Hollywod Just Can't Do Comedy

Rating: 3/10 (25 November 2011)

A genuinely funny comedy film is extremely hard to make. Humour tends to work much better in shorter formats like TV episodes. However, films like Monty Python: Life of Brian show how it can be done. In Horrible Bosses, Hollywood once again shows how not to do it.
The premise of three ordinary Joes wanting to kill their intolerable bosses is a good one and the first 40 minutes setting this up are OK. Kevin Spacey is excellent as the manipulative corporate monster and Jennifer Aniston is surprisingly good as the sexual predator, particularly as she has to act being sexually attracted to a whiny, bearded dwarf like Charlie Day. It's obvious that Aniston has only been cast for the novelty of having her talk dirty on screen but she makes a pretty good fist of the part. Colin Farrell puts in a pedestrian performance as a selfish coke head. Then the film starts to unravel with the bumbling attempts of the three stooges to accomplish their plan.
The three leads (Bateman, Sudeikis and Day) just don't work as an ensemble at all. There is no chemistry between them and the lack of direction is woeful. The dialogue appears to be improvised, such is its lack of timing or comedy content. Day tries to steal scenes by talking very quickly in a screechy voice and the other two are just flat and unfunny. At no time do you feel sympathy for any of the three. Some of the attempts at humour are hopelessly out of date; do 21st century audiences really find a crude attempt at acting high on coke funny? The plot is also weak. For a great premise, the comedy possibilities were excellent but the story lurches from predictable misunderstanding to tired cliché to a ludicrous deus ex machina at the end. It cops out on dealing with the sexually predatory dentist, who is blackmailed by Day's character into leaving him alone, raising the obvious question of why he didn't just do that in the first place instead of involving himself in a plot to kill her.
Hollywood has never been good at comedy but it doesn't seem to be getting any better. It's either bland and clichéd or else trying to get laughs from extreme behaviour (what the Yanks refer to as 'gross-out'). Neither is funny in itself. Good comedy, like good drama, starts with good writing. US TV comedy has learnt this lesson and been reborn as a result with shows like My Name is Earl, 30 Rock and Curb Your Enthusiasm. When is Hollywood going to wake up and smell the coffee?