Horrible Bosses Reviews

"Horrible Bosses" has a premise somewhere along the lines of the 1999 Mike Judge comedy "Office Space" but "Horrible Bosses" is more brazen, more over-the-top, and in my opinion, funnier. Although "Office Space" had some valid things to say about the ennui of working in a corporate firm, "Horrible Bosses" throws reason to the wind to deliver a hilarious but completely unrealistic story of a couple of immature guys who want to kill their heinous bosses.

Nick (Jason Bateman,) Dale (Charlie Day,) and Kurt (Jason Sudeikis) are a none-too-bright trio of friends who have one thing in common- their rude, crude, and downright evil bosses. Nick's boss Dave Harkin (Academy Award Winner Kevin Spacey) is a manipulative, outrageously jealous psychopath, while Dale, a faithful partner to his fiance (Lindsay Sloane,) is sexually harassed by his whore boss Julia (Jennifer Aniston, playing against type, with side-splitting results.)

When Kurt's kindly boss Jack Pellit (Donald Sutherland) dies, Kurt is stuck with Jack's wildly irresponsible, insensitive, coke-snorting son Bobby (an overweight, hairpiece-donning, practically unrecognizable Colin Farrell.) When the men's jobs become hard to bear, the witless three hire a 'murder consultant' (Jamie Foxx) to help them finish the job.

Even though I don't find Jason Bateman to be a particularly interesting actor, he does fine here and is boosted by a funny script. Overall, the comedic acting is very funny, although the humor might be too crude for some people's taste. Having a man be sexually harassed by his hot female boss is a creative idea, and the indifference of his friends is relevant too- in society, males are supposed to be the horny ones who are receptive to any sexual signals, wanted or unwanted, coming their way.

Like if a man has sex with a fourteen-year-old girl, he's a pedophile, and she's a victim. If a woman has sex with a fourteen-year-old male, he's a... very lucky boy? It doesn't make sense, and the film illustrates hypocritical gender politics as Dale copes with his unusual dilemma.

I really think Horrible Bosses' script is extraordinary, I was laughing throughout. I think "Tropic Thunder," "Pineapple Express," "Knocked Up" etc. are really overrated, and it's nice to see an American comedy movie that's the real deal, i.e. a really funny mainstream comedy. I also think that Jennifer Aniston and Colin Farrell are better than people give them credit for, and they were hysterical here as two of the three horrible bosses.

"Horrible Bosses" is consistently funny and I recommend it to anyone who likes a good, slightly dark comedy. The cast is great and the dialogue is very quotable. Overall, it is a wildly entertaining diversion and should be watched by comedy lovers everywhere.

Um bom ator, um médio, uma piranha e três atores ruins. Um dos piores filmes que já vi. Como tem no próprio título: "Horrible!"

Well, eventually, it turned out to be yet another recent heralded comedy that I eventually found rather disappointing (pretty much like 'Easy A' which I saw last week and which I found also rather underwhelming). The major difference between these 2 comedies is that whereas I didn't care much about the story in 'Easy A', this time, the concept was actually pretty awesome. I above all enjoyed the first part, dealing with thoses awfull bosses. The second part, dealing with the 'killing', didn't work very well, in my opinion. It didn't work because there was not a single moment when I actually believed that they were taking the idea seriously (by 'they', I mean, the characters, the director, the actors and even the viewers). Personally, as soon as I don't take seriously what's going on, I don't really care anymore about the plot or the characters and I kind of lose interest in the whole thing. Furthermore, the 3 main characters were barely developed. Still, there were a lot of funny scenes and it was nice to see Kevin Spacey stealing the show like in the good old days. Man, what a great actor! It was also nice to see Jennifer Anniston finally trying something else. Her character was a little bit over the top for my taste but she delivered a solid performance. Finally, Colin Farrell looked awesome but, unfortunately, he didn't have much to do. To conclude, the concept was great but the script was not always good, I'm afraid. Still, it remains a decent comedy and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

In most recent years, we have seen the release of certain black-comedies that have been met with a positive reception and critical acclaim but haven’t been quite so successful regarding awards (e.g. In Bruges, Burn After Reading, Four Lions) and now Horrible Bosses can be added to that list. Although, it is required to have a particular sense of humour when watching black-comedies, you cannot help but laugh at the wild and crazy situations that occur within the film. As a result of this, it has a similar style of comedy to In Bruges and The Hangover.


The black-comedy theme and genre is mainly favoured in the UK but aside from famous American filmmakers Joel & Ethan Coen whose films consist of black-comedy the majority of the time. However, Horrible Bosses demonstrates the ingenious of black-comedy with qualities that make those kinds of films so brilliant to watch. It’s filled with quite possibly the darkest kind of criminal offences from the likes of murder, rape, blackmail, revenge, scandal and the most extraordinary thing is that you’ll never see these crimes appear so funny in any film you’ll see! So, for this reason, it’s not a film to take seriously at all as it expressing exactly what it is meant to bring to its viewers: to just watch it and have a laugh while doing so.


Almost every single time whenever there is a very impressive ensemble cast, it either works spectacularly or simply fails miserable. However, in the case of Horrible Bosses, it provides the brilliance of acting in all variety of ways. The role of Nick Hendricks was specifically written for Jason Bateman in the respective role and as a result, delivers a very good performance! Nick leads the trio of distressed and afflicted employees, and his on-screen relationship with Harken is the exact hateful bond and rather dominant conflict between an employee and their boss. Jason Sudeikis as Kurt Buckman is perhaps the weakest character of the trio but despite that he still distributes a decent performance. Last but not least, Charlie Day’s role as Dale Arbus was absolutely fantastic! He was easily the best actor of the three as he provides the cute innocence against the ruthless sexual advances from Julia Harris. He is the funniest character and perhaps the most serious character of the three. The relationship between the two resembled Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft in classic romantic-comedy The Graduate.


Kevin Spacey, Jennifer Aniston and Colin Farrell provide the roles of the three dominant and sadistic bosses. The personalities of all three consist of the types of evil bosses that you could possibly get. First, there is perhaps the most dangerous boss Mr. Harken, who is portrayed by Kevin Spacey, and is referred as the “psycho” like the film poster suggests. Spacey has starred in many psychopathic roles over the years, and this is another fine performance from him but a slightly different level. That level being where Spacey as Harken is a rather humourous character and therefore, being incredibly funny to watch. Colin Farrell has been a favourite of the black-comedy genre after his Golden Globe-winning performance in In Bruges, and shines once again as he portrays Bobby Pellitt (referred as the “tool” on the poster) despite he didn’t appear in the film very often. As for the final boss - Jennifer Aniston, being the only female major member of the cast goes beyond any other character she has ever portrayed with a fantastic performance as “man-eater” Dr. Julia Harris and closely resembles a crafty yet more vulgar and kinky illustration of Anne Bancroft as Mrs. Robinson. Jamie Foxx makes a small appearance as Dean “Motherf**ker” Jones who is the hitman assigned by Nick, Dale and Kurt to aid them in murdering their bosses, but not all goes to plan.


Seth Gordon begins his directorial career with Horrible Bosses and goes off to a flying start as he brings slightly different yet similar aspects of British black-comedy as well as from the Coen brothers. He makes this film with such brilliance by mixing the laugh-out-loud nature of comedy with the subject matter that consists of committing the biggest criminal offences one could ever do, and provides murder as a whole as something incredibly funny. Sure, there are perhaps some that aren’t going to find this hilarious due to this, but on occasions in a hilarious way, it goes in-depth into a person’s mind that motivates them psychologically to consider murder and amongst other crimes.


Overall, Horrible Bosses is an absolutely hilarious black-comedy that is filled with lots of jokes, strong characters and a very creative script that will hopefully gain a few Golden Globe nominations as it very well deserves. A sequel to Horrible Bosses has recently been announced, so the exciting build-up for more laughs and disasters await us in the near future.

"Its like a museum for douchebags" Horrible Bosses, coming into this movie, my first thought was lots of sex jokes, and few LOL moments. I was totally wrong, yes there were sex jokes, but nothing to disgusting. There was also tons of LOL moments. It stars one of my favorite actors, Jason Bateman who decided to be in every movie now. With a great supporting cast, and a chubby and douchy Colin Pharrell the movie did a great job, of mixing in tons of jokes. I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard. Even the story developed very well, I loved this movie and will probably by it. If you're looking for a nice and quick comedy get it, its hilarious and never lets up

Good light comedy, fun to watch. Maybe many of us see lot of bosses in the nagging category, all around.

Not too intelegent but yet funny comedy to see late night...Good cast with big names

I found this more than mildly entertaining most of the time. I love Jason Bateman, so I will pretty much watch anything he's in. Same goes for Kevin Spacey. I loved him in this. Jennifer Aniston...well, to be honest, I didn't much care for her in this. I think her character could have been played by anyone (and was it just me? she was looking pretty rough, I thought).

Charlie Day, I also think, could have been anyone cast alongside Jason Bateman and Jason Sudeikis. I do quite enjoy the fact that John Francis Daley was one of the people involved with the screenplay, as I have watched him grow up on screen, and really like him as an actor. This screenplay, not terrible, not the absolute best thing I have seen, but definitely, very entertaining, it stays relatively strong from start to finish. I think it's mostly some casting choices that detract from this for me.

I love that Donald Sutherland, Julie Bowen, and Bob Newhart all make appearances, as well as Jamie Foxx. Great stuff. P.J. Byrne (who??)'s character was a touch too much, I think they carried his initial scene too far by just a hair, but overall, good, solid entertainment.

"We each have a boss, and we think it'd be better if those bosses...weren't around anymore."

Horrible Bosses is a delightfully refreshing dose of R-rated comedy in a summer season otherwise devoid of such pleasures. Due to the cadre of familiar parts used to construct the film, one could easily perceive this as another attempt to recreate the unexpected success of 2009's The Hangover. After all, Horrible Bosses has three male leads finding themselves in all sorts of outrageous madness, not to mention the film contains a few fun cameos and the script is full of vulgar dialogue. And you know what? It actually works to a certain degree; easily surpassing The Hangover's recent sequel in terms of both laughs and creativity. How ironic it is that the film has the word "horrible" in its title, but it's not nearly as horrible as some of the other comedies which were released during 2011.

At the centre of Horrible Bosses is a trio of regular guys: Nick (Bateman), Kurt (Sudeikis) and Dale (Day). As the title implies, the boys are having trouble with their bosses - Nick is consistently tortured by sadistic megalomaniac Dave (Spacey), Kurt's new boss Bobby (Farrell) is an incompetent cokehead, and Dale is being sexually harassed by his boss Julia (Aniston). Due to the shaky job climate, the guys have no choice but to grin and bear their daily humiliations...until one drunken night they decide to kill their bosses. During a search for an assassin, they encounter criminal Motherfucker Jones (Foxx), who promises to help the boys take care of their undesirable superiors.

If you have had a job, there's a good chance you've had a horrible boss. (And if you've never had one, maybe you're a horrible boss yourself. Shame on you.) At some point or another, the majority of us have probably fantasised about killing our insufferable employer, which is why Horrible Bosses works so well. Here's a script imbued with a premise that's entirely plausible and easy to relate to, and has a thing or two to say about corporate douchebags (though the workplace satire is not quite as biting as Mike Judge's 1999 classic Office Space) within the context of a witty, constantly uproarious comedy suitable for a guys' pizza 'n' beer night. It's not one of the greatest films you'll ever see, but you'll be hard-pressed to find another recent comedy this downright original, which certainly says something in an age where three movies about fuck buddy relationships can be released within the span of 8 months.

Director Seth Gordon cut his filmmaking teeth with the documentary The King of Kong before moving onto the disappointingly bland 2008 comedy Four Christmases. Horrible Bosses thankfully sees Gordon getting his act back together - he has skilfully crafted a well-paced and sprightly cinematic diversion. His efforts here easily rival that of Hangover director Todd Phillips, who is presently recovering from back-to-back disappointments (Due Date, Hangover 2). Gordon was perfectly content to let his ensemble of actors roam around earning scores of laughs, but not to the point that the film feels undisciplined - on the contrary, the editing is sharp and narrative focus is never lost (Judd Apatow's team should take notes). The only real problems with Horrible Bosses stem from the script by Michael Markowitz, John Francis Daley and Jonathan M. Goldstein - it's not quite funny enough, and the best belly-laughs are a bit too sporadic. While the film is never boring due to the engaging central conceit, there are segments which simply lack the comedic personality of the film's greatest moments. It's a bit of a shame the film isn't more amusing, as it could have been this decade's Office Space with a funnier script.

Horrible Bosses' biggest asset is the cast. Jason Bateman (Paul), Charlie Day (TV's It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia), and Jason Sudeikis (Hall Pass) are a brilliant central trio who share great chemistry, and they get a lot of comic mileage out of the script. Bateman is always watchable no matter what movie he's in, and he represents the straight man of the trio. Alongside him, Day goes for broke and Sudeikis is hilariously over-the-top. However, the film belongs to the triumvirate of titular bosses, all of whom were brought to life through a show-stealing bunch of performances. Jennifer Aniston has never been this loose, sexy and downright vulgar, while Spacey is simply a hoot as the smug, psychotic boss who loves to put Nick through hell. And then there's Colin Farrell, whose over-the-top performance as Kurt's boss mirrors Tom Cruise's turn in Tropic Thunder. However, Farrell seems a bit too underused - further office antics would have definitely been beneficial.

At the end of the day, it's tough to imagine anyone walking away from Horrible Bosses with a dissatisfied feeling. Despite a few sluggish patches, this is a delightful film which shows that even mainstream comedies can still be armed with inventive premises. Sure, a more thoughtful treatment on the same subject matter would likely have yielded a better movie, but Horrible Bosses is an admirable attempt nonetheless. If you're seeking a fun & funny diversion, this is one to have on your radar.

7.7/10

I watched the movie tonight. It was fucking hilarious on the big screen! :D :D :D Every scene, every line was priceless! I Can't wait for the bluray, hahhh! I'm glad so many things were left out of the trailer! :D The humour was really really smart & most of all really funny! Awesome movie! Loved it! Advice - go see the movie...RIGHT NOW! :D :D :D I'm sure you'll love it too! :D :D :D