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HORRIBLE BOSSESMovie Reviews
Comedy about three frustrated employees who hatch a plan to kill their micromanaging bosses, only to find their plot snowballing into disaster. Cast:Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis, Jennifer Aniston, Kevin SpaceyDirector:Seth GordonRelease Date:July 8, 2011DVD Release:October 11, 2011From:Warner Bros.Rating:RLength:1 hr 40 min
Horrible Bosses played to good reviews that at the same time were mixed. • Mary Pols wrote in Time, "A good three-quarters of it is funny, goofy and fast-paced, but that's tempered by sections of unchecked idiocy, namely lame jokes around race, gender and sexuality." • And Andrew O'Hehir wrote for Salon, "...pretty solid... a lot funnier in theory than in practice, but it won't ruin your Saturday night." More Reviews Below...
Mary Pols, Time: GOOD "A good three-quarters of it is funny, goofy and fast-paced, but that's tempered by sections of unchecked idiocy, namely lame jokes around race, gender and sexuality."(See all of Mary Pols's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 752 words, 07/08/11
Christy Lemire, Associated Press: VERY GOOD(cg) "...wallows in silliness... even though you're a grown-up and you know you should know better, you will be happy to wallow right along..."(See all of Christy Lemire's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 700 words, 07/07/11
Thelma Adams, Us Weekly: VERY GOOD(cg) "Jennifer Aniston gets hilariously kinky... her comedic talents have always shined brightest when she's part of a talented ensemble like this one."(See all of Thelma Adams's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 131 words, 07/07/11
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...a hit-and-miss farce that leaves you wishing it was funnier than it is.... it wussies out on a sharp premise.... it wastes a killer cast that's ready to rock it."(See all of Peter Travers's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 253 words, 07/08/11
Scott Bowles, USA Today: VERY GOOD(cg) "...a celebration of slack-wits who find themselves over their heads when drunken talk becomes half-in-action plan.... It's over-the-top stuff, to be sure."(See all of Scott Bowles's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 472 words, 07/08/11
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: OUTSTANDING(cg) "...funny and dirty in about that order.... directed with cheerful and wicked energy by Seth Gordon... Spacey is superb..."(See all of Roger Ebert's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 649 words, 07/08/11
Glenn Kenny, MSN Movies: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...has less than no redeeming social value and even less probability and/or credibility.... And yet, it did make me laugh.... you may hate yourself in the morning."(See all of Glenn Kenny's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 682 words, 07/06/11
James Berardinelli, Reel Views: VERY GOOD(cg) "...falls into the same general category of raunchy comedies as 'Bridesmaids,' 'Bad Teacher,' and 'The Hangover Part 2.' It's the best of the bunch..."(See all of James Berardinelli's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 712 words, 07/09/11
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Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "Once they set up their promising premise, the three screenwriters don't quite know where to go. So too often, they wander aimlessly..."(See all of Elizabeth Weitzman's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 334 words, 07/08/11
Kyle Smith, New York Post: MODERATE(cg) "Sitcom scripts are hacked together in a few days... At the movies, you expect a bit more thought than a gag about mistaking a fat woman for a pregnant one."(See all of Kyle Smith's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 745 words, 07/08/11
Logan Hill, New York Magazine: GOOD "...if this is an employee review, and not a movie review, I'd say Charlie Day, Colin Farrell and Jennifer Aniston more than earn their paychecks."(See all of Logan Hill's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 346 words, 07/08/11
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: OUTSTANDING(cg) "...funny and dirty in about that order.... directed with cheerful and wicked energy by Seth Gordon... Spacey is superb..."(See all of Roger Ebert's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 649 words, 07/08/11
Karina Longworth, Village Voice/LA Weekly: WEAK "...middling TV material, almost comforting in its bland predictability... rarely actually laugh-out-loud funny, and never truly dark or daring."(See all of Karina Longworth's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 841 words, 07/06/11
Peter Howell, Toronto Star: VERY GOOD(cg) "...what they call a 'hard R' comedy stateside, which means a lot of profanity, sexual situations and general licentious behaviour..."(See all of Peter Howell's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 624 words, 07/08/11
Liam Lacey, Toronto Globe & Mail: VERY GOOD(cg) "The looseness of the structure proves a benefit, allowing Bateman, Sudeikis and Day, all trained on television comedy, to bounce off each other..."(See all of Liam Lacey's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 662 words, 07/08/11
Norman Wilner, Toronto Now: EXCELLENT(cg) "...a big, broad, appealingly ridiculous workplace comedy... It starts off at a slight remove from reality and gets sillier and sillier as it goes along..."(See all of Norman Wilner's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 302 words, 07/07/11
KEY CITIES (14 Reviews)
Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "If the sweetly gentle 'Larry Crowne' is from Venus, then the testosterone-crazed 'Horrible Bosses' is from Mars. Or maybe Uranus. (Yes, it's that far out there.)"(See all of Michael O'Sullivan's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 696 words, 07/08/11
Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: MODERATE(cg) "...a situation comedy where neither situation nor comedy is particularly effective... nonetheless Jason Bateman is sidesplitting, as is Colin Farrell in a supporting role."(See all of Carrie Rickey's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 431 words, 07/08/11
Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: VERY GOOD(cg) "...raunchy and rude and built around something like a dream cast... the first funny film to give those 'Bridesmaids' a run for their money."(See all of Roger Moore's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 594 words, 07/08/11
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star-Tribune: POOR(cg) "...dreary, joke-thin film is pitched well south of the lowest common denominator. Somewhere around Antarctica, perhaps."(See all of Colin Covert's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 445 words, 07/08/11
Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: VERY GOOD(cg) "Although the premise is far-fetched and the plot at times ridiculous, there's enough comedic firepower in Seth Gordon's film to carry you over the rough patches."(See all of Bill Goodykoontz's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 437 words, 07/08/11
Ty Burr, Boston Globe: WEAK(cg) "...another frantic bad-boy comedy, with a good premise rendered depressingly inane by characters whose behavior barely makes sense. I know, it's a farce... But..."(See all of Ty Burr's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 605 words, 07/08/11
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: MODERATE(cg) "...not exactly funny and not exactly serious, either. Curiously, the movie creates as much anxiety as it does humor, and not in a good way."(See all of Mick LaSalle's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 596 words, 07/08/11
Moira Macdonald, Seattle Times: VERY GOOD(cg) "...easy, raunchy fun... Some of the jokes are predictable (this movie relies heavily on R-rated language), but hey, a lot of them are pretty funny. I laughed out loud a lot..."(See all of Moira Macdonald's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 447 words, 07/08/11
Mike Russell, Portland Oregonian: VERY GOOD(cg) "...the movie's amusing enough, and its plot twisty enough, that you can gloss over the half-baked elements.... Stay for the end-credits outtakes..."(See all of Mike Russell's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 471 words, 07/08/11
Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...like a loud water-cooler routine that you're forced to endure before suggesting to your crass co-workers that they should get back to work."(See all of Joe Williams's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 305 words, 07/08/11
Steve Persall, St. Petersburg Times: OUTSTANDING(cg) "...a career-changer for Aniston and Farrell... a movie surpassing '9 to 5' and 'Office Space' as the touchstone flick for disenchanted drones."(See all of Steve Persall's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 558 words, 07/07/11
Adam Graham, Detroit News: VERY GOOD(cg) "Things get a bit convoluted in the end, but by then 'Horrible Bosses' has fulfilled its promise. Yes, they're bad bosses, but you'll have fun spending time with them."(See all of Adam Graham's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 302 words, 07/08/11
Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: WEAK(cg) "Slow-witted, clumsy and almost pathologically reliant on crude name-calling for laughs... represents the lowest end of the comedy spectrum."(See all of Connie Ogle's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 569 words, 07/08/11
ALTERNATIVE/INDIE PRESS (9 Reviews)
Karina Longworth, Village Voice/LA Weekly: WEAK "...middling TV material, almost comforting in its bland predictability... rarely actually laugh-out-loud funny, and never truly dark or daring."(See all of Karina Longworth's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 841 words, 07/06/11
Brett Michel, Boston Phoenix: MODERATE(cg) "...with a cast like this, it would be hard not to mine a few laughs and, poorly paced as it is, it's still better than Seth Gordon's 'Four Christmases.' "(See all of Brett Michel's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 151 words, 07/14/11
Nathan Rabin, AV Club: VERY GOOD(cg) "...serviceable-at-best direction and screenplay mainly serve to facilitate improv and a handful of scatological setpieces, but the acting more than compensates..."(See all of Nathan Rabin's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 384 words, 07/07/11
Norman Wilner, Toronto Now: EXCELLENT(cg) "...a big, broad, appealingly ridiculous workplace comedy... It starts off at a slight remove from reality and gets sillier and sillier as it goes along..."(See all of Norman Wilner's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 302 words, 07/07/11
Curt Holman, Atlanta Creative Loafing: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "Aniston and Farrell give hilarious, comeback-worthy performances but go AWOL for long stretches.... the comedy achieves the baseline amount of laughs..."(See all of Curt Holman's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 611 words, 07/08/11
HIGHBROW PRESS (5 Reviews)
Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: WEAK "Watching good actors let their hair down can be fun, but watching them let their standards down isn't.... has preposterousness to burn, but no finesse..."(See all of Joe Morgenstern's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 164 words, 07/08/11
Justin Chang, Daily Variety: MODERATE "...coasts on its leads' strong three-way chemistry and crack timing, eliciting steady chuckles even as the plot bogs down in various dumbass shenanigans..."(See all of Justin Chang's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 721 words, 07/05/11
Kirk Honeycutt, Hollywood Reporter: POOR "...drudgery... relies on such things as screeching cats springing across the screen when the boys break-and-enter or their bosses' collective stupidity exceeding theirs."(See all of Kirk Honeycutt's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 701 words, 07/05/11
Emanuel Levy, Cinema 24/7: EXCELLENT(cg) "...captures well something of the current workplace zeitgeist while throwing in plenty of one-liners that stick and keeping things always moving at a good clip..."(See all of Emanuel Levy's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 675 words, 07/06/11
Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: WEAK "Watching good actors let their hair down can be fun, but watching them let their standards down isn't.... has preposterousness to burn, but no finesse..."(See all of Joe Morgenstern's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 164 words, 07/08/11
19.5 Percentage Points Average Difference Between Reviews (Norm is 18.4pp; <18.4pp = More Consistent; >18.4pp = More Mixed)
Horrible Bosses's reviews are separated by an average 19.5 percentage points. The norm for this measure is 18.4 percentage points. Less than 18.4 indicates more consistent reviews; greater than 18.4 indicates more mixed reviews. In the chart below, each dot represents a review, with the dots at the top more positive than the dots at the bottom. From left to right, the dots represent reviews in big, bigger and biggest publications. Roll over each dot for more detail.
Horrible Bosses (48 reviews) Roll over dots for each review
Coverage:Horrible Bosses's reviews cover 96.1% of potential readers (average is 67.9%). Volume:The film's reviews total 25,780 words involume (average is 20,194 words). Length:The film's reviews average 537 words in length (the norm is 517 words).
Reviews Broke 0.0 Hours After Release (Norm is 1.2 Release)
Horrible Bosses's reviews on average broke 0.0 hours after opening. Norm for this measure is 1.2 hours before. The chart below shows reviews on opening day and the days before and after opening; the left side is earlier and the right side is later. The red bars extending above the horizontal mid-line represent more positive reviews, and the red bars extending below represent more negative reviews. The white space/red bar in the middle is Horrible Bosses's opening day. Click on any bar for a list of the reviews for that day.
Horrible Bosses (48 reviews, click on bars for reviews)
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