Horrible Bosses 2 (2014) ***

 

I resisted watching this sequel when it came out, because, really? “Horrible Bosses” was a delightfully funny movie, but it did not seem to demand a sequel. I figured “Horrible Bosses 2” was a blatant cash grab that was bound to suck. It turns out I was both right and wrong. This sequel is totally gratuitous, but it is more fun than a barrel full of monkeys!

Nick (Jason Bateman), Kurt (Jason Sudeikis), and Dale (Charlie Day), the would-be criminals who tried to kill their horrible bosses in the first film, are trying to become bosses themselves. With an invention called the Shower Buddy, the trio go into business with investors Bert and Rex Hanson (Christoph Waltz and Chris Pine). This father/son duo wind up screwing the boys over, and to get revenge, they decide to leap back into the world of crime by kidnapping Rex for ransom.

Objectively, “Horrible Bosses 2” is not a good movie. It doesn't even have an interesting title. It was a pretty typical studio cash-grab, shamelessly meant to capitalize on the success of the first movie. “Horrible Bosses” director Seth Gordon did not wind up returning for the sequel. He was replaced by Sean Anders, who has a couple of reasonably-respectable writing credits (“We're the Millers” and “Hot Tub Time Machine”), but whose directing filmography includes features like “Daddy's Home” and “Daddy's Home 2”. The original screenwriters were also replaced by Anders and his writing partner John Morris.

The thing is, none of that seems to matter. The first movie was a machine-gun barrage of hit-or-miss jokes. Unbound by any requirements of taste or logic, it was free to just be funny, and it was dumb but highly-entertaining. It's the same with the sequel. I wasn't proud to be laughing out loud at these nitwits, but there I was. It helps that they got the whole gang back together, including Jennifer Aniston, Kevin Spacey, and Jamie Foxx, and Chris Pine is a great new addition. Many critics wrote this off as a massive waste of an A-list cast, but for my money it's an example of a skimpily-written film succeeding on the charms of a talented ensemble.

There is no “Horrible Bosses 3”, and thank goodness. It's hard to imagine this franchise holding up for a third outing. It was hard to imagine it holding up for this sequel, but in its own, sophomoric way, it does. If you want a story with heart and intelligent humor, this is not it. If you just want to giggle yourself silly, “Horrible Bosses 2” may be your jam.

3 stars out of 5