“horrible bosses” film review

I wanted to start this review by stating plans or the possibility of this film having a sequel. But I’ll get to that later. Honestly, I don’t have a problem with Hollywood wanting to follow up a hit money maker if there is more story than can be told. But without seeing the film and knowing the premise is about employees plotting to kill their employers, it leaves you wondering.

As a stand alone movie, which this works great as (and if you can’t read my subtext–no sequel), it’s a pretty fun caper. And funny. I can’t recall if I had any “side splitting” laughs, but I really enjoyed watching Jason Bateman, Charlie Day and Jason Sudekis play together. I almost kinda wondered how or why these three characters would hang around each other, but at the same time I look back on groups of friends I palled around with, and everyone is an oddball that needs acceptance. Okay, so Charlie Day is the most eccentric of the bunch. A scene stealer is what he’s called. And there’s a scene near the end when he’s on the phone that he practically owned.

The villains are indeed vicious. Kevin Spacey especially. But you must realize, that any role Spacey takes on, he’s going to attack it like a hungry shark smelling a drop of blood from a man who just lost his arm. Gruesome analogy, no? My point is that he’s a master actor and I love seeing him in comedies. Another great comedic actor is Jennifer Aniston. And she’s hot too. She uses that hotness very well.

Anyway, the story was well done. Like I was saying about the group of friends, there were elements about the film that just felt so real. For example, how does one hire a hitman? The results of that search was very amusing. I’ve never encountered a talking GPS or OnStar system, but this is the second film in so many weeks that I’ve seen that the GPS is a character where some good humor is dug from.

I really wanna jump back to the idea of a sequel for this movie. Consider this your spoiler alert. I won’t give away the whole movie, but just the fact that one of the three horrible bosses in question is actually dispatched. I mean, for the sake of argument, the movie ended with the initial threats no longer being a threat. I would prefer an unconventional sequel, if I may suggest one: have these  three main characters (at least) return on some completely different adventure. I enjoyed seeing Jason Squared and Charlie play together. And I guess you might as well bring back a few from the original too. But that’s the only way I see a sequel happening, because the way it ends… well… I just don’t know.

Overall, good movie. I’d own this and watch it again. So chalk that up on my Amazon wish list.