I Laughed Once... Maybe Twice

Rating: 5/10 (9 November 2013)

To be completely honest, I'm surprised by the high rating of this movie. I would have assumed it would be more around the 5.9 area... not 6.9... but I digress.
I love comedy. When a comedy is done well, I'm a happy, happy camper. However, this movie just wasn't funny. I felt like they were trying really hard to make me (and everyone else) laugh, but it just didn't work.
I personally think that if Colin Farrell had way more screen time, the movie would have been much funnier. His comb-over, his twitches, his absurd mannerisms made him hands- down the funniest element of this movie, yet he only appears in two or three scenes.
Kevin Spacey plays a carbon copy of Buddy Ackerman. The writers practically lifted his lines from Swimming With Sharks. I'm not sure if this was intentional or not. I do think, however, that SWS was a much funnier and fascinating movie.
Charlie Day was hilarious in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia but in this movie his screechy voice renders him almost unbearable to watch. His dilemma regarding his boss is also a tad unrealistic. His boss is the gorgeous Jennifer Aniston (who was very sexy in this movie) and her constant heavy flirtation with Dale is unbelievable to say the least, as is his disgust with her. I understand the character as not wanting to cheat on his wife, but I think that if a woman who is ten times as beautiful as his wife is constantly flirting with him, that he would suffer some sort of inner dilemma regarding the situation. We're all human. Yet in this movie, he seems utterly unphased by her advances.
My other issue with the film is it's constant expletives. I've never been one to shy away from swearing. I'm not a prude. However, this film is littered with F-words and it just feels like the writers put them in with the thought that they would generate humour. They don't. They just make the characters look vulgar, tasteless and dumb.
There is one line in the movie I laughed hard at. The rest inspired a few smirks and chuckles, but it was hardly a laugh-fest. Jennifer Aniston is ridiculously cute and Colin Farrell is hilarious. The three leads weren't funny, in my opinion. One character shoves a toothbrush up his butt. Wow... so funny.
I watched The Odd Couple last week and I was astonished by how much I liked it. The movie was clever, frantic, full of very tight dialogue and visual humour. However, watching Horrible Bosses made me feel a bit sad about the state of comedy these days. Very few "Comedy" movies that are released these days inspire more than a giggle out of me. It would be nice to see a return to intelligent humour. Enough of this crude, potty-mouth, Adam Sandler-esque humour. Is this movie a reflection of the "dumbing-down" of America? Hope not.