I’m suffering from sequel-itis. It’s finally happened. On the plus side, Horrible Bosses 2 was a sequel to a film from three years ago instead of 10+. On the negative side, how many times can we recycle plot and jokes then call it a sequel? Isn’t that more of a remake?
This time our three anti-heroes decide to perform a kidnapping rather than murder but everything else is pretty much the same.
At the beginning of the film Nick, Kurt and Dale (Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day, respectively) are special guests on a morning show. They’re there to show off an invention, the Shower Buddy, in a bid to drum up curiosity so that they can start their own business. The idea that they want to become their own bosses makes sense in context but nothing afterwards is particularly entertaining.
Despite screwing up the live interview they’re contacted by Rex Hanson (Chris Pine), who claims to run the biggest catalog company in North America. Turns out he’s just the son of the owner but daddy Bert (Christoph Waltz) likes their idea and makes an initial order of 100,000 Shower Buddies.
Being a comedy, shit goes downhill fast. Nick, Kurt and Dale get screwed over and are now at risk of losing their company and bankruptcy. Since they’re mostly idiots they decide to kidnap Rex and hold him for ransom. Then of course things go downhill more.
There is nothing surprising or new here. Dr. Harris (Jennifer Aniston), Dave Harken (Kevin Spacey) and Motherfucker Jones (Jamie Foxx) are back to reprise their roles to a painfully predictable degree. Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day play their characters as barely-functioning idiots. Jason Bateman is still the straight man. In fact the only new, fun guy is Chris Pine’s character. Since we have so many bumbling idiots and comic foils it’s nice to see an actual sociopath in the film. Yes, Horrible Bosses 2 is so inept a comedy that it was nice to see a functioning sociopath take center stage.
The jokes are there but they’re mostly recycled. Dr. Harris is still a sex addict but now she’s even more disturbing! Motherfucker Jones’ running joke of being bad at haggling is on display all the time! The three ‘heroes’ luck into not screwing up! SO MANY DICK JOKES!
The worst part is that apparently the word fuck is an adjective, adverb, verb and space filler. I’m not against its use, after all I’m a fucking Tarantino fan, but I don’t feel it needs to be used to the point that it felt like the writers replaced every instance of ‘the’ in the script with ‘fuck.’
If you liked the first one you probably won’t hate the sequel but absolutely nobody is going to be impressed. Please, please, please don’t let there be a third.
Happy Fucking Thanksgiving.