Ever fantasised about killing your boss? Don’t worry, you’re not alone.
Bosses. We all have them. If you’re lucky they’re nice, but it’s more likely that they’re not nice. Iin fact, they might be downright horrible. It’s a universal concept, brought to the screen by Seth Gordon, former documentary maker behind the amazing King of Kong and Freakonomics. What does a documentary maker know about making comedies? Well, Gordon has also worked on Modern Family and the US Office TV shows so it’s safe to say he knows what he’s doing.
The bosses in question are played by Kevin Spacey, Colin Farrell and Jennifer Aniston. Spacey plays Dave Harken, a power hungry slave driver who has been promising Jason Bateman’s character Nick a big promotion. Colin Farrell plays Bobby Pellitt a man obsessed with cocaine and prostitutes, who unexpectedly becomes Kurt’s boss (played by Jason Sudeikis) when his father dies. Finally dental technician Dale, played by Charlie Day, has an ongoing battle with his boss Julie (played by Jennifer Aniston) who’s been sexually harassing him for months.
Several events converge to create a crisis for Kurt, Dale and Nick. Nick’s boss awards the promotion to himself, Bobby asks Kurt to fire all the fat and disabled people and Julia threatens to tell Dale’s fiancé that they are having an affair if he doesn’t sleep with her. Over some beers the three guys decide that drastic action is needed, and a joke about killing their bosses somehow snowballs into a real plan. Inspired by Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train and with a little help from a local hitman played by Jamie Foxx, they try and work out how best to despatch their bosses. What they weren’t counting on were the ridiculous mistakes they’d make along the way.
The bosses are the real stars of this film, Aniston is wonderful as a predatory sex pest in a role that might erase the memory of ‘Rachel from Friends’ forever. Spacey is typically great as a smarmy, power hungry a**hole. Colin Farrell’s character appears to be based on, well, on Colin Farrell. His comb over and beer belly however make the whole debacle much funnier. It’s a pretty star studded cast, packed with Saturday Night Live alumni, genuine screen legends (Donald Sutherland plays Colin Farrell’s father), even Ioan Gruffudd has a cameo as a male prostitute.
Horrible Bosses doesn’t really get any more exciting than the title suggests, it’s not particularly original, nor is it particularly ground-breaking but the assembled cast and their comic timing make the most out of the script. There’s a good amount of catharsis in watching people plot to kill their own bosses, and this probably makes up for most of the enjoyment but as comedies go, it’s above average. If anything the cast might be a little too large – there are a lot of talented comedians and no-one really gets enough time to shine, but then that’s just splitting hairs.
Horrible Bosses is released on DVD on November 21.