Horrible Bosses 2

The problem with Horrible Bosses 2 is that everything that needed to be done and said about the characters was done the first time around, and done well.  Now the same characters and actors are back, and they seem just as confused as we are as to the reason for this encore.  Everyone is obviously trying their hardest, but you can't shake the feeling that they are expending their energy for something we don't even need in the first place.

The movie reunites us with the three friends from the first film, Nick (Jason Bateman), Kurt (Jason Sudeikis) and Dale (Charlie Day).  Maybe it's just me, or maybe it's the fact that this movie has different writers, but the characters seem a lot dumber than before.  They're also not as funny as they were last time, but that could be due to the fact that Sudeikis and Day are constantly talking over each other in a lot of their scenes.  The two guys yammer on at the same time throughout most of the film, while Bateman (playing the straight man of the group) more or less is forced to look embarrassed and roll his eyes.  The first movie worked, because the guys created a true sense of friendship between each other, and wound up getting in over their heads together.  This time, Kurt and Dale come across as a pair of blithering morons who drag Nick into their stupidity. 

As the film opens, the three guys have invented a product called the Shower Buddy, which is a shower head that dispenses shampoo and conditioner.  They hope to go into business for themselves, and find a company interested in selling the product.  Despite a disastrous appearance on a daytime news show, the invention gets the attention of a mail order company run by billionaire Bert Hanson (Christoph Waltz, woefully underused here) and his son, Rex (Chris Pine).  The company places an order for 100,000 Shower Buddies, and even though our heroes meet the order, Bert backs out of the deal at the last minute and stiffs them.  Enraged, the three friends decide that the best way to get back the money they lost on the deal is to kidnap Rex and hold him for ransom.

Here's a problem I have with the premise - There's not enough of a reason for these guys to turn to crime in the first place.  In the original Horrible Bosses, these guys wanted to murder their individual bosses, because they had been putting up with their crap for years on end.  The movie did a good job of establishing each of the three characters' motivations, and their relationship with each horrible boss they worked for.  We sympathized with them, and we understood that they had been pushed to the edge.  This time, they turn to the idea of crime way too quickly, and without much reason.  There's no build up.  Yes, the guys got shafted and are angry, I understand that.  But I just can't buy that these guys would immediately turn to the idea of kidnapping, especially after everything they've been through in the last movie.  It feels like they're doing it because they know there won't be a movie if they don't.

The movie tries to bring back some good memories of the first one by giving us some return cameos by the A-list cast from before.  Kevin Spacey, Jennifer Aniston and Jamie Foxx all show up, but none of them create a lasting impression.  Heck, you almost wonder why Spacey agreed to come back at all, since his screen time totals less than five minutes, and gives him nothing to work with.  As for Aniston and Foxx, they are both obviously trying and are at least not phoning their performances in.  But again, the material they're given just isn't as good as before.  Director Sean Anders (who co-wrote the script with John Morris) just can't give the movie the energy it needs.   He even attempts to recreate some of the successful gags that worked before, but this time, they just create silence.  The timing, the energy and the momentum is all off.

Horrible Bosses 2 is not the worst sequel I could imagine, but it simply has no reason to exist.  It's the kind of film where the cast has come back because of contractual obligations, not because of the material.  Whenever that happens, the results are always less than inspired.  This movie continues that streak.

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