Friday 22 July 2011

187: Review - Horrible Bosses

CAUTION: Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.

Horrible Bosses poster

Horrible Bosses
22 July 2011. Location: Cinema

Horrible Bosses plays and expands on the fear of a large percentage of working men steadily approaching middle age in a dead-end job: being sexually harassed by Jennifer Aniston.

The Plot: Three buddies decide to kill their a-hole bosses. The trailer sums it up as neatly as the title:





So. This film seems to have been named and marketed by an 11yr old. Hiding behind an awful, awful title is a very passable (if by-the-numbers) buddy-com/farce. As is usual with this type of b-list mancom, I went in with low expectations; as is rare, I was pleasantly surprised.

It's got him that you know out of Arrested Development and Paul, him whose name you can't quite remember out of Hall Pass, and another one you haven't seen before but does a high voice and that's quite funny. It's also got Jennifer Aniston starring in the kind of role that men people have been praying for for about 15 years.

Clichés aside, this is a good film. It's consistently funny with no slow patches, and the (infrequent) swearing all works in context. On that basis, it's already better than most comedies I've seen this year. In all honesty, there's very little else to say. The film does dip seriously into farce-territory, but that's one of its strengths, particularly from an American production. The deadpan performances from Jason Bateman, Jason Sudekis and Kevin Spacey all complement this excellently. Jamie Foxx is also on great form as an opportunist murder consultant film geek (which appealed to me greatly).

Nothing in the film feels hugely different or outstanding, and it's not a must-see in the cinematic sense; but with some friends and a few drinks, this is a solidly entertaining film. Way better than many this year. If you're a fan of Jason Bateman or Jennifer Aniston, you'll want to see this.

5/7

Watch it with some mates and some beer, and you won't go far wrong.


DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.

• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organizations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.

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