ABOVE: Watch the trailer for Horrible Bosses 2.
TORONTO — Jason Bateman, Jason Sudekis and Charlie Day are back together in Horrible Bosses 2, a sequel to 2011’s surprise hit comedy.
Also reprising their roles are Jennifer Aniston, Kevin Spacey and Jamie Foxx — but gone are Colin Farrell and director Seth Gordon.
The sequel was directed by Sean Anders, who directed the flops That’s My Boy and Sex Drive and co-wrote Dumb and Dumber To and We’re The Millers. And joining the cast are Chris Pine and Christoph Waltz.
Horrible Bosses 2 has Nick, Kurt and Dale plotting to kidnap the son of the investor who left them high and dry with their invention, the Shower Buddy.
Here’s a look at some of the reviews.
Claudia Puig of USA Today described the sequel as “base, moronic, insulting and vulgar” as well as “cringingly unfunny.”
She complained: “It feels like the worst kind of lazy, uninspired sequel — bringing nothing new to the table, seemingly intended only to rope in fans of the first movie. But worse than being unfunny and money-grubbing, this sequel is misogynistic and occasionally racist.”
Puig said the humour in Horrible Bosses 2 is “offensive, without the barest minimum of wit.”
READ MORE: What the critics are saying about other recent movies
At Variety, critic Justin Chang made a similar observation, calling the movie “inane and incredibly tasteless.”
He wrote: “It should surprise no one that Horrible Bosses 2 is an equal-opportunity comic offender, aiming cheerful if half-hearted jabs at Hispanic women, Asian women, women in general, gay men and ethical business practices, all the while insulting every conventional notion of plausibility, common sense and good taste.”
David Blaustein of ABC News suggested waiting until “you can stream it at home.”
He wrote: “If you’re easily offended, you have no business seeing Horrible Bosses 2 because you will find some of it nauseatingly offensive.
“If, however, you believe nothing is sacred when it comes to comedy, then Horrible Bosses 2 will provide you a few laugh-out-loud moments.”
Matt Pais of Chicago’s RedEye called Horrible Bosses “silly and borderline endearing” but criticized the screenplay.
“These characters still have a highly troubling view of women,” he wrote. “Way, way too frequently the movie drops in racial humour or homophobia, and it’s not in the service of button-pushing black comedy. It’s dumb writers being dumb.”
Pais credited the cast with giving the movie “a shot of innocent energy that it needs.”
Horrible Bosses 2, he added, “is funny enough that you only feel sort of badly for liking it.”
The movie is, according to Matt Singer of Screen Crush, “a flimsy retread” of the original.
“Horrible Bosses wasn’t a masterpiece, but it was mostly funny. Horrible Bosses 2 mostly isn’t,” he opined.
“The leads’ shtick has its moments, but with less support, their antics become very one-note — and now that one-note has been stretched across two movies. I hope for all parties involved that these men find nothing but wonderful employers in their future.”
In the Oregonian, Jeff Baker welcomed the return on Foxx and Spacey but lamented the return of Bateman, Sudeikis and Day.
“The three leads never stop talking, as rapidly as possible, and the constant riffing wears thin. Scenes are never given a chance to develop, everything is pounded into the ground, raunchy is the default setting, and the movie looks cheaper,” wrote Baker.
He described the movie as stupid but added there’s nothing wrong with stupid.
“What’s wrong with Horrible Bosses 2 can be summed up in this ironclad rule of comedy: If the blooper reel is funnier than the movie, you’re in trouble.”
Eric Walkuski of JoBlo simply felt the movie “should be so much funnier than it is.”
He wrote: “Director Sean Anders has a simple philosophy: point the camera at the three guys and let them go. And go and go; almost all of their conversations go on well past their expiration date; it becomes exhausting and repetitive.”
Walkuski also echoed some of the other critics’ comments about the level of humour.
“Horrible Bosses 2 also assumes filthy humour is funny because it’s filthy,” he wrote. “I’m no prude; when it comes to comedy, nothing is off limits, but this film will trot out any old disgusting thing and expect us to laugh no questions asked.
“Conversations about young teenage boys having sex with one another, bathroom humour, casual racism; the works. It’s not that it’s offensive, it’s just not clever in and of itself. Great comedy is all about timing and nuance, not just saying naughty words without substance. That’s the very definition of juvenile.”
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