Horrible Bosses 2 English Movie
When will Hollywood studios learn? When will they learn that it's hard enough to make one good film, but replicating that success with a sequel is quite next to impossible? When will they learn that some extra quick cash from a sequel is well and good, but tarnishing the legacy of the original film isn't worth it?
We saw it a few months back with Sin City: A Dame To Kill For, which received poor reviews and was a major box office flop. We saw it a couple of weeks ago with Dumb and Dumber To, a sequel so horrible that you'd get Jim Carrey's bowl cut from the film due to a psychotic breakdown. This week, it's Horrible Bosses 2.
The original Horrible Bosses, which came out in 2011, lacked anything that even resembled a script or an intelligent plot. But the film managed to cruise through on the shoulders of its charismatic leads, their improvisational skills and their frantic energy. The sequel has a similar lack of a script, and sees the return of almost all of the original cast (with the exception of Colin Farrell, who was killed off in the first part). But you just can't escape the feeling of having been there, seen that.
This time, the three friends Nick, Kurt and Dale hatch the harebrained scheme of "kidnaping" the son of a wealthy business tycoon who screwed them over. But predictably, everything that could go wrong does go wrong, and it's up to them to grovel their way out of the ditch they dug for themselves.
To say that the film doesn't succeed on any level would be unfair. With the amount of talent in front of the camera, locking up all of the actors in a room and making them hop around like monkeys would make for entertaining viewing. They manage to make something out of nothing through their chemistry, and make you chuckle at their interactions every now and then. But unlike the previous film, there are no standout sequences here, scenes that'll have you laughing uncontrollably.
Instead, the best scenes from Part 1 are put into a grinder, rehashed and served to you on a platter so fragile that it could snap into two at any second. Each incident is more unlikely than the pervious one, and there are times when the film just fails to get on with the story.
After you've exited the theater, feeling cheated out of your money and hopes of a good time, the only thing that'll remain with you are the performances. Jason Bateman, who plays the only smart guy out of the gang on three, is once again saddled with the part with the least jokes. But he manages to make you laugh often enough despite that, with his trademark deadpan comic style. Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day bring a lot of energy, with the constant flow of dialogue and character gags.
Chris Pine is the new addition to the cast, and is charming and wicked as the guy who orchestrates his own kidnapping. Jennifer Aniston returns as the dirty-mouthed dentist and is always fun to watch. Kevin Spacey once again appears to be enjoying himself, cussing away to glory. Jamie Foxx is back in the role of the-guy-whose-name-I-cannot-take Jones, and is less effective than last time, but still funny.
Director/writer Sean Anders, amazingly, has not been associated with a single comedy film in his career that you could watch without taking the Lord's name in vain at least a dozen times. This might actually be his best contribution to cinema till date, which tells you more about him than the movie.
At the end of the day, Horrible Bosses 2 has the body of its predecessor, which was a fun misogynistic comedy that made you laugh a ton. But it lacks the free-spirited, don't-give-a-damn attitude that should've come with it. It probably won't make you run out of the theater like a man escaping from killer zombies, but it definitely won't keep you firmly planted in your seat either.
