Weekend Box Office: “Horrible Bosses”

Here is an interesting article from http://www.debbieschlussel.com/  reviewing some of the movies that came out over the past weekend. This follows this post some of the movies from last week and  THIS POST about some movies that have been released over the past few years that you might have missed!  This all  follows this post about guidelines to chosing good movies to watch yourself!




Weekend Box Office: “Horrible Bosses”

By Debbie Schlussel



Most of the critics are raving about “Horrible Bosses,” the guy buddy comedy which debuts in theaters today. But I’m not. Forget the word “Bosses” in this movie’s title, and you get my review: “Horrible.” (I did not see “The Zookeeper,” but I heard it stinks.)







While, yes, there were some laughs, I mostly didn’t find it that funny. Instead it was mean, filthy, and just thin. It’s yet another movie in the Judd Apatow mold, meant for and aimed at 20-something frat boys and 30-something slacker boys who haven’t grown up. I found last summer’s evil boss/eager employee movie,”Dinner for Schmucks” (read my review and read the New York Times article quoting me about the movie), far more charming and funny.



This movie was just cold to me and kind of clunky. Sterile, yet filled with so much filth and class warfare. Yes, especially in these hard times where you have a choice between a bad boss or no job, many people fantasize about doing all kinds of things to their bosses. But few bosses are as bad as the ones in this movie. And it looked like a United Workers of the World fantasy that eventually goes bad, not a comedy for escape from my real life and yours.



And I could have done without “Horrible Bosses’” mocking of my religion and religious observances. When a sexually harassing dentist (Jennifer Aniston) squirts her male hygienist’s groin with water, she says, “Shabbat Shalom. Somebody’s circumcised.” Shabbat Shalom is the greeting I and my fellow Jews use to wish each other a good Sabbath, the observance of which is the key religious observance in Judaism. Can you imagine if Hollywood had the gall to say, “Happy Ramadan. Somebody’s circumcised.” Or “Alhamdillullah [praise allah], somebody’s circumcised”? It would never happen. And if it did, the filmmakers would already be negotiating with HAMAS’ CAIR Action Network to provide sensitivity training workshops and a buttload of cash and t-shirts.



If there was one high point in the movie, it’s that it shows the sexual harassment situation in the workplace as one between a harassing female boss (Aniston) as the aggressor and her male employee as the victim. Yes, women can be pigs, too, and don’t ever forget it, despite what the left (and now the right) says. But that’s been done before, and far more effectively and accurately in the 1994 movie “Disclosure,” starring Demi Moore and Michael Douglas.



Another high point in the movie is Jamie Foxx. As much as I don’t like the guy and his pro-Muslim statements (his real-life father was Muslim), he played his role as “murder consultant” and financial scammer well against three silly, gullible White guys looking to kill their bosses.



The story: three guys who are buddies have horrible bosses. A dental hygienist (Charlie Day) has a nymphomaniac dentist (Aniston) as his boss. She insists he have sex with her, but he is engaged and doesn’t want to. Yet, he cannot leave his job because as a sex offender (he is on the list for urinating on a playground at night), no one else will hire him. Another guy (Jason Bateman) is angry at his evil boss (Kevin Spacey) who denied Bateman a long-promised promotion and took the title and salary for himself. And, finally, there’s Jason Sudeikis who worked for a wonderful boss (Donald Sutherland), who suddenly dies. The new boss, his son (Colin Farrell) is a cokehead creep with a combover, who forces him to fire a guy in a wheelchair and fat employees. The three of them decide to combine forces to kill their bosses. But, as with any wannabe comedy, they can’t exactly carry it out correctly. They, instead, screw things up and “hijinks” (or something) ensue.



And it’s not just that the movie is filthy that made me hate it. I’m no prude and like comedies like “The Wedding Crashers.” I just hated this. There just wasn’t enough humor or anything else to cut the bite.



Like I said, a few laughs here, but not too many. And this was instead a cold, raunchy disappointment. Thought I’d like this. But I just didn’t.



ONE-AND-A-HALF MARXES