Horrible Bosses

I feel very fortunate that I have never had a horrible boss. I have worked at a fast food restaurant, as an umpire (dealing with horribly stupid people all of sorts, but alas, no bosses), an RA, a waiter, at a newspaper, as a summer camp counselor, a teacher, and a telemarketer (talking to horrible people but not being bossed by them). I have not been manhandled, verbally ripped to shreds, or been forced to fire people by my bosses. But I could perfectly empathize with the characters played by Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis, and Charlie Day, as they were harassed and humiliated by their bosses played by Kevin Spacey, Colin Farrell, and Jennifer Aniston, respectively. A movie like "Horrible Bosses," which can provoke empathy even from those who cannot empathize directly with the characters and can make an audience laugh throughout its entirety, deserves a thorough endorsement.

Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day play three friends with horrible bosses in different professions. Bateman is Nick, a dedicated and loyal executive to his boss, Dave Harken (Spacey), despite Harken's frequent bullying towards him--tricking him into drinking at 8 a.m. and later accusing him of alcoholism, lecturing him for being two minutes late, forcing him to work so late that he misses saying goodbye (forever) to his grandmother, nicknamed Gam Gam (a nickname Harken mockingly finds hysterical), and despite hinting to him that he will be vice president of the company, he instead takes the role himself, even though he is already president. Nick hates his boss.

Jason Sudeikis is Kurt Buckman, an accountant who actually loves his job and his boss (Donald Sutherland). The only part of his job he dislikes is his boss's son, Bobby Pellitt (Farrill), a cocaine addict more obsessed with sex, bypassing environmental regulations and either firing the overweight girl (to "trim the fat" of the company) or "Professor Xavier," an employee in a wheelchair, than he is with matching the work ethic of his father. With the death of Kurt's boss, Bobby takes over and makes Kurt's job and life miserable. Kurt hates his boss.

Charlie Day is Dale Arbus, a dental assistant hopelessly in love with his fiancee but not his boss, the dentist, Dr. Julia Harris (Jennifer Aniston). Despite his love and hard work, Julia is not necessarily madly in love with Dale but mad about having sex with him, however much Dale refuses. As Jon Stewart said, it is Aniston's raunchiest role since "Marlee and Me." Julia constantly makes crude jokes at the office, sprays his crotch with her dental squirt gun, summons him into her office where she waits topless, and blackmails him into having sex with her. Dale's two friends (and probably the majority of the males in the audience) have difficulty finding what is so difficult about his job, but nonetheless, Dale hates his boss just as much as the other two do.

Not being able to tolerate the abuse anymore and confusing "Strangers on a Train" with "Throw Momma From the Train" as the "Hitchcock movie with Danny DeVito," the three hire a hitman (Jaime Foxx; his character's name probably shouldn't be mentioned here but it's quite funny) to kill their bosses. Their plan goes awry, as expected.

"Horrible Bosses" is hysterical. It's probably as raunchy as "The Hangover" but not as stupid or overrated. The three main characters have an immediate chemistry that seems neither faked nor forced. They all have their own quirks and characteristics, with Day being the outrageous character and Bateman more subdued but just as funny; Sudeikis seems to have added the most to his character with his oneliners. Day gets a bit annoying, but while he's a bit drugged up and singing to the the Ting Tings, it makes up for it. But the bosses are really the ones who are the most entertaining to watch. Farrell is the most unrecognizable--he twitches and awkwardly struts with malice towards many. Aniston has done sexy before, but in the movies has never been allowed to be funny like this. And Spacey, who last played a jerk boss in "Glengarry Glen Ross," is the funniest, perfectly cruel, despotic and self-centered, the boss that you really, really want to see get punched. The cast, with cameos by Julie Bowen, Ioan Gruffudd, Ron White, Wendell Pierce, Isaiah Mustafa, and a certain famous TV star from the 1970s (as another unethical boss), really elevates the humor of this film, without relying on a gratuity of bathroom jokes (but there is a really funny and pretty gross scene involving a bathroom). They all work quite well together, and, as production designer Stepherd Frankel noted, play as if it's a team of three against another team of three, with Jamie Foxx as the referee.

I would not recommend resorting to what these three characters do to get rid of their bosses. They feel stuck and helpless. Regardless, movies alleviate miseries better than bullets do, so I instead propose viewing a film like this one. It's one of the very funniest movies of the year.