By Bob Garver<\/p>\n
2011\u2019s \u201cHorrible Bosses\u201d was a solid, funny movie. The thing I remember most about seeing it is that there was a huge guy in the seat in front of me who bounced back and forth wildly any time something funny happened onscreen, which was admirably often. The theater was too dark and crowded for me to change seats, so I just put up with the constant whacking to my kneecaps. In spite of the minor physical pain, I enjoyed the experience very much. I saw \u201cHorrible Bosses 2\u201d without anybody in front of me. At no point did I hurt my knees or any other part of my body. I did not enjoy the experience very much.<\/p>\n
Jason Bateman, Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis are back as the trio of schlubs who resort to extreme measures when somebody more powerful than them tries to make their lives miserable. In the first film, they were up against three distinct, interesting villains. In this film, they\u2019re mostly up against a stiff corporate stereotype (Christoph Waltz) and his spoiled son (Chris Pine). I think the logic in casting Waltz was that he plays villains so well that he can do the work of three. He does what he can to make the performance memorable, but there\u2019s just not much he can do with the character.<\/p>\n
The team\u2019s plan is to kidnap Pine so Waltz will pay a ransom that will save their startup business, which he\u2019s trying to bankrupt. Waltz wears a necktie and they even fail at kidnapping that. You can probably imagine that their plan to kidnap the scheming, able-bodied human is not going to go well. But at least Pine manages to be quite the scene-stealer as the bossy \u201cvictim.\u201d<\/p>\n
The film desperately tries to recapture what worked about the first film. The plot is similar, which is boring and predictable. The humor is similar, which is unproductive and grating. When all else fails, the film tries to make the cast similar. The film finds a way to wedge back in Kevin Spacey, Jamie Foxx, and the award-winning Jennifer Aniston. Okay, it was only an MTV Movie Award, but I say it counts. It\u2019s not that these highly-promoted returns aren\u2019t funny (as a matter of fact, I found them a welcome break from the bumbling of our heroes), but it\u2019s clear that the plot doesn\u2019t have room for them.<\/p>\n
The humor is lifeless. This is a movie where you\u2019re supposed to think it\u2019s funny when a character writes on a dry-erase board and then finds out he\u2019s been writing with a permanent marker. Most of the gags revolve around the characters making mistakes. In the first movie, they were making mistakes that made them unfit to be master criminals. In this movie, they make mistakes that make them unfit to survive in polite society. The stupidity is turned way, way up in search of cheap laughs. The three main actors were clearly inspired by the Three Stooges, which might work if they weren\u2019t blatantly trying to copy the Stooges\u2019 dynamic, especially with Bateman trying to emulate self-proclaimed smart one Moe (though they are funnier than that \u201cactual\u201d Three Stooges movie from a few years back). There are also a lot of asides where the characters get in rambling arguments that hold up the plot. Come on guys, you\u2019ve got a kidnapping to botch. I\u2019m not excited at the prospect of the characters succeeding, I\u2019m excited at the prospect of the movie being over.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t worry, I won\u2019t make the obvious joke that \u201cHorrible Bosses 2\u201d is less fun than getting hit repeatedly in the kneecaps. It would be hacky and on par with this film\u2019s uncreative script. Besides, there are a few funny moments in this film, maybe more than I\u2019ve made it seem. All I\u2019m saying is that \u201cHorrible Bosses 2\u201d is pretty painful on one level, so it\u2019s best that it isn\u2019t painful on another.<\/p>\n
Two Stars out of Five.<\/p>\n
\u201cHorrible Bosses 2\u201d is rated R for strong crude sexual content and language throughout. Its running time is 108 minutes.<\/p>\n