MOVIE REVIEW: HORRIBLE BOSSES 2 – “Is Packed With Laughs But Loses Them”

I was rather skeptical before I went in to this movie; as comedy sequels come and go they tend to be repetitive as it follows the formula that made its predecessor fresh and successful. But the film goes further than that. Though the film does pack a lot of laughs, the jokes tend to overstay its welcome and the plot didn’t really add that much. The new creative team misses the point of a sequel; I guess their idea of being “bigger” would mean overdoing the formula as well as the gags.

After the events of the previous film – Nick (Jason Bateman), Kurt (Jason Sudeikis), and Dale (Charlie Day) decided to be their own bosses and start a new business together with their new invention, “The Shower Buddy”. When they got their product featured on national television they attracted the attention of a business tycoon, Burt (Christoph Waltz) and his highly obnoxious son Rex (Chris Pine) Hanson. Burt invests in their product only to cancel it later on and steal their idea. Leaving them half a million in debt with no legal recourse, the trio will once again plot another revenge scheme to get their money and their company back on track.

NEW MOVIE, SAME TROPES

The story is not at all anything mind-blowingly new; the film’s set-up is straight forward yet forced. They didn’t exactly re-tell the exact same movie with the exact same gags ala Hangover 2 and Home Alone 2, they did go to a new direction the results is indeed passable (which is not saying much). Though there are few things here and there that they did borrow from the last film, which does cripple the film’s narrative structure. The script is not as strong as its predecessor and it could be because of the new creative team with Sean Anders at the helm (the first one being directed by Seth Rogen) and a different writing team.

This movie is mainly a character-comedy and the trio of Bateman, Sudeikis, and Day play the same characters they did in the last movie with zero character growth and in fact be only more cartoonish than their last outing. Bateman is still the smart and snarky leader, Day is the hyper-active and loud mouth type, while Sudeikis is the crude one and very much so the source of the film’s filthy humor.  The entire time, their version of stupid didn’t go as far as doing impressions of Carrey and Daniels’ Dumb and Dumber characters though it is close to the point where it is quite irritating than it is funny in some cases.

PACKED WITH LAUGHS… BUT LOSES THEM…
There’s this filming technique director, Sean Anders does that was evident in his recent work, “We’re The Millers”; and it is that he puts a camera in front of the actors, and once they said the punch line the camera keeps rolling to a point where the joke(s) become bland after more or less than three punch lines. Which made you think, did they even work with a script at all? Or did the director just ask the actors to just “say something funny”.

The jokes are more on what you expect from an R-Rated American comedy. It has a lot of crude humor regarding the trio talking about sex and the female anatomy like 14-year old boys, the casual racism, sexism, and, bathroom humor, and oddly enough they were able to sneak in a joke from Austin Powers (you’ll get it when you see it) in there. The kind of humor they have is rather unapologetic; they spew out such juvenile humor and expect us to laugh out loud (it does the job, although not 100% of the people in my screening were ROTFLOL-ing at some of the movie).  There were some jokes that do work but the rest are just overly-stretched or not funny at all. Do note that the humor for this film is not for everyone and if you are not “in” to this kind of humor, I suggest you see something else.

THE CAST MAKES IT ALL UP…

Like I said, the trio of Bateman, Sudeikis and Day does play the same characters but one could admire the energy they offered for their roles, committing to the ridiculousness of the concept despite how mediocre it is and their on-screen chemistry. One could also admire the comedic capacity that they have when it comes to them being required to ad-lib. But like the jokes they have in the movie, it’s more of a pass or fail situation.

The rest of the cast on the other hand are reduced to brief cameo roles with returning characters like Kevin Spacey and Jennifer Aniston, though one of the other does stay in the movie for too long and it is quite unnecessary. It was really Chris Pine’s Rex Hanson and Jamie Foxx’s M’Fer Jones who stood out in this movie with M’Fer Jones getting to have a bit more screen time this time around; scenes with him does offer a lot of big laughs and an insane villainous performance by Chris Pine. Although, The same can’t be said to the film’s weakest link Christoph Waltz, which is unfortunate to hear because of how much he made a name for himself when it comes to playing villainous roles but in this film you barely notice his presence at all and doesn’t let him stretch both his acting and comedic chops very well.

CONCLUSION:

Though not entirely horrible; “Horrible Bosses 2” is packed with enough laugh-out-loud moments and solid comedic performances by the cast to keep you going throughout the film’s runtime. It’s a must-watch after a hard day’s work and in need of a good laugh; unless you don’t mind watching grown men acting like 14-year old boys for an hour and a half.

To the film’s credit, at least this is a watchable comedy-sequel than some other comedy sequel that has a trio doing stupid stiff for half an hour *cough* Hangover 2.