Plot
Sick of being abused, both mentally and sexually, by their bosses. Nick (Bateman), Dale (Day) and Kurt (Sudeikis) set out to get them out of their lives for good. After a failed attempt of hiring a hit man the three venture into the rough side of town to find a hardened criminal to do the job for them. But instead find themselves $30,000 and a brief case out of pocket. And all they have is a murder consultant in the form of ‘hardened’ criminal Dean ‘Mother Fucker’ Jones (Jamie Foxx).
Review
This concept has been done before, even by the great Alfred Hitchcock in “Strangers on a Train”. But Seth Gordon (Four Christmases) brings it into the twenty first century with hilarious gags and brilliant innuendo. Horrible Bosses provides a dark - but brilliantly funny - take on a classic. The writers, Markowitz and Daley, have provided the stars with some excellent lines and truly first-rate gags and an all-around excellent plot which manages to weave stories together and truly capture your attention as well as splitting your sides.
The film opens on Bateman rushing into his office 2 minutes late. Having to face his psycho boss Dave Harken (Kevin Spacey). Who seems to take pleasure in
After drunken nights of asking “What if their Bosses ceased to exist?” the three decide that they have suffered long enough and try to recruit the help of ‘wet worker’ Ioan Gruffudd (Fantastic 4). But Gruffudd has the wrong kind of wet in mind, so they decide to take a trip to the roughest bar in the city, where they meet their murder consultant Mother Fucker Jones (Foxx) and that’s when they begin their plan to kill each other’s bosses.
Bateman, Day and Sudeikis portray the 3 beaten down employees with brilliant accuracy and become very relatable. The movie is packed to the rafters with memorable moments and provides laughs throughout its entirety, kudos to Markowitz and Daley for providing them with great scripts. There are some great jokes that run through the film, such as Day’s record as a sex offender and Mother Fucker Jones’ troubled past. These scenes always provide with a round of laughter.
The film’s plot is very easy to follow but doesn’t seem dumbed down. It provides with enough twists and plot merging to keep the audience guessing until the credits. Probably the most hilarious scenes are the ones when the three are staking out their targets. After a cocaine fuelled break in at Farrell’s bachelor pad and a case of mistaken identity at Spacey’s suburban mansion. The three go shopping for their murder weapons. Sudeikis is sent to stake out Aniston, but as the womaniser of the group, he quickly turns a stake out into a one night stand to, in his elegantly placed words, “Fuck the crazy out of her”. From there the plot drives forward at fast pace, providing intense scenes and action packed car chases.
Horrible Bosses is studded with stars such as Colin Farrell from In Bruges and even Harken’s wife, a suburban cougar, Julie Brown from Sky 1’s Modern Family provides with a few laughs and quite a few minutes of screen time. And PJ Byrne (Final Destination 5) has a very minor role as their money troubled high school friend provides the audience with a few laughs and also gives them the idea for murdering their bosses. It’s probably fair to say that each character, big and small, has been given the perfect actor or actress. Even Jennifer Aniston provides a convincing sex crazed dentist. This is far from her usual sweet and innocent Rom-Com characters we have grown accustomed to over the last few years.
Verdict
This film is good, close to perfect, but a sudden ending and the lack of huge laughs lets it down. Day, Bateman and Sudeikis are 3 excellent actors playing 3 loveable characters, however Day’s pre-pubescent voice can be obnoxious after 90 minutes. It does provide some laughs early on in the film. However, for some, it will be a constant tickler of their funny bone. The actors and writers fuse so brilliantly in Horrible Bosses it gives the audience a “what if?” scenario that they certainly won’t forget any time soon.
4 out of 5
