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"Horrible Bosses 2": Now They Have Become Horrible Themselves 

Tuesday, Nov 25 2014
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This inchoate, shruggingly offensive revenge fantasy reunites the proven stooge trio of Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, and Jason Sudekis for a gone-wrong entrepreneurial scheme. There is some promise in the idea that the survivors of a movie called Horrible Bosses should spend their sequel going into business for themselves — which, as per formula, also means undertaking a hapless criminal escapade — but this movie is a string of broken promises. Taken advantage of by a ruthless, super-rich investor (Christoph Waltz), the three former working stiffs decide to kidnap his spoiled-rotten son (Chris Pine), who then takes advantage of them as well. Director Sean Anders and his co-writer John Morris seem to have tag-teamed an effort to dredge the bottom of the comedy barrel, with character logic and consistency all but abandoned in search of usable riffs. So it's a stew of throwaways, too few of them funny, with a palpable collective effort to keep the common denominator low. Tastelessness can be a virtue, but witlessness doesn't help. The end-credits blooper reel includes a moment where Jennifer Aniston smilingly confesses that she just can't bring herself to say whatever's been asked of her. It's okay; by then she's said enough.

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Jonathan Kiefer

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SF Weekly movie critic Jonathan Kiefer is on Twitter: @kieferama and of course @sfweeklyfilm.

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