Alright so I am not going to beat around the bush here: Horrible Bosses is hands down the funniest movie I have seen all summer. There I said it.

Directed by Seth Gordon, Horrible Bosses tells the tale of three friends who realize that life would be awesome if each of their nightmare bosses weren’t around anymore. Nick (Jason Bateman) is dealing with Dave Harken (Kevin Spacey) a corporate douche who has been stringing Nick along with the promise of promotion only to take the job on himself for more money and a larger office. When Nick complains he is told in no uncertain terms that Harken owns him and there is nothing Nick can do about it. Kurt (Jason Sudeikis) was doing pretty well as second in command until his boss dies and leaves his drug addled and egotistic son Bobbie (Colin Farrell) in charge and everything goes down the toilet. Dale (Charlie Day) is a dental assistant who is constantly dodging the sexual advances of his dentist boss Dr Julia Harris (Jennifer Aniston) and those advances are getting dangerous when she threatens to show doctored but incriminating pictures to his fiance if he doesn’t sleep with her. As the problems with their bosses reach the breaking point the three friends drunkenly decide to kill each other’s bosses with advice from ex-con Motherfucker Jones (Jamie Foxx). Wackiness, of course, then ensues.

Horrible Bosses is funny for many reasons and employs several sorts of comedy to get the viewer laughing but one of the major strong points going for it is that it taps in to a fairly universal experience for working people. Who hasn’t had a boss they hate at somepoint or another? Sure few of us are burdened with Jennifer Aniston trying to fuck us but the other two bosses are from a template that seems ubiquitous in corporate America. There is no feeling so desperate as feeling trapped in a work situation that has suddenly become toxic especially when that toxicity is driven by your direct superior and there is nothing you can do. Even if, say, and this is purely hypothetical, everyone in the department files a sexual harassment claim with HR about a boss and his sickening regular victimization of one particular lady, then it is more than likely that the company will just reinstate him after claiming lack of evidentiary support because they spent all that relocation money on him and they can’t have that go to waste. So a lot of people feel trapped and helpless in a corporate world that protects its own and destroys lives because they can and this movie is like a cathartic release.

It isn’t that their plan is good or that they are good at executing the plan…indeed true to comedy form they screw everything up…but it is a nice fantasy, taken to the extreme, for people who are feeling the same way that these characters do. It is easy to root for these guys as they are all genuinely in a jam and if you have ever been in situations like this before the characters become very easy to relate to.

In a movie like this, performances are the most important thing. You can have all the great jokes and set ups in the world but if you don’t have players who can execute then you are left with an unfunny mess. The cast assembled here is like a master class of comedy each one firing on all cylinders to deliver what the film sets out to do perfectly. Bateman, Sudeikis and Day have tremendous chemistry and their friendship feels genuine and authentic and the interplay between them is priceless. Day in particular stands out here as he is enormously funny and he does it without aping his character on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Dale is a quirky guy but in very different ways than Charlie and it is nice to see that Day is not a one trick pony but just a genuinely talented actor.

The bosses are obviously very important here and a sour note from any of them could have derailed the whole premise. Luckily, the audience is in the best hands possible. Kevin Spacey may be channelling his Buddy Ackerman Character from Swimming With Sharks but he does it so well and with so much relish that it is absolutely fine. Spacey makes you hate Harken right away which is handy when the movie then wants you to be cool with murder plots against him. Aniston reminded me a little of Cameron Diaz from Bad Teacher in that she is playing against type to deliver some almost shockingly raunchy lines and does some pretty despicable things. It would be easy to dismiss Dale’s plight but Dr Harris is truly monstrous and even if he were cool with getting it on with her it is pretty clear he would be boarding the express train to Fatal Attraction territory right away.

Colin Farrell deserves his own paragraph as he is really the standout boss featured. While his time in the film is relatively short, Farrell’s Bobby is over the top and truly awful. The transformation that Farrell makes here is kind of staggering and I was very impressed by how far Farrell was willing to go for this. I don’t really want to talk too much about the character so as not to ruin the experience of watching him first hand but suffice it to say that this is Farrell playing against type and looking like he was enjoying every moment of it.

So before I conclude I have to address the huge pink gorilla in the room that is Bridesmaids. In conversations I have had about this film, when I say it is my favorite comedy of the year so far, I am immediately asked ‘what about Bridesmaids? That was hilarious.’ It is true, Bridesmaids was hilarious and was my favorite of the year until Horrible Bosses came around. The reason for this is fairly simple. Horrible Bosses is funnier and more consistent. Bridesmaids is a great movie and is also easy to relate to by the disenfranchised and takes it step further to inject some no bullshit emotional resonance in there. It also has some early pacing problems and gets a bit heavy at the end. Horrible Bosses takes off running and never stops making you laugh until the credits roll. It is almost painful as eventually the lack of oxygen from laughing so much starts to make your head hurt. I am not going to take a deeper emotional meaning out of Horrible Bosses the way I did from Bridesmaids but that isn’t really necessary. Horrible Bosses is just straight up funny all the way through and the pacing and timing is perfect.

Conclusion [10 out of 10]

I wouldn’t change anything at all about Horrible Bosses. It starts strong and finishes stronger with a middle that never lags or goes off the rails. The performances are top notch and the variety of comedy is enormously satisfying. And it is very, very funny. By way of illustration, at the screening I attended the minute the credits rolled the audience erupted in applause. I have never seen that happen for a comedy ever, particularly by jaded screening audiences who see movies free every week and regularly slag off genuinely good movies. Horrible Bosses is totally worth full price and it is a day one blu-ray purchase.