Lucky sod.
Jack Leahy
Horrible Bosses
Release Date: 22nd July 2011
Running time: 90 minutes (without advertisements)
Let’s face it; any film that even dares to share a cinema board with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 and Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon has to be pretty decent. Seth Gordon’s effort at matching the heavweights isn’t great by any stretch of the imagination, nor is it the worst thing to have happened to cinema; it finds itself giving a generic expression to the no-man’s-land of shoulder-shrugging averageness.
The film follows the trials and tribulations of businessman Nick (Jason Bateman), dental assistant Dale (Charlie Day), and chemical company accountant Kurt (Jason Sudeikis) as they face up to the daily grind of putting in the nine to five under impossible working conditions,eventually undertaking a three-way pact to murder each other’s bosses.
Dale, the poor soul, has to contend with the incessant sexual advances of the priapic Dr. Julia Harris, played by Jennifer Aniston in her latest futile attempt to escape the Rachel Greene typecast. Keep trying, Jen. Initially the most endearing of the three protagonists, Day’s hyperbolic performance style and high-pitched screechings quickly get irritating as he fills the ‘stupid one of the group’ role with irritating convention. As for Jen, I know it’s been said a million times but YOU’RE RACHEL GREENE, STOP PRETENDING YOU CAN DO ANYTHING ELSE BECAUSE YOU CAN’T.
Kurt, whose dream job and perfect boss are taken away from him but a cruel and extremely cheap ‘sudden, massive heart attack’, works for Bobby Pellitt. Pellitt, played by Colin Farrell sporting a (hopefully) fake belly, a combover and a cocaine supply that would kill a large herd of elephants, epitomises the overly vulgar nature of the film’s discourse, with block-capital ornate interjections along the lines of’ ‘COCAINE D**K S**THEAD’ introducing the bosses. It’s of course true that modern discourse is by no means squeaky-clean, but throw-away, unprovoked and incessant cursing undermine this film as an art-form.
Sudeikis’ character is the archetypal 30-something American LAD, whose penchant for sexual activity and LAD pranks derail the plot with hilarious consequences. Except without the hilarious consequences. Nothing original here, so. When will the Americans learn that recycling archetypes is just irritating?
Bateman’s character is the most palatable in that there is a sense of originality about him, and we gain a limited but empathy-inducing insight into his being constantly being undermined by boss Dave Harken (Kevin Spacey) despite a strict routine to ensure punctuality and a high tolerance for being pushed around. When scolded for only arriving at 6.02am and laughed in the face at for protesting that his heavy schedule saw him miss his grandmother’s final days, we feel for him in a way no other character begins to achieve.
In more general terms, the dialogue of this film is a typical blend of hyperbole and the most cliché of clichés. Most art forms work on the basis of a general formula whose conventions are either obeyed in structural terms, subverted, or modified by obvious addition to or subtraction from the stock pattern. That’s fine. But when what is essentially a re-hash of a combination of verbal and (modern) cinematic clichés purports to be original, I take offence. The plot is weakened by the outcome of any particular pursuit being all but declared by a fatal lack of subtlety on the part of all three protagonists, and the humour is at times tasteless (‘No, I’d definitely get raped more than you in prison!’)
There are a few redeeming factors. Jamie Foxx brings an uncharacteristic humour to the role of ‘Mothafucka’ Jones, a rather harmless homicide consultant picked up by the gang on the basis of his race and choice of drinking establishment. Despite paying through the nose for his consultancy, however, they don’t pay a lot of attention to what he says. While the humour may be predominately crude, when it’s not, it’s actually very funny and only an extremely pretentious critic could say otherwise. Just remember when they scold it on the harshest terms that they all laughed in the cinema. Bateman, perhaps in a ‘lesser of three evils’ way, is decent and puts in the only performance that you’d believe if you saw it in real life.
The ending, however, brings us straight back to disappointment. It feels rushed, as if the conclusion was only there for the sake of conclusion. Don’t worry though, there’s an unlikely hero whose brilliance saves the day when all looks lost – because how could you end a film otherwise, right?
Note for Mr. Sudeikis: No, ‘I’d like to bend her over a barrel and show her the 50 states’ is not a quote from The Great Gatsby. Not at all.
Verdict: Go see Harry Potter instead. 2/5
