Film Review – Horrible Bosses
I’ve been reading a lot of the reviews for Horrible Bosses and if I took a shot every time someone made a reference to The Hangover when reviewing this film I would have died of alcohol poisoning within ten minutes. People seemingly CANNOT review this film without in some way comparing it to that film and I suppose it’s because the sequel did massive numbers earlier this year and so that’s the standard we have to hold this film, which has NOTHING in common with that film aside from it being a comedy with three male leads. Seriously. This is nothing like The Hangover. I’m going to try to hammer that point home pretty heavily because I don’t even want that to be a factor. Horrible Bosses is a different beast altogether. With a different sort of humor at play and with a tone that separates it pretty handily from just about any other recent comedy.
I would have to say that I enjoyed Horrible Bosses more than I enjoyed The Hangover, for starters. It’s definitely better than the sequel which, for the record, is probably the laziest sequel I have ever seen committed to film. If ever there was a beat-for-beat retread of its predecessor, that would be it. What we get out of Horrible Bosses is a little bit more original, although I think it’s something that everybody has thought about at one point or another. I’m sure most of the people reading this blog even had thought up a way to do it. I won’t give mine away. But it was pretty intricate. That’s not the point. The point is that as a comedy it’s not afraid to go places that other comedies seemingly would. Although I admit that I was hoping it would go darker than it actually did. I’m not gonna lie, I was disappointed in that aspect. But the acting on display here was phenomenal. These characters are all hilarious in their own ways and that’s what really makes the movie sing. Jason Bateman might be the world’s best comedic straight man. His line delivery is pitch perfect every time. Jason Sudekis is really coming into his own as well. I haven’t seen much of his recent SNL work but I did love him on 30 Rock and he was pretty good in Hall Pass, but he comes across far better here. The real standout is Charlie Day who, as fans of It’s Always Sunny in Philidelphia will tell you, is just nut-bustingly funny. His manic delivery is great here and while he’s essentially playing a character much like the one you see every week on Sunny, he comes across more as blissfully ignorant and good-natured here whereas his character on Sunny is pretty much a useless bastard.
This is a very well developed comedy. The plot beats work. The character work is great. Everyone seems to be hitting the targets they’re aiming for. Jamie Foxx didn’t even piss me off once, and I kinda hate that guy. Doesn’t that say something about how good this movie is?
Film Review – Paul
When Simon Pegg and Nick Frost appear in a film there will always be a level of presumption in regard to what the movie will be like. Thus far the pair have been almost exclusively paired together when working with Edgar Wright. From Spaced to Shaun of the Dead to Hot Fuzz, when the boys are together they usually have Wright as a guiding force. They are the holy trinity of film nerditry. Here they’re responsible for the script but it’s Greg Mottola of Superbad and Adventureland who is directing the action. Of course the tone is going to be a bit different. The thing that remains the same is the dynamic between Pegg and Frost, whose real life friendship permeates ever frame of the film and makes the whole thing work. You never don’t believe that these guys are lifelong pals because the two have such a natural rapport with each other. It’s endearing on many levels.
I’ve heard criticisms leveled at Paul decrying it as a self-absorbed fan-wank with little actual substance, existing only as an excuse for Frost and Pegg to indulge their nerdier side in a more direct way than they’d been able to in stuff like Shaun of the Dead. I would like to think that the movie works on more levels than that. There’s certainly enough genuine moments of friendship here between the two leads as well as their interactions with their new extra-terrestrial pal to offset the nudge-nudge in-jokes that permeate the script. What a lot of people don’t seem to get is that enough of what the script pays homage to can’t really be considered an in-joke because the setting and the characters within the film feel like everybody is a part of their culture just as much as they are. In their obliviousness, they don’t realize how the references to their nerd culture might sail right over the head of those not involved in the scene. Aside from that, who the hell doesn’t get Star Wars references. Star Wars can’t be considered niche in any way nowadays, much the same with Star Trek as it’s permeated into the popular culture so deeply that just about everybody gets the jokes almost instinctively.
Admittedly it’s not the best film of Pegg, Frost, or Mottola. I don’t think Mottola will ever be able to make something as perfect as he did with Adventureland and Pegg and Frost’s best work will most likely always be with Edgar Wright, as the magic that comes from their pairing seems to explode under his direction, but Paul is a worthy diversion and I hope it finds a bigger audience than its opening weekend numbers suggest.
Comics Con Queso 