Work long enough in these United States and eventually you’ll have one: a horrible boss. Maybe they dangle a promotion in front of you with no intention of letting you have it or just treated you as subhuman, but no two horrible bosses are the same. To capitalize on this idea, Horrible Bosses mixes elements of Office Space and Strangers on a Train in a comedy with Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, and Jason Sudeikis suffering at the hands of Kevin Spacey, Jennifer Aniston, and Colin Farrell. For what seems like an incredibly simple concept, Director Seth Gordon and Writers Michael Markowitz and John Francis Daley & Jonathan Goldstein have managed to milk some pretty rich laughs even as the story runs along a very obvious track.
Three friends, who regularly get together for post-work drinks, finally decide they’ve had enough abuse at the hands of their bosses and conspire to kill them in such a way that none of them will be linked to their own boss’s murder. For Nick (Bateman) the last straw came when his boss (Spacey) not only passed him over for the promotion, but took it himself so he could have a larger office. Dale’s (Day) boss (Aniston) doesn’t thwart the furthering of his career but rather makes advances of her own – sexual ones that he has to agree to lest she show his fiancée some incriminating but staged photos. Until the death of his boss (Sutherland), Kurt was pretty happy with his job, until the newly vacated seat of the head honcho was filled by the former boss’s son (Farrell) who then forces Kurt to announce unpopular choices around the office, making him the pariah. With their resolve set, Nick, Dale and Kurt set about killing their bosses, but it doesn’t go according to plan.
What should have been a flimsy premise becomes a comic powerhouse thanks to Seth Gordon’s direction of its three stars with strong backgrounds in television. Bateman, Day, and Sudeikis all have an established type they’ve become typecast in over the years and they essentially just repeat the performances here, but as a trio. The chemistry works surprising well with Bateman’s stoic sarcasm colliding with Day’s hysterical ineptitude and Sudeikis’s straight man. The concept of suburbanites trying their hand at crime has been a popular staple in recent decades and usually lends itself to some strong laughs if the writing can find a new direction. Horrible Bosses has a few in terms of the casting and personalities, both in the lead trio and in their bosses, and so the film manages to be funny throughout. As the film’s quest to kill the bosses dissolves into madcap comedy, the sense of humor veers a little to the corny side, especially in how it ends, but the overall positive impact makes the thought of repeat viewings a pleasure and not a chore.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
The combo set includes Horrible Bosses on Blu-ray, DVD and as a digital copy. The bonus features all appear on the Blu-ray and range from interviews on the topic of the cast and crews’ worst bosses and how they handled them to the creation of the film’s soundtrack. A deleted scenes reel offers little of interest, but also raises questions considering the set boasts both the theatrical and “Totally Inappropriate Edition” (which runs 8 minutes longer) and makes you wonder why some things qualified as “inappropriate” and were thus included and why others just stayed on the cutting room floor. The best featurette focuses on Spacey, Aniston, and Farrell and how much they enjoyed their roles.
Horrible Bosses marks one of the first Blu-ray releases from Warner Brothers that takes advantage of the new digital copy platform called Ultraviolet. Whether or not this is an improvement over the established practice of including a code to download the film from the iTunes Store remains to be seen as more studios and platforms choose whether or not they want to adopt the technology, but for now, the biggest implication of the change is that your digital copy of Horrible Bosses won’t show up in iTunes with your other digital movies or play on your iPod or iPad. It does let you take advantage of cloud technology, a centralized location from which you can stream the movie on any internet-connected device, but that's not nearly as beneficial. This is how studios are trying to regain control of the releases and take the option of when and where a consumer can watch the movie they purchased away from them. One step forward, two steps back.
"Horrible Bosses" is on sale October 11, 2011 and is rated R. Comedy. Directed by Seth Gordon. Written by Michael Markowitz and John Francis Daley & Jonathan M. Goldstein. Starring Charlie Day, Colin Farrell, Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis, Jennifer Aniston, Kevin Spacey.
