Horrible Bosses  ★★★

EVER had a boss so bad that you wanted them gone…permanently?

That’s the premise of Horrible Bosses from 2011 which, like all good comedies, takes things to the extreme with three average Joes plotting to kill their respective employers.

Jason Bateman, Jason Sudiekis and Charlie Day play buddies Nick, Kurt and Dale who meet regularly to bemoan their working lives to each other.

Nick’s boss is a master manipulator and bully, played by Kevin Spacey; Kurt’s boss is a racist, sexist slob, played by Colin Farrell, and Dale has to fight off his sex-starved, immoral boss, played by Jennifer Aniston.

Actually the other two don’t think Dale has got it too bad, until Aniston’s character starts drugging and blackmailing him.

After a series of particularly bad days they jokingly decide to act out the plot of an old Alfred Hitchcock movie where two strangers meet, share their innermost secrets and decide to commit a murder for each other, thus providing the ultimate alibis.

Problem is they have no idea how to pull this off and decide to visit the toughest neighbourhood in the city to get themselves a hitman.

But ‘Motherfucker Jones’, eerily played by Jamie Foxx, isn’t about to get his own hands dirty. He takes their money but only agrees to act as a ‘technical adviser’, instructing them how to kill each other’s boss.

There is a lot to like about this comedy, mainly due to the strong performances all round, particularly Jason Sudiekis, who I would watch in any comedy, Spacey, Anniston and Foxx who all enjoy themselves immensely.

Writer/director Seth Gordon has a couple of mis-fires to his credit, including Baywatch and The Identity Thief, but Horrible Bosses is firing on all comic cylinders throughout its running time.