Film Review: Talented Cast Carries Dark Comedy of ‘Horrible Bosses’

Submitted by BrianTT on July 7, 2011 - 6:00pm

CHICAGO – There’s a theory that a film that should be judged based on how well it succeeds at what it attempts to do. If it’s a comedy, does it make you laugh? “Horrible Bosses” has some issues but it is an undeniably funny movie. With stellar comic timing from the entire ensemble and a dark streak of edgy humor with just enough wit to make it not seem cruel, this is one of the straight-up funniest movies of the year.

Rating: 4.0/5.0

The concept of Seth Gordon’s comedy is simple and relatable enough – merge Alfred Hitchcock’s “Strangers on the Train” with today’s modern workplace nightmares. Most of us have had bosses we hated. It’s just the nature of the corporate ladder. If you’re lucky, you haven’t had one that was as truly loathsome as the trio of a-holes at the core of “Horrible Bosses,” three people who push the film’s protagonists a few steps too far and set in motion a devious plan for co-operative murder – you kill my boss, I kill his boss, he kills your boss. It’s the kind of ludicrous plan that you’d only find in the movies and seems clearly inspired by the men-behaving-badly genre reignited by the success of “The Hangover,” but it totally works thanks to one of the most talented ensembles of the year.

Read Brian Tallerico’s full review of “Horrible Bosses” in our reviews section.

In a clever set-up, the title characters in “Horrible Bosses” all come from distinctly different worlds of awful. They’re not all white collar pricks or abusive jerks. The first and most central of the horrible bosses hangs on the back of Nick Hendricks (Jason Bateman), a man who has spent years as a workaholic hoping for the big, promised promotion. His boss, Dave Harken (Kevin Spacey), gives him a hard time for showing up at two minutes past 6AM and for asking for time off to say goodbye to his ‘Gam-Gam’ before she dies. He has given his life to Harken’s company and is getting nothing but abuse in return.

Similarly screwed is Kurt Buckman (Jason Sudeikis of “Saturday Night Live”), a man who loves his job and the patriarch (Donald Sutherland) who runs it but finds himself in a nightmare when the head of the company dies and leaves it to his worthless cokehead son Bobby (Colin Farrell). The obnoxious jerk not only wants to fire the handicapped man at work because he’s creepy but is planning to reverse all the environmental progress made by his dad. Finally, the sweet Dale Arbus (Charlie Day of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”) has become the victim of intense sexual harassment on the part of Dr. Julia Harris (Jennifer Aniston). If he doesn’t sleep with her, she’s going to ruin his life.

Continue reading for Brian Tallerico’s full “Horrible Bosses” review.

”Horrible Bosses” stars Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis, Charlie Day, Jamie Foxx, Colin Farrell, Jennifer Aniston, and Kevin Spacey. It was written by Michael Markowitz and John Francis Daley & Jonathan M. Goldstein and directed by Seth Gordon. It is rated R and opens on July 8th, 2011.