Horrible Bosses

photo by aceshowbiz.com

If I could sum this movie up in ONE word, it would have to be: “meh”

There’s an incredible amount of comedic talent in Horrible Bosses: Charlie Day, Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis, Kevin Spacey, Colin Farrell, Jamie Foxx, and Jennifer Aniston (yes, she CAN be funny).  Sometimes this happens when you have too much talent in a movie, you think that talent will cover up the lack of creativity or a need for good writing.

I did get some good chuckles in. But I couldn’t get over the outlandish plot turns. I don’t expect anything to be believable when I step into a movie theater, but I want to be courted into the movie’s suspension of disbelief.

photo by even without popcorn.wordpress.com

The three main dudes: Sudeikis, Day, and Bateman are pretty much the same characters they play in any other movie/TV show (except that Sudeikis is uncomfortably sleazy).  That’s not really a complaint, these guys are aces.  Especially Charlie Day.  As each day passes, my love for this man grows stronger and deeper. He’s so goddamn lovable – I want to tell the whole world to watch It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.  Hands down one of the best shows on TV.  I’d put it up there with Arrested Development.  Actually, it has some strong parallels with Arrested Development – a family of despicable, bickering fools with black holes for hearts.  Only there’s a huge class divide between these two families – I kind of like that the folks in It’s Always Sunny are working class, because it lends them to do things like dumpster diving, trying to get welfare, and making friends with bums under the bridge.

I digress. The best thing about Horrible Bosses was the closing credits… $4

Yolkie’s recommendations:

If you liked this movie, you might like these other mediocre comedies that are similarly forgettable:
Date Night
Cedar Rapids 
The Switch 

If you didn’t like this movie, you might like these:
It’s Always Sunny in Philadephia
The Hangover 
Pineapple Express 

The Men Who Stare at Goats

What a phenomenal cast!  What high expectations I had going into the movie!  Such an interesting piece of cover art!  George Clooney, Jeff Bridges, Ewan MacGregor, Kevin Spacey and a goat: even the cover art made me chuckle out loud when I first saw it.  Granted, I had absolutely no clue what the movie was about when I first started watching it, but after watching the first 10 minutes, premise seemed promising and absolutely hilarious: Special psi-ops team who used mental powers to help the US army, in an exploratory attempt to try and engage through semi-non-violent means.

The movie itself was enjoyable, passed the time, but I felt in many times, it tried too hard to be weird, and quirky (Clooney: SICK ops? Spacey: It’s PSYCH ops) in a lot of obvious ways.  I mean, I should have known that going into the movie, after all the cover art is these guys with a goat.  It passes with a series of vignettes and flashbacks, about the beginnings of the New Earth Army after the Vietnam War and current operations in the Iraq war (apparently, according to wikipedia, at least partly based on true story).

I have to say I thought Jeff Bridges was hilarious as a military sergeant turned hippie/burn-out that tries to revolutionize the US army with flowers and yoga.  Clooney plays his loony, over the top character (see Burn After Reading, O Brother Where Art Thou?) as opposed to his traditional debonair self (see Oceans Eleven, Out of Sight) well enough, though the entire movie seemed a bit too contrived, a bit over-the-top Coen-wanna be (read Raising Arizona/Big Lebowski rather than Barton Fink/No Country for Old Men) for me to really appreciate and get into it.

That said I appreciate the effort and still had an ok time…$4

If you heart The Men Who Stare at Goats:

Recommendations from …:

O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Burn After Reading
Pulp Fiction