HORRIBLE BOSSES... I finally got around to seeing the Seth Gordon-directed comedy yesterday, and needless to say, it was pretty hilarious. Kevin Spacey was convincing as a mean-spirited (and homicidal) company president, Colin Farrell played a douchey slacker of a boss (or in a title bestowed upon him by the film: a Dips**t Cokehead Son) and Jennifer Aniston was...totally awesome as a sexually-aggressive and conniving maneater of a supervisor. Jason Bateman played his usual role as a mild-mannered white-collar employee thrust into crappy circumstances (see Arrested Development, The Switch and the upcoming The Change-Up) and Jason Sudeikis was amusing even though his character somewhat reminded me of the husband he played in this year's earlier Hall Pass...where Sudeikis was put on time-out by his wife (played by Christina Applegate) for sexual indiscretions. I don’t think I’ve seen another movie that had Charlie Day in it...but he was to Horrible Bosses what Zach Galifianakis was to The Hangover. Which is a compliment if you saw that last film. Which I’m sure you did.
My favorite moments of the film, unsurprisingly, were when Bateman, Sudeikis and Day interacted with their tyrannical bosses. And in terms of my favorite employee-employer scenes, the best moments were when Dale Arbus (played by Day) had to have close-door 'meetings' with Dr. Julia Harris (played by Aniston) inside her dental office...'cause you don’t know just how far Julia would go in her next attempt to get inside Dale’s pants. Bobby Pellitt (played by Farrell) is definitely a major tool, but to the benefit of Kurt Buckman (played by Sudeikis), Pellitt isn’t around long enough (won’t tell you why) to screw Kurt over the same way David Harken (played by Spacey) screws over Nick Hendricks (played by Bateman) and even his two buddies later on in the movie. Julia actually screws Kurt at one point in the film...but that doesn’t come as a surprise since Dr. Harris is an Evil Crazy Bitch.
Jamie Foxx, Donald Sutherland and even Bob Newhart show up in the film as well. Foxx’s character isn’t what he appears to be (Before you give $5,000 to a former convict who you've just met at a bar so he could become your "murder consultant", ask him why he was in jail in the first place...even though he was locked up for 10 years and calls himself 'Motherf**ker Jones'), Sutherland plays the wise, sympathetic boss whom everyone should have, and Newhart’s CEO is hiding something in his closet—err, trunk...literally. Lindsay Sloane plays Day’s lovely fiancée and the reason why Day wants to get rid of the Evil Crazy Bitch, Julie Bowen plays Spacey’s supermodel-ish wife who Harken has trust issues with (deservedly so) and Meghan Markle plays a Fed-Ex employee who Sudeikis' character thinks is too "cute" to drive around and deliver packages.
All-in-all, if you want good laughs at the theater this month, watch Horrible Bosses. Even though there are actually some slow moments (which surprisingly involves scenes where Nick, Kurt and Dale are snooping around the houses of their three employers...hoping to get "intel" on how to off them), the movie is a nice catharsis for folks out there who have bosses that are almost as sinister as the ones portrayed in this film...and also conveys an interesting message on how people are trying to make ends meet in the current recession. Here’s a bit of advice: Don’t resort to giving handjobs to people to make money. That is all.
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