The first Horrible Bosses made me laugh hard from start to finish and was another film that raised the bar superbly high for comedy, in my opinion. Now comes an unwarranted but completely irresistible sequel. Horrible Bosses 2 doesn't pull a Hangover Part II as audiences may have feared. Rather, it finds the three lovable idiots from the first film---Nick (Jason Bateman,) Kurt (Jason Sudekis) and Dale (Charlie Day) in a different situation, once again finding a way to make me laugh hysterically at every corner.
This time, we begin with them on a talk show, explaining their new invention. It is called The Shower Buddy and it is a shower head that spurts out both water and shampoo. Upon feeling like it will never catch on, they receive a call from Bert Hanson (Christoph Waltz,) a business legend who wants to buy loads of their product. However, Bert decides to screw them over and come up with The Shower Pal, which is just their invention with a better name. The film then follows Nick, Kurt and Dale as they fail to kidnap Bert's son Rex (Chris Pine) but find that he wants to screw over his old man anyway.
It's hard to review a film such as this because that whole last paragraph is fairly useless. The plot doesn't matter, it's just there to propel the constant jokes along. However, what does matter is if the film is funny and, as I had mentioned before, it very much is. It was obvious from the outtakes of the first film that Bateman, Sudekis and Day absolutely love working with one another. It was also obvious that people such as Kevin Spacey, Jennifer Aniston and Jamie Foxx (all of whom return) had a blast letting their goofy sides out. It carries over into this film as the entire cast has amazing chemistry and clearly are still loving being with one another on the set. Bateman, Sudekis and Day nail almost every joke they deliver while Spacey, Aniston and Foxx provide excellent supporting comedic work. Foxx is especially good here, having a bigger role than in the last film and showing just how hilarious he can be. Pine is also extremely enjoyable, looking as energetic as ever and giving the character of Rex a completely uneasy nature without losing his comic charm.
One somewhat major complaint I had was that Waltz, incredible actor that he is, gets nothing to do here. He plays his role fine but the script gives his character no life or comedic energy. However, that's a small quibble for a film that I enjoyed so much. In fact, there are two gags in this film that I think are all timers. One involves a quick line in a hotel room and the other involves an extended sequence with a train. I was literally crying from laughing so hard at these two. The film has many other less major but still huge laughs every minute or so.
First and foremost Horrible Bosses 2 gets a lot of credit for trying something different and thoroughly succeeding. Secondly, the film gets props for making me laugh very audibly quite possibly over a hundred times and being even funnier than the first. I won't say that this film will be to everyone's liking but if, like me, you thoroughly enjoyed the first one and/or love the actors at play here, then by all means go see it.
(4 and 1/2 out of 5 Stars, The film is rated R for strong crude sexual content and language throughout)
Few years ago when I watched Horrible Bosses honestly I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the sequel too.
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