Before I talk about this movie, I'd like to talk about the events leading up to my seeing it. I wasn't very excited to see this movie. I thought it would be entertaining but forgettable, so I wasn't expecting much. My girlfriend and I sat down in the theater, waited through the 10 or so minutes of commercials for Coke, The Smurfs movie, and all the drama that was going on in the lives of the people around us ("And then I said, She's not even my friend! Why would you believe her? " "What did he say then?" "Nothing! He knew he was busted!" etc., etc.). Then the previews started.
First up - the Fright Night remake. It looks pretty fun, actually. Next - the Footloose remake. It looks horrible. But it also looks like an extremely faithful remake of the original, which is depressing, because I liked the original at the time. I was a little kid, but still... Next up - the one where Jason Bateman and Ryan Reynolds switch bodies. Which then reminds me of all the body switching movies I saw as a kid in the '80's. There's a reason no one's clamoring for a re-release of Vice Versa.
Counting The Smurfs, that makes 4 remakes coming out soon and no hope for originality in the coming weeks at the air-conditioned multiplex. Between that news, and the impending court dates of my fellow moviegoers, I was not in the best mood to see Horrible Bosses.
But it's hilarious.
Really, I haven't laughed this hard at a movie in a long time. I know everyone loves The Hangover movies, and they're ok, but this is the movie that I'll be watching and quoting for the next few years. Jason Bateman does his straight man routine to perfection. Jason Sudekis from Saturday Night Live is funny as the horndog friend, and Charlie Day from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is fantastic. I'd never reallly watched that show before, but I will now. He's that funny. Watching these three come up with and try to execute a plan to, well, execute their bosses is fantastic.
As the bosses, Kevin Spacey does a funny version of his Swimming With Sharks character, Jennifer Aniston is actually funny as the sexually harrassing dentist boss, but Colin Farrell is the best boss in the movie. His Bobby Pettit, a coked-up, kung fu practicing (He's a green belt! And don't you forget it!) slimeball with the worst comb-over in history, gets a gold star. He deserves his own movie.
I haven't even gotten to Jaime Foxx as the "murder consultant". It was when he showed up and explained to the characters that they should all kill each other's bosses, that an old man behind me decided to exclaim to his neighbor in an old man whisper that was 10 times too loud "LIKE STRANGERS ON A TRAIN! YOU KNOW, HITCHCOCK!!!". At which point, one of the characters says "Like Hitchcock! You know, Strangers on a Train!" This thrilled the old man to no end, because it was like the movie had talked directly to him, so he laughed uproariously.
Even with all that was going on at the theater around me, I enjoyed this movie enormously. I definitely recommend seeing it in the theater with the biggest crowd you can. Really, the only thing that could ruin it is a crying baby. That means you have about a 1 in 3 shot of having a really good time.
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