Review of Horrible Bosses (2011) By Mike

Title: Horrible Bosses
Original UK Release Date: 22^nd July 2011
Original US Release Date: 8^th July 2011
UK Rating: 15
US Rating: R
Director: Seth Gordon
Genre: Comedy
Plot: Three friends conspire to murder their awful bosses when they realize they are standing in the way of their happiness.

Mike's Review

Easily my favourite comedy of 2011, with Crazy, Stupid, Love. coming a close second.

The film is about three guys whose jobs are made hell by their bosses. They decide to kill them in a “Strangers on a train” style, where one kills another’s boss so it can’t be traced back to the employee.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from the cast that includes Kevin Spacey, Jason Bateman, Colin Farrell, Donald Sutherland, Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Aniston. Each fine actors but how would they fair in this film? Amazingly is how. Colin Farrell is almost unrecognizable as one of the bosses and Kevin Spacey is great as usual. However the stand out performance of the film is Jennifer Aniston. She plays a dentist, the boss of Dale (Charlie Day) and she is sexually harassing him. She really takes the role and plays it to perfection. Dale is her shy assistant who is engaged to Stacy (Lindsay Sloane). He is faithful to her and resists all advances from his over sexed boss. It is not a role we are used to seeing her play but it is a perfect performance. Another great performance was Jamie Foxx the murder consultant they hire.

Horrible Bosses is a great comedy, almost a perfect comedy. The only flaw for me was it was all tied up a little too neatly. I saw the ending coming before it happened and it would have been nice to have an ending a little more surprising. Having said that I can’t imagine how it could have been ended differently.

The film doesn’t have to resort to crude gags and just lets the script and performances of the cast tell the story. This works so well and full credit to the writers for a great comedy.

9 out of 10

Additional Information

Stand out performance: Jennifer Anniston as Dr Julia Harris

One of the writers is John Francis Daley who plays Dr Lance Sweets on the hit series Bones.

Trailer