Horrible Bosses

Horrible Bosses starts with a compellingly timely premise and a strong cast, but rather than mine the genuine darkness of its capitalist desperation for comedy, the film settles for thin characterizations and cheap laughs. Jason Bateman plays Nick, whose boss is the blithely sadistic Harken (Kevin Spacey, portraying a far less interesting version of his character in Swimming with Sharks), while Kurt (Jason Sudeikis) suffers under an irresponsible cokehead party boy (Colin Farrell in absurd makeup), and Dale (Charlie Day) works for a sex-crazed dentist (Jennifer Aniston) who won't stop harassing him. The three friends are initially hesitant to commit murder, but the demands of the contrived screenplay eventually win out, and they consult a local black person (Jamie Foxx, delivering an unfair percentage of the laughs) for instruction. There was potential here, but the characters are painted in broad, bland strokes, and it's clear that the filmmakers had no interest in letting things get too edgy, so much of the humor revolves around pointless bits of miscommunication between the three friends and wan slapstick. Horrible Bosses evokes comedic gems like Office Space and TV's The Office without coming anywhere near those works as either social commentary or sardonic fun.