Movie review: ‘Horrible Bosses'

Summer in the multiplexes used to be the exclusive domain of kid- and family-friendly G, PG and PG-13 rated movies. That is, until “Wedding Crashers” scored such a surprise hit in the heat of 2005 and pioneered the way for a rash of R-rated counterprogramming in summers since.

Already this summer, moviegoers with a taste for adult-oriented raunchiness or without youngsters to placate have found their guilty R-pleasures in “The Hangover Part II,” “Bridesmaids” and “Bad Teacher.” Now the ante is upped with the zestfully rude and offbeat “Horrible Bosses,” a nutty, naughty “Nine to Five” for working guys who fantasize about taking deadly revenge on abusive employers.

Deftly directed by Seth Gordon (best known for the hilarious cult video-game documentary “The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters”), the movie brings together a top-shelf cast with a wildly zany but tightly written script to create a darkly queasy comedy that'll likely make you cringe as often as it makes you laugh.
The far-fetched premise is this: Three drinking buddies — Nick, Kurt and Dale (Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day) — like their jobs but hate their horrible bosses.

Kurt's boss, Dave Harkin (Kevin Spacey), is a cruel corporate shark with a murderous streak; Kurt's boss, Bobby Pellitt (Colin Farrell), is a pretentious tool determined to run the family business into the ground, and Dale's boss, Dr. Julia Harris, D.D.S. (Jennifer Aniston), is a sexual predator keen on luring naive Dale into the sack. Through a series of unlikely comic turns, the working-stiff pals become so harassed and desperate that they enlist the aid of a weirdly tattooed barroom hustler named Mother(bleep!) Jones (Jamie Foxx) and hatch a crazy, “Strangers on a Train” scheme to murder their three horrible bosses.

With chaotic nods to “Ruthless People” and “Throw Momma From the Train,” the convoluted plot spins wildly out of control and leaves our three anti-heroes (who increasingly come to resemble the Three Stooges) frantically struggling to extricate themselves from the bloody mess that ensues.

Despite the story's macabre context (murder for laughs), the male leads score with their mile-a-minute buddy patter and amusing frat-boy chemistry. The writing here is quick, cutting and witty. Day (“It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia”) and Sudeikis (“Saturday Night Live”) carry most of the doofus comic freight, while the likable Bateman (“Arrested Development”) acts as befuddled straight man.

But the real comic firepower comes from the high-profile supporting players: a dark-wigged Aniston playing deviously and seductively against type; a conniving Spacey echoing the cold menace of his “Glengarry Glen Ross” gamesmanship, and Foxx bringing hilarious street-hustler jive to the dicey shenanigans. However, the showstopper performance comes from Farrell, who with pot belly and comb-over seems to be channeling “King of Kong's” real-life Donkey Kong maestro Billy Mitchell in his most vainglorious antics.

As “Horrible Bosses” can attest, while there's nothing funny about workplace harassment, a richly satisfying comic catharsis can arise from fantasizing about our most dire and dastardly revenge on bad bossy bosses.