So the word comes down that there's going to be a 'Horrible Bosses 2'. I'm thinking, foolishly of course, 'Do we really need a second Horrible Bosses movie? Of course we don't… probably didn't need a first one either, even though I thought the last movie was pretty funny… until it stopped being funny, but since the movie probably made more money that it lost… it's sequel time. But since I'm a little late to this Horrible Bosses game, I've had plenty of time to hear the awful things that folks had to say about this sequel, but guess what? I thought it was funny. Super Funny. Funnier than the first one actually. But what the hell do I know?
You're thinking, considering Nick (Jason Bateman), Kurt (Jason Sudeikis) and Dale (Charlie Day) killed one boss in the last movie, had another sent to jail, and I forgot what befell Jennifer Anniston's character, that how many more Horrible bosses could these guys possibly have? As a side note, we really liked Colin Farrell's character from the last movie and we are sad he couldn't have made an appearance in this one. Since he's dead and stuff.
But here's where things are different. The boys have created an amazing invention. What this invention does is so very unimportant to the narrative arc of the movie, just recognize that it exists, and it has gotten the attention of big time corporate guy Bert Hanson (Christoph Waltz) and his smarmy son Rex (Chris Pine). Bert offers to put up the money for this invention, it's all good, and the boys are in business.
But gosh darn, as it turns out Bert Hanson is a Horrible Boss and he's hoodwinked the guys into forfeiting this awesome invention of theirs to his conglomerate. Darn. Now what? Kidnap Bert's smarmy son Rex, that's what! It's a terribly stupid plan and of course Nick, Kurt, and Dale… while sweet… are total morons and the plan doesn't even take off. Until they find a secret helper to assist in creating this plan to kidnap Rex, and get their company back.
Unfortunately, despite the fact that the new plan is looking really good, our heroes are still morons, and the plan goes straight to hades… but they still have MF Jones (Jamie Foxx) on retainer which can only lead to mayhem and chaos and hilarity. And while there is no Colin Farrel, Kevin Spacey has returned to lob glorious insults and Jennifer Anniston's character also made it back in the movie and she is talking dirty. That's gotta be worth something.
So there's really not too terribly much to discuss or deconstruct with this movie 'Horrible Bosses 2'. It is admirable in the fact that it is different in theme from the first movie, say unlike 'The Hangover II' was almost the exact same as 'The Hangover', but if one were to say to me… 'Chris, it's different but the narrative is still very lazy'… I probably couldn't muster up much of an argument to this unseen person making these semi-intelligent observations. For instance we have Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day playing characters which they are very familiar with. But that's not a bad thing as I am more than comfortable watching Jason Bateman do that singular thing that he does better than anybody ever. You know that thing. And do you think that Christoph Waltz can play an accented, back stabbing, never do well? I almost tempted to think he's that way in real life. And just to keep things moving more along the same avenue, and keeping us comfortable, and keeping the narrative lazy, we have Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Anniston, and Kevin Spacey giving us glorious cameo reprises of their roles from the first movie.
What it different this time is Chris Pine, and god bless his unnaturally crystal blue eyes, as he was pretty much the best thing this movie had going on. He's a really funny dude. He should do more comedy. And the filmmakers had the good sense to wedge Keegan-Michael Key in the movie for a legitimate cameo, because if one is making a comedy film, and if you can't find a way to squeeze Keegan-Michael Key in it for at least one lousy scene, then you aren't really forward thinking as a comedy filmmaker.
The bottom line, at least for me in regards to 'Horrible Bosses 2', is that this movie did make me laugh. Quite a bit. And unlike the last movie which got really dark in the end and stopped being funny, this one also got kind of dark in the end but still managed to maintain its funny. And considering that I believe the only reason this movie exists is to be funny, and to fatten the pockets of Bateman, Sudeikis and Day, I believe it was a success in what it set out to do.
