Most comedies aren't funny. This is because it's hard to write a script that's consistently funny for at least 90 minutes and it's even harder to maintain the humor after it's been subjected to the whims of studio executives who have to justify their six figure salaries and the egos of actors and directors who want to put their own stamp on it so they can all say that they took this script and improved it when they give interviews to Entertainment Tonight. It's a miracle on par with what Jesus did to Lazarus that any funny movies make it out of that system at all, even sub par films like Bad Teacher. This is why the term "Miracle Day" applies less to the new Torchwood series and more aptly to the release of the very funny Horrible Bosses.
Currently showing locally at Aviation Mall's Regal 7, Horrible Bosses is about three long term friends who, for different reasons, hate their employers and talk themselves into thinking it's a good idea to kill them. This, in itself, should have killed the movie as dark comedies like that are even harder to pull off than lighter fare about some plucky career gal who can't find a man. One of the reasons the movie works despite that dark subject matter and the well earned R rating is because the three men remain sweet and likable even throughout the film even though they're plotting the murders of three people. Jason Bateman (one of Hollywood's most underrated actors), Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day play Nick, Kurt and Dale, three men who are enduring increasingly intolerable work situations. Nick's boss, Dave Harken (Kevin Spacey) is the sadistic CEO of Nick's investment firm who has convinced Nick that he will get a big promotion if he just quietly accepts all the ways Dave mistreats him even though Dave intends to do no such thing. Dale is a dental hygienist whose boss Julia (Jennifer Aniston) is subjecting him to aggressive sexual harassment even though she knows he's engaged and the movie deserves even more kudos for showing how being sexually harassed by someone who looks like Jennifer Aniston would be a bad thing. Kurt actually liked his job working as a manager at a chemical company when it was run by a kindly old man played by Donald Sutherland. Sadly, he dies and his selfish, drug addict son (Colin Farrell playing against type as a bald, unattractive man) takes over the business with the expressed intention of bleeding every penny out of it that he can. You may think to yourself, "Why don't they just quit?" and they consider that until they run into a college friend of theirs who lost his job to the recession and is now a male prostitute.
Again, the movie works because it's funny. It's funny when the three go bumbling around low rent bars looking to hire a hitman and meet Jamie Foxx (whose character must be politely referred to here as Jones since his full name is an obscenity). Jones is obviously a conman claiming to be a hitman but Nick, Kurt and Dale aren't smart enough to figure that out and instead see his obvious advice ("make it look like an accident") as the perceived wisdom of a true, professional killer. It's funny when Kevin Spacey almost dies due to an allergic reaction to peanuts and Dale forget sthey're plotting his murder and ends up saving him. It's funny when, due to a series of misunderstandings, one of the intended victims ends up murdering one of the other intended victims. It's even funny when Nick and Kurt argue over which of them would get raped in prison more and stays funny when Dale points out that rape is about power, not good looks.
Hollywood should take a lesson from Horrible Bosses: make comedies funny. Sadly, they won't which is why we'll end up with more Katherine Heigl rom-coms or movies where penguins fart. And so it goes.
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