Horrible Bosses

There seems to be a cascade of raunchy movies hitting the screens, each trying to top the other in raunchiness. Hangover II and its predecessor come to mind. (Saw the first and didn’t like it; didn’t see the sequel.) I haven’t seen Bridesmaids yet, but I guess it’s the female equivalent. We just got Bad Teacher (missed that one also), but the trailer seemed to follow suit. And now we have Horrible Bosses, which I decided to see after I saw the previews. I saw it, and while it was certainly raunchy in word and occasionally in deed, it was funny. The premise has three men who hate their horrible bosses and when someone suggests they kill them, their thoughts turn to murder. Unsure how to go about it, they seek out a hitman and end up with Jamie Foxx as a “murder consultant” who counsels them to kill each others bosses, like Hitchcock’s Stranger on a Train.
The three would-be murderers are Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day; their respective bosses are Kevin Spacey, Colin Farrell and Jennifer Aniston.
What sets this apart is the likability of the three guys (and the truly appalling behavior of the bosses). We root for them, especially seeing that they are supremely inept. They approach their task as most of us would. Reconnaissance that is laughable, and fear that is palpable.
It starts pretty slowly, but the laughs build and some sequences are laugh-out-loud funny. Case in point: their mishandling of a boss’s huge stash of cocaine. Some stuff works, some doesn’t, but if you aren’t easily offended by crude sexual references (Aniston is the polar opposite of her Friends role), then you should enjoy this. I wanted a funny movie that night, and for the most part, I got it.
Rating: 2.5 reels out of 4.