Horrible Bosses 2 review

Horrible Bosses 2 (15/R, 108 mins)
Director: Sean Anders
★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

The law of diminishing returns for comedy sequels comes into effect with this grim retread that once again stars Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day as a trio of hopeless friends who turn to crime when their luck deserts them. After the events of the first movie they’ve quit their jobs with the intention of running their own company and have invented a shower device, the demonstration of which on a chat show makes for a very early example of just what level of coarseness this return is going to be reaching for. When a flashy businessman (Chris Pine) and his father (Christoph Waltz) go back on a deal, they decide to kidnap and ransom Pine and, to no one’s surprise they're even worse kidnappers than they are murderers - they were dim in the first film, but they surely weren’t this dim. You can 100% guarantee that Day and Sudeikis will behave like morons, with every plot point driven by their idiocy, and it soon becomes tiresome. It’s thoroughly undisciplined, with people just allowed to talk until one of them hopefully says something funny, which is very rarely the case. Paying no regard to logic, which again can be overlooked if the laughs are plentiful enough, the series has gone from pretty funny to pretty much a laugh free zone. Quite the most remarkable cast is topped up with a visit to Bateman’s old boss in prison (Kevin Spacey), while Jennifer Aniston returns to lash on the crudity. A relaxed Bateman does his low-key exasperation while Day screams every line in deeply wearying style, and in the end it’s far closer to headache-inducing than funny.

Horrible Bosses review

Horrible Bosses (15/R, 97 mins)
Director: Seth Gordon
★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

If you ignore the disappointment of The Hangover II, it’s been a rather good summer so far for bawdy comedies. That run is continued with Horrible Bosses, a no holds barred spin on the old Jane Fonda and Dolly Parton vehicle, 9 to 5. Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day star as three disgruntled friends who each loathe their respective bosses in the shapes of Kevin Spacey, Colin Farrell and Jennifer Aniston. All miserable at their work, they hit on a scheme, a la Strangers on a Train, to kill each other’s bosses, which involves the hiring of a somewhat ineffectual hitman (Jamie Foxx). In terms of setting up their situation and antagonists, Seth Gordon and his writers do a cracking job, but what really makes Horrible Bosses tick are its stars. Heightened scenarios are played to perfection by a stellar line up, some like Bateman and Spacey doing their well honed thing, others like Aniston subverting their images with equal success. It’s daft but it’s hilarious, which is what matters most, and it builds with consistent laughs so that, while unquestionably ridiculous, it’s fresh and free enough to forgive. Feeble title notwithstanding, it’s up there with Bridesmaids as one of the year’s best comedies.

The Switch review

The Switch (12A, 101 mins)
Directors: Josh Gordon, Will Speck

★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

Jason Bateman and Jennifer Aniston are platonic friends who hit a snag when she announces she wants a baby through artificial insemination and finds a donor in Patrick Wilson. Thanks to a moronic chain of events, Bateman drunkenly replaces Wilson’s sample with his own so that when Aniston turns up seven years later with a son in tow who’s as odd and neurotic as he is, Bateman finds himself unable to tell her the truth. It would be wrong to label this as a rom-com as it’s not really played for laughs except when their respective friends are at hand to offer pithy advice, and though not too objectionable, it’s just a bit stale with little character momentum driving it forward. It’s usually hard to go too far wrong with the likes of Bateman and Aniston at the helm, but it’s such an ill-advised idea to begin with that they're mostly powerless to save it.