Plot Details: This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
Their own worst enemy.
Plot Overview
The opening scene of speeded up morning traffic, accompanied by a workaday song, cuts to KBNC TV, “Traffic You Can Trust.” From there it's the set of “Good Morning, Los Angeles,” where Dale, Kurt and Nick are demonstrating their start-up product, the Shower Buddy, and it looks like they don't know what they're doing (“Pump it up.”) They lose their first (black) potential investor over the political incorrectness of their business name spoken on live TV (“I can't believe we never said it out loud.”)
No worries. CEO of Boulder Stream (a SkyMall-type marketer), Bert Hanson (Christoph Waltz) having seen their demo places a big order, but it's a ruse to effect a hostile takeover. Upon discovering this (a little too late) our three entrepreneurs visit their former boss in prison Dave Harken (Kevin Spacey) to find out what their legal options are: “Jack f___ing sh_t!”
They “brainstorm a little” over their illegal ones and come up with the idea of kidnapping Bert's adult son Rex (Chris Pine) for enough dough to bail themselves out. They seek out the advice of ex-convict, Dean “Motherf___er” Jones (Jamie Foxx), but Rex tumbles onto their scheme and inveigles himself in on it for a lion's share of a cut of an inflated demand. The guys are so foolhardy the police mistake it for acquired confidence (“These guys are pros!”) and proceed with exceeding caution.
You know, about the time the foolish entrepreneurs start berating themselves for suffering from “reverse Stockholm Syndrome,” we begin to wonder if they really have what it takes to go into business for themselves rather than work under a boss (“I own you.”)
Ideology
Not included is Jason Sudeikis's idea—he plays Kurt—of a gag in the film, where MF Jones says to Nick, Kurt & Dale, “You crackers got to go. I have three other crackers coming in”, and as they leave, the three characters from “The Hangover” movies appear. This would have shown them to represent any white working class Tom, Dick & Harry, but the same effect is generated when new father Dale (Charlie Day) describes his nondescript triplets as “potatoes with arms.” Add to this a poor Mexican new hire, an Asian maid, and a black MF Jones in the big city, and we've got a story that relates to everyman (or -woman). Likewise when our three novice kidnappers stumble across a sex addicts support group, we don't learn about the particular addictions of the various members, with the exception of the dentist Dr. Julia Harris (Jennifer Aniston) who's a nymphomaniac. They could have the same hang-ups as anyone.
The three men (accidentally) encounter the support group right as they intone a version of the Serenity Prayer of St Francis:
God grant us the courage to change the things we can change,
The serenity to accept the things that we cannot change,
And the wisdom to know the difference.
The courage to change what one can was demonstrated by Julia who being (mistakenly) under the impression that Kurt (Jason Sudeikis) is gay, she flips him as is her wont (“Have you ever done it in a dentist's chair?”). The serenity to accept what we cannot change was demonstrated by Dale who says no to Julia—the only man ever to do so—because he is married. The wisdom to know the difference requires some sophistication in the audience to follow.
Martin Luther King Jr. writing his Letter from Birmingham Jail to the clergy to justify his methods (marching w/o a parade permit) complained of lack of respect when, among other things, bigots would refer to him as some Tom, Dick or Harry, not by his real name when they knew it, or should have. Only he used the general appellations: John, boy, or nigger. A johnny can refer to any man one doesn't know the name of. A boy is the term often used in the south for males of any age or skin color. And a nigger is a man of dark skin. In fact when the Bible lists some Tom, Dick, and Harrys as “prophets and teachers” (Acts 13:1), included is “Simeon that was called Niger.” Niger is the latin word for black, from which we derive nigger. When the three entrepreneurs in a polite interview on live TV, inadvertently used a word that only sounded like nigger, the serenity prayer of St Francis would have asked the black host to have serenity to accept that black skin is a reality, and the words to describe it, not something that should be courageously objected to in every case.
On live TV they demonstrated the shower buddy with a simulation that while falling short of outright pornography, nevertheless fell right in with the double entendres that a shower buddy is the same as a civil union partner in the stall, for the action witnessed. They went on to say their name choice was preferable to shower daddy that would equate to a domestic partner in the stall, seen changing positions. What they should have gone with, they eventually decided, was shower pal sounding more loving and thus more palatable, like a same-sex marriage partner for the latest label of the same activity. This last however would differ from Dale's wife, from a biblical perspective, (1Cor. 7:2) “to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.” Fornication means human sexual intercourse other than between a man and his wife. Fornication can be overcome either by getting married (man to woman) or practicing abstinence. A same-sex marriage would only be within the definition of marriage as the close union of two entities, like the marrying together of shampoo & conditioner in the shower head on their product.
Production Values
“Horrible Bosses 2” (2014) was directed by Sean Anders. It was written by Sean Anders, John Morris, Jonathan M. Goldstein, and John Francis Daley. Characters were developed by Michael Markowitz. It retained many of the same characters from the first “Horrible Bosses,” starring Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis, Jennifer Aniston, Jamie Foxx, Chris Pine, Christoph Waltz, and Kevin Spacey. Jennifer Aniston did some great acting in a part that was too low for her wholesome persona. There were some good performances also from Christoph Waltz, Chris Pine, and Kevin Spacey. The main three Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis, and Charlie Day worked well together and shone in their roles.
The TV studio scene was shot with saturated colors, probably to transmit the inferiority of that medium, but it does help us to keep our place in the narrative. The film was rated R for strong crude sexual content and language throughout. Outtakes and bloopers are shown at the beginning of the closing credits. It's all good.
Review Conclusion w/ Christian Recommendation
This is a zany film that I found funny as can be. It wasn't necessary to be anything but vaguely familiar with the first “Horrible Bosses.” It's easy to get the picture. I'm rating it highly because it's smooth and funny and makes good use of talent. It didn't play too long on the crude material, just long enough to milk the laughs.
Movie Ratings
Action factor: Decent action scenes. Suitability For Children: Not Suitable for Children of Any Age. Special effects: Well done special effects. Video Occasion: Fit For a Friday Evening. Suspense: A few suspenseful moments. Overall product rating: Five stars out of five.
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