Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Horrible Bosses 2 Blu-ray Movie Review

"Holy sh$#! He's fight-clubbing himself! We've got a fight clubber!"

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown February 22, 2015

The boys are back in town! The plot? Eh, the boys are back. Isn't that enough? So too are their friends, enemies, lovers and stalkers, with Horrible Bosses 2 boasting as impressive, if not more impressive, a cast than the first film. But while 2011's Horrible Bosses was a happy surprise, the sequel is little more than a welcome but predictably constructed excuse to reunite Jason Bateman, Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis -- story or no story -- and set them loose in the land of bumbling criminal misadventures once again. Which, honestly, I'm okay with. Horrible Bosses 2 isn't the sharpest murder weapon in the shed, or the most original, but the high-spirited energy, enthusiasm and chemistry of its leading men are intact, as is the absolute blast they have with their co-stars, new and old.

Narrowly escaping a prison sentence after an inane plot to kill their bosses went horribly, horribly wrong, BFF's Nick Hendricks (Bateman), Kurt Buckman (Sudeikis) and Dale Arbus (Day) decide there's more to life than following the orders of masochists, narcissists and sexually deviant management. Striking out on their own, the three men launch the hastily (and unfortunately) named Nick-Kurt-Dale Incorporated and begin searching for a distributor willing to scoop up their hot new product, the Shower Buddy. But when a meeting with Rex Hanson (Chris Pine) -- the pampered son of cutthroat billionaire Burt Hanson (Christoph Waltz) -- goes, you guessed it, horribly, horribly wrong, the boys find themselves broke, shell-shocked, and on the verge of losing their company.

With a $500,000 investment to recoup, Nick, Kurt and Dale concoct another ill-advised scheme: kidnapping Rex and holding him for ransom. Nothing goes as planned, of course, as Rex turns the tables, upping the ransom and embracing his own abduction. At first, it's smooth sailing. His plan seems fool proof... until it inevitably starts to unravel. Now, with a gruff detective (Jonathan Banks) hot on their trail, former bosses (Kevin Spacey and Jennifer Aniston) complicating matters, and the advice of Motherf@#$er Jones (Jamie Foxx) only getting them so far, Nick, Kurt and Dale struggle to regain control of Rex's kidnapping and save their business from bankruptcy.

Bateman, Day and Sudeikis talk over one another as often as they trip over their characters' dimmest decisions, and the mounting layers of bickering, jabbing and riffing is more effective than ever. (It's a Robert Altman movie, as interpreted by a band of juvenile, f-bombing man-children.) Whereas Spacey, Aniston, Foxx and Colin Ferrell essentially stole the show the first time around, the best bits in Horrible Bosses 2 begin and end with Bateman and company. Yeah, Pine is laugh-out-loud hilarious, Banks and Waltz deliver, and Foxx, Spacey and Aniston are all funny in glorified cameos. But it's the HB mainstays -- trying their hardest to crack each other up -- that earn the biggest laughs and pack the strongest punches.

That doesn't mean they have a lot to go on. Horrible Bosses verged on bloated, with three separate subplots tied together by a loose adaptation of Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train (1951). It worked, flawed as it was. Enough to jumpstart a franchise. (A third film is already in the pipeline.) The sequel, though, is as simple as they come, with a thread of a script specifically designed to give Batman, Day and Sudeikis room to stretch the material ad infinitum. It often feels like an SNL movie; a feature-length comedy pulled from what probably should have remained a 5-minute sketch. The silver lining being the smartly assembled, self-effacing cast, who continually create something from nothing, and to hilarious ends. Writer/director Sean Anders isn't half bad either, dreaming up a number of memorable sequences (a parody of heist movie montages had me in stitches) and only failing to devise a richer sandbox for the boys to play in.

Does it matter? Not really. Horrible Bosses 2 is built on R-rated silliness, for R-rated silliness, and by R-rated silliness. If you dig humor for humor's sake, the sequel will be as enjoyable as the original. If you have any love for Bateman, Sudeikis or Day's patented shtick, prepare to laugh till it hurts. If you didn't dig Horrible Bosses, though, there's next to nothing here that will win you over.

Horrible Bosses 2 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Horrible Bosses 2 arrives with a solid but slightly inconsistent 1080p/AVC-encoded video presentation. The film's palette tends to skew teal, with skintones often appearing cold and a tiny bit unnatural. It's in keeping with Anders and DP Julio Macat's intentions, sure, but there's also minor crush and brief hits in clarity that occasionally prove distracting. Otherwise, all is well. The sequel offers crisp, clean hijinks with revealing detail and decently resolved close-ups. The image isn't exactly razor sharp, except along edges where ringing sometimes creeps in, but it is satisfying, with bright primaries and suitably deep blacks. There also isn't anything in the way of encoding anomalies like macroblocking, banding or aliasing, and no real issues of note.

Horrible Bosses 2 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Warner's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track is strong and peppy, with plenty of energy to match Bateman, Sudeikis and Day's anxious antics. Though mainly conversational in nature, the mix boasts an aggressive soundtrack driven by thumping LFE bass beats, a fairly enveloping and engaging soundfield (particularly in the film's second act kidnapping montage and third act car chase), and enough rear speaker activity to keep things mildly convincing. Still, snarky improve and snappy dialogue reigns supreme, leaving most scenes rather front-heavy. Voices are clear, intelligible and perfectly prioritized at all times, so no worries there. Just don't go in expecting an immersive monster of a lossless track and you won't be disappointed in the least.

Horrible Bosses 2 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Extended Cut: The Blu-ray release of Horrible Bosses 2 features both the film's 108-minute theatrical version and a new 116-minute unrated extended cut (which is quite a bit longer but tends to drag in spots).
• Endless Laughter Guaranteed! (HD, 17 minutes): Writer/director Sean Anders, writer/producer John Morris, Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis, Chris Pine, Jamie Foxx and other members of the cast discuss Bateman, Day and Sudeikis' chemistry, individual rhythms, group riffing, and talent for improv.
• Off the Cuff: One-Liners You Didn't See (HD, 18 minutes): Thirteen alternate-take reels are available, including "Pumping Your Buddy," "Julia's Cog Collection," "Don't Drop the Soap," "Spit It Out," "Sex Addiction Group," "Kiss and Tell," "Half-Assed Brushing," "Racist Dale Arbus," "Stuck in the Middle," "Coma Boners," "A Tender Bottom," "Dale's Not Dead" and "Who Gets What?"
• Let the Sexual Healing Begin (HD, 2 minutes): An advertisement for Dr. Julia Harris' Sex Addict Group.
• Who Invented the Shower Buddy? (HD, 2 minutes): Who came up with the Shower Buddy? Kurt or Dale?
• Nick Kurt Dale INC: Employee Testimonials (HD, 2 minutes): Ray, Lupe and Candy reflect on their bosses.
• It's the Shower Buddy Infomercial (HD, 1 minute): You know you want one. Don't you?
• High Speed Crash Course (HD, 3 minutes): Hilarity ensues in the film's high speed car chase.

Horrible Bosses 2 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Horrible Bosses 2 is one long excuse to showcase Bateman, Sudeikis and Day's collective id, but it's full of laughs, hit or miss though they may be. What it lacks in terms of plotting and pacing it makes up for in spontaneity and surprise; the stuff of shallow but entertaining hilarity. Warner's Blu-ray release is strong too, with a solid AV presentation and a small but decent assortment of extras. There's no commentary or lengthy production documentary (always a shame), but between two cuts of the film, a lineup of alternate takes and a few other goodies, there's plenty here to enjoy. So long as you dug the original Horrible Bosses that is...