The same funny employees plus more horrible bosses.
| The boys are back and they're gonna be in trouble. Nick (Jason Bateman), Kurt (Jason Sudeikis) and Dale (Charlie Day) have decided to go into business for themselves and live the American dream. But their idealism goes up against a spoiled billionaire (Chris Pine) and a pompous multibillionaire (Christoph Waltz), father to the spoiled billionaire, and the results are hilarious. Horrible Bosses 2 has a hard task: make it just as funny without copying the original. For the most part, it succeeds. | | 2014
Directed by: Sean Anders
Screenplay by: Sean Anders, John Morris
Starring: Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis, Charlie Day, Chris Pine
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The most important ingredient is the three leads; they're exactly the same as we remember them being, and Bateman, Sudeikis and Day have only improved upon their comedic chemistry with one another. Bateman is continually flawless with straight-faced comedy, Sudeikis's Kurt has maintained the raunchy and ludicrous comedy, while Day's naive Dale brings it down to a more endearing level. There are a handful of jokes repeated – but the right amount to remind us of the comedy we're watching, but not too many to let us know it's not exactly the same.
All of the living horrible bosses have returned – Jennifer Aniston as the inappropriate seductress, this time she even hosts a sex addicts meeting; Kevin Spacey as the asshole, luckily he's behind bars. And now they're joined by Chris Pine as Rex Hanson, a potential investor to Nick, Kurt and Dale's newly established business, and Christoph Waltz as Bert Hanson, the investor who actually controls the purse strings.
Keeping in line with the original, things don't go as planned and they're hatching hair-brained ideas that include murder and kidnaping (kidnapping has two 'p's, but they're doing things differently). Murder's been done before, so they're going to kidnape Rex, but only if they get to him before he kidnapes himself. The movie remains funny because Pine brilliantly amps up the insanity quotient, perfect for Kurt and Dale to think and act even farther outside the box.
Occasionally the jokes seem more immature than the original, but the new plot is just as funny. And goes wrong just as disastrously. As is common practice with Hollywood sequels, everything needs to be bigger. More money is spent, more property destroyed, car chases have to be more chaotic and last longer. I find it a really annoying practice and would have preferred more time with Bateman, Sudeikis and Day's banter, including Pine because he fits in with them so well.
Horrible Bosses 2 is a quality sequal to the first even if it can't live up to it in all aspects, but the most important reason to see it is so we get a third one. |
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