How to Get Away with Laughter

‘Horrible Bosses,’ 2011’s surprise comedy sleeper hit, made money to the tune of over $117 million domestic and $209 million worldwide, so it would be remiss of Hollywood not to do a sequel.  Three and a half years later, we finally get to see the continuing misadventures of HB’s three bumbling protagonists, Nick, Dale and Kurt, as played by Jason Bateman, Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis respectively.

 

With one horrible boss six feet under (Colin Farrell) and another serving hard time (Kevin Spacey), our Three Stooges have to find new bosses to plot against.  Luckily, they found just the ticket in Burt (Christoph Waltz) and his ungrateful, scheming and wacko son Rex (Chris Pine), who screwed the trio over when they ‘invested’ in their invention only to pull the rug out from under them and leaving them out to dry.  Keeping to their characters from ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ and SNL, Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis are ADD-afflicted idiots who can’t stop jabbering at once, while Jason Bateman was also in character as the sad sap schmuck we’re accustomed to seeing in his other roles including ‘Identity Thief’ and ‘Arrested Development.’  The writers also found ways to reprise Jennifer Aniston as Dale’s nymphomaniac ex-boss Dr. Julia and Jamie Foxx as the small time criminal mastermind Dean “Motherfucker” Jones.

 

HB2 is darker and more violent than the original, and in this sense is more akin to ’21 Jump Street’ and its sequel ’22 Jump Street.’  Like its predecessor, HB2 isn’t consistently funny throughout, but when the movie had its moments I laughed out loud more often than not in spite of myself.

Grade: B