his boss, Dr. Julia Harris, portrayed by Jennifer Anniston, who threatens to ruin his relationship with his fiancée unless he has sex with her.
Throughout the movie, we see the interesting situations that the boys get themselves into, frustrated by their bosses they hire a hit man named Dean Jones, played by Jamie Foxx. Together with their newly recruited “murder consultant,” the team goes off to kill their targets. The movie ends with boss, Harken, being framed for the murder of Bobby Pellitt, Kurt’s cocaine addict boss. Dale forces Julia to stop sexual harassing him by blackmailing her and exposing her true colors after Jones films her confession.
The movie is filled with a great cast, but is lacking good humor. Most of the jokes are racist and homophobic. It’s a mediocre comedy filled with vulgar jokes and comments, without the performance from the A-list stars and the great chemistry shared on set, it would be a dark movie with a semi-boring plot. While the movie had an interesting plot line, there some scenes that I question if it was necessary to put in the movie. One scene in particular that stood out in my mind is when Kurt, Dale and Nick run into an old high school friend who offers each of them sexual favors. Besides awkward moments like that, there were some good scenes of the three actors acting like a couple of regular Joes.
One of my favorite scenes is when Kurt, Dale and Nick are drinking and talking about how terrible their bosses are and talk about how different their lives would be if their bosses were dead. The fun chemistry that the three main characters share brings a breath of fresh air to the movie.
With the sequel recently released, Jason Bateman, Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis spoke to a group of young college reporters who had questions regarding the newest installment and production. “You get asked to do squeal when there is enough money to warrant it. The first movie was a success over in Europe, which is rare and that gave us enough to make a second film. We got the call from Warner Brothers asking us to come back and film another one and we were excited to do it” said Bateman. Day agree d with him, saying “If there is enough money to do another film, ‘why not?’ Do it.”
The three actors told the students that they were excited to work with Chris Pine, “It was like adding a fourth musketeer to our group,” Sudeikis commented. Day said he expected that people would be skeptical about it, but hoped that audiences would like it.