Film Review: Horrible Bosses

Horrible Bosses. Rated MA 15+ (strong sexual references and coarse language). 97 minutes. Directed by Seth Gordon. Screenplay by Michael Markowitz, John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein.

Determinedly boisterous, take-no-prisoner comedies were given an undeniable lease on life courtesy of the break-away hit The Hangover (2009) – which stormed the global box-office on its way to becoming the highest-grossing R-rated comedy in the history of American cinema. Here was the antithesis of the celebrated ‘chick flick’ – a film about some perfectly likable blokes out to send their mate off into the realm of wedded bliss in style. And the rest, as they say, is history.

It’s not hard to see why everyone involved might have considered Horrible Bosses an each-way bet. Three hard-working guys (played by Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day) are being terrorised by their maniacal bosses (played by Kevin Spacey, Colin Farrell and Jennifer Aniston respectively). When idle bar-room gossip about how miserable their working lives are turns into deciding to murder each other’s tormentor, Horrible Bosses hits a brick wall. Really hard.

It’s not so much the fault of the script – which is actually quite funny in places. Nor is it the extent to which our trio of jobbers are lead through the story by Mr Gordon’s sure grip on the crazy proceedings. It’s more to do with the fact that, in the acting stakes anyway, there’s just no contest; Spacey, Farrell and Aniston are fantastic. Ms Aniston in particular (playing against type in spectacular fashion), presents the film with its fatal flaw – which is that the very thought of our trio of outrageous control freaks vanishing from the screen is, well, more horrible than the thought of our work-a-day boys successfully pulling-off their murderous coup.

Bateman, Sudeikis and Day try very hard to ensure we are even remotely interested in their story, but it becomes increasingly difficult when all the real fun is at someone else’s party – and it’s a party that they are definitely not at. And nor are they ever likely to be.

Pictured: Jennifer Aniston and Charlie Day in Horrible Bosses.

This review was commissioned by the Geraldton Newspaper Group.