Film Review: Losers weigh down ‘Horrible Bosses 2’
Poor Warner Bros.! Is anyone over in Burbank proud to have given birth to “Horrible Bosses 2,” younger sibling to the surprise 2011 hit of almost the same name? But, while the producers of “Birdman” and “The Imitation Game” may be basking in pride somewhere, the producers of the “Horrible Bosses” franchise will be (as they say) laughing all the way to the bank.
You might guess that their orotund guffaws would constitute the majority of the laughter engendered by this financial (but not aesthetic) imperative, but that wouldn’t be quite fair. In point of fact (or taste), this sequel is slightly funnier and slightly less irritating than its predecessor.
Note that these relative commendations require the jumping of some very low bars indeed. The first film had a few amusing moments, but they were drowned out by the sheer obnoxiousness of Kurt (Jason Sudeikas) and Dale (Charlie Day), two of our three “heroes.” Jason Bateman plays Nick, who is just intelligent enough to realize that the other two musketeers are imbeciles. Bateman may be the best “likable Joe Average leading man” now working, but this role doesn’t tax his abilities. Who wouldn’t be in a state of constant irritation having to listen to Day and Sudeikas yammering endlessly, even knowing that they’re just acting?
In the first film, these three losers realize that their lives will be a drawn-out hell, unless they can get away with murdering their bosses (Colin Farrell, Kevin Spacey and Jennifer Aniston). Unfortunately Nick will always get roped into the harebrained schemes fostered by Kurt (a motor-mouth who is obsessed with having sex and thus will inevitably screw things up) and Dale (an even worse motor-mouth who is obsessed with not having sex ... with Aniston, no less). It gives nothing away to say that everything ends up peachy even though they don’t murder anyone.
Of course, such a nice resolution is an obstacle to a sequel, so this time they decide to strike out on their own as entrepreneurs with their new invention, the Shower Buddy, which simplifies the apparently daunting task of showering. It’s easy to believe that Kurt and Dale find this basic practice beyond their cerebral capacities, but Nick? If we compare these guys to the Three Stooges, Nick is our Moe — the intellectual of the group. Unlike the two morons he inexplicably hangs with, he seems to have mastered the basics — for example, alternating one’s feet while walking.
Apparently never having heard of lawyers, the trio makes an idiotic deal with evil, deceitful marketer Bert Hanson (Christoph Waltz), who screws them over without breaking stride (left foot, right foot, left foot... See, it’s easy!). Since they now know they’re incapable of murder — and since the filmmakers have already used that hook — they decide to kidnap the villain’s estranged son (Chris Pine, playing a classic Rob Lowe character). The ransom will be enough to get themselves out of the hole Hanson has dug for them. Sure.
Everything goes wrong, everything gets better, everything goes wrong again... and so on.
Also returning to the well for another paycheck is Jamie Foxx as a character whose name cannot be mentioned in a family newspaper.
The movie has a lot of other middle-school-level vulgarity but much of it proves surprisingly funny. That — along with a good-natured racism joke in the opening sequence — almost makes the enterprise worthwhile.
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ANDY KLEIN is the film critic for Marquee. He can also be heard on “FilmWeek” on KPCC-FM (89.3).