You know the three girls in the white dresses? (I think the blonde is my favourite – she looks so sincere.) They have a jolly little picnic then, that night, turn up at a swank A-list party still decked out in the same frocks.
All the while they are flogging some brand of sparkling booze, but to save my life I couldn’t tell you what it is. There are a lot of movies that are like that – shiny and gassy, but when the end credits are rolling you suddenly realise that you’ve not taken a skerrick of notice.
This is one of those movies.
It is generally agreed upon that sequels are rarely the equal of the original, but in this case any comparison, negative or otherwise, is difficult to make because, to be perfectly frank, Horrible Bosses 1 was equally forgettable.
The three leads are back – Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis and Jason Day – and this time out, as business partners, they are involved in a hare-brained plan to have the son of the retail magnate who has dudded them (Christoph Waltz) kidnapped in order to recover the money that they have lost.
Being a run-of-the-mill buddy flick, the guys prove to be totally incompetent and chaos and cheap gags ensue.
A stellar support cast includes Kevin Spacey slumming it for a paycheque, Jennifer Aniston, who worked with more conviction in Friends, and Jamie Foxx, now specialising as a dial-a-gangsta comic.
The jokes are occasionally okay, but Bateman, Sudeikis and Day aren’t up to making more of them – Bateman in particular, whose stock in trade is blandness with a suppressed angst, appears uninspired to the point where he is struggling not to yawn.
What is odd about the whole scenario is that there are no horrible bosses to be vanquished.
If we get a rainy day and the beach is out of the question, you might find some pleasure in its slickness and harmless – indeed, effortless – stupidity.
~ John Campbell