Fun, But Flawed

Rating: 6/10 (7 February 2012)

There are times in our lives where we meet people who would love to kill, but what if we got the courage to do it? 'Horrible Bosses' is a comedy where our main protagonists pluck up the courage and decide to kill their truly evil bosses. With a concept like this it would be easy to completely destroy the general idea and create distasteful comedy full of crude humour and pop culture references but somehow manages to stay afloat. Kevin Spacey, Colin Farrell and Jennifer Aniston are our horrible bosses in the story and are each introduced with their own evil trait. Spacey first appears to be a manipulative, joyless long time financial boss, Farrell as the newly appointed narcissistic head of his fathers company and Aniston as nymphomaniac dentist. Each character has their moments but are essentially supporting characters.
Though the script is often funny, 'Horrible Bosses' is far from perfect. It shy's away from the dark side in which it could have approached and wraps it's self up too neatly. The jokes can come across as hit and miss with some being just plain awkward and the stronger ones thrown around in passing conversation. A stand out character however is Jamie Foxx's who portrays a serial killer and steals the screen within the scenes it's in. The same however can't be said about the bosses though as, much as Spacey and Farrell portray really evil characters, Aniston's rarely reaches the same level as those and comes across as the weakest plot strand and disappears from the story for a lengthy amount of time to the point where it wouldn't be surprising if you forgot about her.
Another major problem is its misogynistic approach to female characters within the story. Aniston's role is the only real main lead that women can have any real connection too, but her character is so exaggerated that it's difficult to find any key elements that they can relate too. There are other small female roles such as Spacey's wife but she is constantly referenced to committing adultery in derogatory ways. It's fine for a film to contain a male headline cast but when that's used as a tool to use prejudice sub context towards females it's hard not for it to surface above the comedy which should be the front hold.
Though despite these criticisms there's a script there that is genuinely hilarious but could have been developed stronger and funnier if it decided to delve deeper into the dark story it is essentially playing. It's a fun way to spend two hours, the story is amusing, the script is strong and as a majority the cast manages to bring a special little something into each of their roles. I just wish it were a bit more horrible and a little less prejudice.