Horrible Bosses - Nine to Five meets Strangers on a Train

Horrible Bosses - Jason Bateman, Charlie Day & Jason Sudeikis

(Image credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Picture)

Nine to Five meets Strangers on a Train, farcical comedy Horrible Bosses revolves around a trio of hapless wage slaves who are so fed up with their respective bosses-from-hell that they decide to bump them off.

Jason Bateman’s hard-working desk jockey Nick is sick of being pushed around by corporate tyrant Kevin Spacey; Jason Sudeikis’s conscientious accountant Kurt can’t stand seeing his company’s greedy, coked-up new owner bleeding the firm dry (a sleazy Colin Farrell, almost unrecognisable beneath a hideous comb-over); while mild dental assistant Dale (Charlie Day) has had enough of fending off the unwelcome advances of nymphomaniac dentist Jennifer Aniston. After taking some dodgy advice from a street hustler (a scene-sealing Jamie Foxx), the threesome form a pact to kill one another’s boss, but putting the plan into action is another matter…

Horrible Bosses - Charlie Day &amp; Jennifer Aniston — (Image credit: John P. Johnson)

The would-be assassins’ hopelessly bungling efforts produce a steady supply of laughs, though the jokes are often extremely rude and crude and the meandering plot doesn’t make the most of the film’s set-up. (Danny De Vito’s darkly comic 1987 directorial debut Throw Momma from the Train was much better at giving a comic spin to the Strangers on a Train murder-swap premise).

Fortunately, the actors rise above the script. Day’s shrieky performance is irritating, admittedly, but Bateman underplays beautifully and Spacey, Farrell and Anniston totally nail their despicable characters – Aniston, in particular, has enormous fun playing her perma-tanned man-eater, vamping it up in a role that couldn’t be further removed from the perky rom-com heroines she usually plays.

On general release from 22nd July.

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A film critic for over 25 years, Jason admits the job can occasionally be glamorous – sitting on a film festival jury in Portugal; hanging out with Baz Luhrmann at the Chateau Marmont; chatting with Sigourney Weaver about The Archers – but he mostly spends his time in darkened rooms watching films. He’s also written theatre and opera reviews, two guide books on Rome, and competed in a race for Yachting World, whose great wheeze it was to send a seasick film critic to write about his time on the ocean waves. But Jason is happiest on dry land with a classic screwball comedy or Hitchcock thriller.