HORRIBLE BOSSES

title: HORRIBLE BOSSES
year: 2011
cast: Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis, Kevin Spacey
rating: **

THE HANGOVER franchise was bound to serve as an inspiration, and this particular movie, about three guys who decide to kill their bosses, while having nothing plot-wise to do with its mentor, tries hard for the same bickering camaraderie. Our straight man, Jason Bateman, works for Kevin Spacey: the Darth Vader of bosses. The Casanova, Jason Sudeikis, has to deal with his departed employer’s son, a coked-out creep who exploits third world countries. And the comic relief (even comedies need one) is Charlie Day, a straight-laced yet neurotic and contentedly engaged dental assistant, whose boss, sexy Jennifer Aniston, really wants to screw him. The idea to kill their superiors comes quickly (all three just happening to be in the same desperate predicament at once), leading to some of the funnier moments: seeking a hit man, who turns out to be a “consultant,” is Jamie Foxx in a memorable, and reoccurring, cameo. There’s a few humorous scenes when the boys venture on their own to, like in Hitchcock’s STRANGERS ON A TRAIN, take out each other’s albatrosses – like Day having a second-hand cocaine experience, making him even wackier. But eventually too many convoluted twists and turns mar the simplistic yet intriguing plotline. With so many over-the-top catastrophes thrown at them, you forget these guys had a problem (or problems) to begin with, making everything seem kinda pointless after a while.