What was all the hype about?...

Rating: 4/10 (25 September 2011)

There was a lot of hype around this movie, and I must admit that it had caught my interesting, so I was looking forward to seeing the movie.
And now that I have seen it, I must say that I feel somewhat cheated. That the hype was all for nothing. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that this is a bad or boring movie, not by a long shot. The movie just wasn't all that I expected it to be.
The storyline is pretty good; you have three friends Nick (played by Jason Bateman), Kurt (played by Jason Sudeikis) and Dale (played by Charlie Day) who all have these mean, wicked, horrible bosses (hence the title of the movie, clever, eh?). They come up with an ill-planned scheme to kill their bosses and rid themselves of their tormentors. But of course, things doesn't turn out as planned.
For a comedy, I found myself lacking laughs. There were only a single time or two times throughout the movie that I was laughing. Sure, the movie did bring about a lot of smiles, but in general it wasn't over-the-top funny. Which was a shame, because the movie could really have been so much more.
What did work for the movie, was the impressive cast. All three main characters were played by some really good actors; Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day. And the people who played their tormenting bosses, well that was the most impressive. You had Jennifer Anniston in the role of Dr. Julia Harris, a sex-crazed nympho. It was kind of surreal to see her in this role, but it worked out quite well. You had Colin Farrell in the role of Bobby Pellitt, a man over the hill, but still believing he was all that and a bag of chips. And finally you had Kevin Spacey in the role of Dave Harken, a scrupulous company boss, bent of slave-driving his workers. There were also a handful of good appearances by other great actors, for example Donald Sutherland in the role of Jack Pellitt and Ioan Gruffudd as Wetwork Man and Jamie Foxx as Dean 'MF' Jones. All these amazing actors/actresses really came together for a marvelous performance that carried the movie far.
I just wish there had been more comedy in the movie, at least the style of comedy that I liked. But of course, we are all different people, with different likes and dislikes. The movie just didn't deliver what I had expected it to, so it was a somewhat lukewarm experience for me.