Horrible Bosses wowed audiences ($117 million) and won over most critics (69% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) in the summer of 2011. The unlikely comedy starred three guys in their late 30s/early 40s who absolutely hated the bosses they worked for so much that they plotted ways to get even with them for making their work lives so miserable. With an unlikely group that included two Best Actor Academy Award winners (Kevin Spacey, Jamie Foxx) from the last fifteen years, signed on as supporting characters, this cast was a who’s who in Hollywood. The movie is hilarious and is definitely worth watching. The same critics who lauded the Horrible Bosses seem to be the same ones crushing Horrible Bosses 2 (just 35% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes). While I wouldn’t say the sequel was better than the first one, it was comparable in terms of laughs. While the formula is the same, the jokes are new and original, and the payoff is just as good as the original. With that said, I hope that this franchise quits while it’s ahead. I could see a potential Horrible Bosses 3 resulting in an utter disaster.

Horrible Bosses 2 starts with a bang. Desperate to work for themselves, Nick (Jason Bateman – The Gift, Juno), Kurt (Jason Sudeikis –We’re the Millers, Hall Pass), and Dale (Charlie Day – The LEGO Movie, Pacific Rim) invent The Shower Buddy. This device dispenses various shampoos and conditioners from shower-head nozzles. While on a Los Angeles morning television talk show to demonstrate and help their invention gain national appeal, anything and everything that could go wrong does go wrong, providing for hilarious laugh-out-loud moments. Likewise, the trio reveals the name of their company, NickKurtDale, which sounds derogatory when spoken aloud quickly. So their potential moment of triumph turns to one of misery as they are chased off the stage and ridiculed.

However, one investor named Rex (Chris Pine – Star Trek: Into Darkness, Unstoppable) is interested in their product and offers to buy their company for a “respectable price.” When they turn him down, he says that the price was $3,000,000. That leads to a humorous back-and-forth as well. But as it turns out, Rex has no power. The company he falsely represents actually belongs to his father, Burt (Christoph Waltz –Inglourious Basterds, Django Unchained). Fortunately for Nick, Kurt, and Dale, Burt offers to buy 100,000 Shower Buddies for the distribution rights and even provides the name of a banker from whom they could obtain a loan for production. Little do they know that after all 100,000 are produced, Burt backs out on the deal. With no way to repay the bank for the loan they borrowed, Burt can buy all the Shower Buddies below unit costs.

With even more reason to exact revenge on their boss, the trio devises the most devious plans, involving kidnapping Rex and then demanding a large sum of money from Burt to secure his release. To accomplish their mission, they list some assistance from Dean “MF” Jones (Jamie Foxx – Ray, Collateral) as well as Dave (Kevin Spacey – American Beauty, Se7en). Unfortunately, he is now behind bars, thanks to repercussions from the original movie. And of course, they run into Dr. Julia Harris (Jennifer Aniston – Cake, The Good Girl), Dale’s former boss from his job as a dental assistant, who steals the movie as an impulsive, no bones about it, sex addict. Just like in the original, the knockout Julia continues to be obsessed with Dale because he’s the one person in life who has ever turned him down. In a movie that has an incredible ensemble, Aniston’s Julia steals the show. Her unfiltered mouth and flat-out abrasiveness regarding her feelings on sex are so funny; it’s almost uncomfortable. Her role is so different from anything that she’s been in before that you have to do a double-take to remember that it’s here.

While it doesn’t have the originality of Horrible Bosses, and it’s not nearly as polished from start to finish, it’s a decent sequel that has its share of laughs. Is it corny and unrealistic? Of course, it is? But it’s also fun to see these novices get themselves into situations that they can almost get out of, only to do something stupid and end up in a worse position than they were in previously. Bateman, Sudeikis, and Day have a chemistry that works, though they might be ad-libbing at times. Not every scene was perfect, nor was it even close to perfect. Some scenes were just stupid, but there are enough good laughs, in my opinion, to give this movie a chance on a quiet night at home (especially if you liked the first one). If you’re looking for a good R-rated comedy, you could do much worse. With that said, if this movie comes across a cable channel, I would skip it. You need to have explicit language and sexual innuendo for this movie to have its desired effect.

Plot 8/10
Character Development 7/10
Character Chemistry 9/10
Acting 8/10
Screenplay 7/10
Directing  7.5/10
Cinematography 7.5/10
Sound 7/10 (needed a cool summer soundtrack to go with it or something)
Hook and Reel 10/10 (the first scene is the funniest of the movie, and while it drags a little at times, there are enough funny moments to keep you laughing)
Universal Relevance 9/10 (who hasn’t had a boss whom they’ve not liked at one time in their lives? Mine was the store manager at Harris Teeter when I worked there for six months during grad school.)
80%

B-

Movies You Might Like If You Liked This Movie

• Horrible Bosses
• We’re the Millers
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