Movie review: 'Horrible Bosses 2'

27 November 2014 - 18:53 By Kavish Chetty
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Jennifer Aniston returns as a dentist with a prowling libido in the sequel.
Jennifer Aniston returns as a dentist with a prowling libido in the sequel.
Image: Supplied

This is an almost classic Hollywood sequel - awesomely pointless, vulgar and desperate, and trading on slivers of exhausted charm, writes Kavish Chetty

The all-American trio (Jason Bateman, Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis) return as a group of wily entrepreneurs trying to flog their superfluous bath-time gadget, the "Shower Buddy", and hopefully earn a small fortune along the way. However, they are soon double-crossed by father-and-son investor duo Rex and Burt Hanson (Christophers Pine and Waltz, respectively) and, unable to come up with any genuinely interesting ways of driving the narrative forward, decide to kidnap the son.

If there's one thing that Charlie Day gets right, it's the screaming. He rages himself into a spluttering, flush-faced lunatic during his arguments with Sudeikis and Bateman.

The three imbeciles occasionally get their balance right, but even when it succeeds they only manage to grasp at predictable, testosterone-powered frat humour. The script favours the lower regions of things: body parts and sewage systems, all with a puerile surrender to the filthiest common denominator.

Jennifer Aniston returns as a dentist with a prowling libido, now part of a 12-step sex addiction programme she exploits to find new conquests, and the cast of goons is rounded out with brief cameos by the duo Kevin Spacey and Jamie Foxx.

It seems like another cheap and faded sequel, another assembly-line film spat out in pursuit of box-office profits.

This is the kind of automated, coin-operated follow-up designed to tick boxes on a checklist.

Watch the 'Horrible Bosses 2' trailer:

 

 

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