Horrible Bosses 2 Review

A Horrible Waste Of A Trio

Comedy sequels have grown more popular in recent years, thanks to the success The Wolfpack had back in 2011 with their first successive adventure. It received dismal reviews, but managed to make more than enough money to make studios fall in love with the idea of making more sequels to entities like Dumb And Dumber and Horrible Bosses. The latter's sequel, Horrible Bosses 2, is the subject of this review, and from a quality perspective doesn't exactly make compelling case for more Bosses movies down the road.
The plot of this one is fairly simple; Nick (Jason Bateman), Kurt (Jason Sudeikis) and Dale (Charlie Day) try to get their own company off the ground with the help of a powerful businessman (Christoph Waltz), but when he double crosses them, they plan a kidnapping scheme involving the crooked businessman son, Rex, (Chris Pine) that goes awry. The script penned by Sean Anders and John Morris, is pretty sloppy, especially in how it just has characters played by Jennifer Aniston and Jamie Foxx show up at random opportunities in order to keep plot points and jokes moving in the climax.

It doesn't help that the film is surprisingly insulting in it's predictability, with every plot point being obvious to everyone except for (of course) the movies protagonists. Some of the jokes are similarly uninventive, leading to a film that's lacking any sense of urgency or fun for much of it. But frankly, this entire enterprise odes have a secret weapon; it's three leads. Bateman, Sudekis and Day are legitimately hilarious together, with their dynamic feeling both realistic and humorous.    

They can't elevate every single moment of the film, and they each have some jokes that don't go anywhere, but the trio is fun to watch and help concoct the movies most memorable moments. I was particularly impressed by Day, whose frantic but well meaning personality is just always fun to watch. especially when he drops some really humorous lines ("I f***ing love Sandra Bullock!" is a keeper). It's a pity this gang couldn't get a better movie to be in, but they make the best of what little they have.

Sean Anders direct this outing, and he doesn't really display any flair in that department. He isn't bad, but aside from one gag involving walkie-talkies and a hotel room, there really isn't anything notable done in the film from a visual sense. Speaking of visuals, I don't know if this will make any sense, but the films color palette also started to get on my nerves after awhile, as most of the unimaginative colors seen in the movie are really dark and somber. Just helped to reinforce a feeling of indifference I had towards the movie, even if the primary trio deliver some memorable moments.