Review: Horrible Bosses 2

This time out our central trio (Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, and Jason Sudeikis) invent their own shower product (The awkwardly named ‘Shower Buddy’), but get royally screwed by smug investor Christoph Waltz, who pulls out after the boys have already started manufacturing to meet Waltz’s order. It bankrupts them and allows Waltz to buy the product cheaply. In retaliation the boys decide to engage in some kidnapping, nabbing billionaire Waltz’s jerk son (Chris Pine), holding him for ransom so they can get their money back. Being that these three are slightly brainier than The Three Stooges, the plan doesn’t go smoothly. Jennifer Aniston and Jamie Foxx return as the nymphomaniac former boss of Day (now running a sexaholics group!), and inept criminal Mother Fucker Jones, respectively. Kevin Spacey has two short appearances as one of the other horrible bosses from the first film, now in prison but delighting in the central trio’s sticky predicament. Jonathan Banks turns up as a crusty old cop investigating the supposed kidnapping.

 

The original “Horrible Bosses” was a pleasant and funny surprise to me, as it seemed like another crass “Hangover” variant, but was much, much better than that. This 2014 sequel from director Sean Anders and his co-writer John Morris (who collaborated on the enjoyable “She’s Out of My League” and the tolerable “Hot Tub Time Machine”) is pretty much what you would expect: An inferior sequel, albeit still a watchable one. It’s a little disappointing, but certainly no stinker, it definitely beats any of the “Hangover” films.

 

Things start off brightly with a genuinely funny demonstration on a perky morning TV show that goes from bad to bad times infinity. Meanwhile, as one of this film’s bosses, Chris Pine has probably never been better if you ask me. He’s a perfect callous douchebag, and the progression of his character throughout the film is a highlight. As his also horrible boss father, Christoph Waltz is his usual Christoph Waltz self. That act is going to get old soon, but his polite, smiling interpretation of a ‘horrible boss’ is still fun when he’s in the film (sadly not as much as one would like). For the film’s first half, it really did work well and I was having a pretty good time. Even the returning Motherfucker Jones (Jamie Foxx) still amused me by referring to our central trio as ‘colonisers’ and claiming that Charlie Day’s character has ‘Klan eyes’.

 

Having said all of that, I don’t think it was a great idea to bring the character back, as the joke isn’t as funny the second time around and is pretty much indicative of the film overall. I enjoyed quite a bit of it, but not as much as last time. In fact, the second half contains not one single laugh. Not one, and both the intimidating (if seriously old-looking) Jonathan Banks and the returning Kevin Spacey end up completely wasted. I mean, Spacey only gets one scene but Jennifer Aniston gets to recreate her completely unfunny and miscast nymphomaniac schtick from the first film all over again? Spacey’s an Oscar-winner for cryin’ out loud! Perhaps Spacey had a busy schedule, otherwise that defies any good sense in my view. I mean, even in just a couple of minutes, the guy makes everyone else invisible when he’s on screen (and venomously insulting everyone as only Spacey can). As usual, Aniston proves completely incapable of convincingly inhabiting an actual character. She’s not an actress, she’s Rachel from “Friends” in different roles each time. She’s awkward and unfunny here. Also, I wasn’t overly keen on Charlie Day last time out, but this time the Bobcat Goldthwait-sounding guy annoyed the ever-lovin’ shit out of me this time. The normally smarmy Jason Sudeikis, however, has never been funnier, picking up some of the slack, especially in that strong first half. Also, much as I found him annoying, Day’s lack of affinity for accents is pretty damn funny.

 

If the second half of the film featured some genuine laughs, and if Kevin Spacey, Jonathan Banks, and Christoph Waltz were given more to do, this film would be significantly improved. As is, it’s got a strong first half and a pretty lame second half, and it depends an awful lot on your fondness for the central characters (or actors). On that front I liked two of them (Jason Bateman is always dependable), but Charlie Day and I just don’t mesh. Still, so far as sequels go, this is typically inferior but not at all bad. I’m just shocked at how the laughs dry up so suddenly at the halfway point. 

 

Rating: C+