Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis, and Charlie Day are back but this time they’re their own bosses in Horrible Bosses 2 available on Blu-ray and DVD on February 24, 2015. The original Horrible Bosses was obviously a box office success when it was released back in 2011 or else it wouldn’t have been given the greenlight for a sequel. But sequels are tricky beasts and it would have been easy for writer/director Sean Anders and his co-writer John Morris to retread the same steps from the first film in the second. Fortunately, Anders and Morris incorporated the same characters in the sequel but changed up the plot enough to make this sequel capable of standing on its own.
Jennifer Aniston, Kevin Spacey, and Jamie Foxx reprise their supporting roles, and each of their characters are worthy of this return engagement. Joining the supporting cast for the sequel are Chris Pine and Christoph Waltz, with Pine in particular feeling right at home among the trio of Day, Sudeikis, and Bateman.
The Plot:
The sequel centers around Nick, Kurt, and Dale forming a company to sell their invention: The Shower Buddy. Their marketing campaign hits a major snag right off the bat when they finally say out loud the name of their company, which sounds like a horrible racial slur. But after that stumble they appear to have landed on their feet as they make a huge deal distribution deal with a big company, secure funding to produce thousands of units, and hire workers to make The Shower Buddy a reality. Unfortunately, nothing they arranged with the company’s president Bert Hanson (played by Waltz) or his son Rex (Pine) was ever in writing and therefore it’s easy for the corrupt company to bankrupt the fledgling business. And if you watched Horrible Bosses, you know the guys are going to figure out a way to try and save their business that involves an illegal activity. In the original film, Nick, Dale, and Kurt attempted to kill their bosses. In the sequel, they decide kidnapping the son and forcing the father to pay a healthy ransom is just the ticket to saving their scalps.
The Bonus Features:
The Blu-ray + DVD +Digital HD features an extended cut of the movie which is actually funnier than the theatrical release. The new cut has a few very funny bits that didn’t make the movie originally but should have as they worked well in this extended version.
Horrible Bosses 2 has an above average number of special features, including a batch of one liners that are alternate takes of scenes from the film. The bonus features also include a featurette titled “Let the Sexual Healing Begin,” as well as entertaining videos on the Shower Buddy: “It’s the Shower Buddy” informercial and “Who Invented the Shower Buddy.” And in “High Speed Crash Course” the viewers get a behind-the-scenes look at the film’s high speed chase and the dangling-over-the-bridge stunt.
All of the bonus features spotlight how well Bateman, Day, and Sudeikis got along on set and how easily they could make each other break character and ruin takes. For fans of the film, it’s worthwhile to spend an hour or so checking out all of the extra material.
GRADE: B
-By Rebecca Murray
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