It’s not often that we reasonably expect a sequel to win over new converts, especially those who hated the original, and in that regard, Horrible Bosses 2 does not disappoint.
Having haplessly tried to murder their bosses in the first Horrible Bosses, Jason Bateman, Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis return in Horrible Bosses 2 as hopeful inventors. “Let’s bet on ourselves,” they tell each other, making a clearly questionable wager. They go into business with a bath product dubbed Shower Buddy and hope that their fledgling shower gadget business will attract investment from catalogue mogul Burt Hanson (Christoph Waltz) and his brat son Rex. (Chris Pine).
Instead, the Hansons force the business into imminent foreclosure with the aim of buying it for cents on the dollar at auction. Nick, Kurt and Dale then decide that kidnapping Rex and holding him for ransom is their only reasonable course, only for Rex to try to partner up on their hare-brained scheme.
The set-up is accordingly clumsy in that regard, especially as writer-director Sean Anders bends over backwards to include Kevin Spacey, Jennifer Aniston and Jamie Foxx, who’ve all been coaxed back to reprise their characters for a second run-around. Despite the stellar cast, the film fails to strike a note and is terribly vulgar and cheap unlike it’s first version
