Horrible Bosses 2 (5/10): Some laughs, but you can't help but feel it's a waste of a strong cast

“I hate to break it to you, but the American dream is in China.”

I was a huge fan of the first film so I had some expectations for this sequel considering Christoph Waltz and Chris Pine were the new additions to an already impressive cast. What could go wrong with a comedy I had already enjoyed starring three Oscar winners? A lot when you bring in a new director whose most popular film up to now was That’s My Boy. The sequel tries to bank off the success from the strong chemistry between the three lead actors (Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis, and Charlie Day), but unfortunately the formula felt repetitive and excessive at times. As much as I enjoyed their chemistry there were some moments that felt forced this time around. I am glad they didn’t repeat the same scenario from the first film and tried to change the structure of the comedy by centering on a kidnap attempt, but despite some funny scenes the sequel still falls flat by repeating some of the jokes from the first movie. Chris Pine was an excellent addition and once again the cameos from Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Aniston, and Kevin Spacey are the highlight of the film, but I was expecting a lot more from Christoph Waltz, who’s an actor I highly admire. I think he could be great in this sort of comical villainous role, but he was underused here. All in all, Horrible Bosses 2 fails to deliver the same amount of laughs as the original but it still remains as a watchable and entertaining comedy. 2014 has yet to deliver a satisfying comedy, but if you’re bored this is a sequel that will keep you entertained for a while. 

I actually found the first half of this film a bit stronger than the second half. It begins with a lot of promise introducing some of the new characters while centering on the relationship between the three amigos. Chris Pine is hilarious as well and he plays off the leads very well. There are several funny moments including the cameos with Jamie Foxx, Kevin Spacey, and Jennifer Aniston who you can tell is very uncomfortable with the dialogue she has to say but pulls it off nonetheless. The weakest part of the film is the resolution which in my opinion was a bit exaggerated, and many people might find the jokes offensive. It doesn’t come close to matching the potential of the original film, but I didn’t hate it either. The film is silly, but the cast makes it a worthwhile experience elevating the dull material and making it a little more fun than it had the right to be.

My Review: Pacific Rim (5/10)

"Today we are canceling the Apocalypse!"

Pacific Rim is without a doubt Guillermo del Toro's biggest blockbuster movie and visually it doesn't disappoint. The main issue I had with this film had to do with its story and character development. I really didn't care for any of these characters and thought that the performances were pretty weak as well. The film relies entirely on the great visuals and awesome action scenes. This is what the Transformers action scenes should have looked like because the action scenes were great and the editing was done real smoothly (unlike in the Transformers franchise where there is so much editing during the action sequences that it is hard to follow). Fans of monster movies will really enjoy Pacific Rim because del Toro knows his craft, but if you are looking for a great storyline then you will be left disappointed like I was. Guillermo del Toro pays homage to those giant monster movies the Japanese started making several decades ago and it is sort of a love letter to them. Pacific Rim is visually stylish and it has some great monster and robot sequences, but there is hardly no humanity in this film despite it trying to with all the flashbacks and neural bridges mind blending scenes. It tries to illustrate the point of having humanity teaming up together to defeat these monsters, but I really didn't feel it and that is one of the main reasons why I didn't like this film. Despite the cool action scenes I felt the movie was dragging too much and it got more and more tedious as it moved on. I was disappointed with Pacific Rim and would much rather watch Hellboy over this.

Mankind has always looked to the stars for possible life forms, but what they didn't know was that it would come from the deep ocean. Monstrous creatures named Kaijus came through a portal from the bottom of the ocean and began destroying everything that was on their path. In order to stop them humans had to build these giant robots known as Jaegers. The Jaegers are controlled from within by two pilots who have their minds connected through a neural bridge; one pilot controls the left hemisphere of the robot and the other the right. The Jaegers are highly successful at first as they defeat the Kaijus and the pilots become the new superheroes, but as the years go by these Kaijus begin to adapt and come out even stronger than before. The Jaegers are beginning to be defeated and humanity is forced to build giant walls to try to keep these creatures away. However Marshall Stacker (Idris Elba) knows that the walls won't hold so he decides to create a resistance with four powerful Jaegers. He calls upon a former pilot named Raleigh (Charlie Hunnam) to team up with rookie Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi). Along with another group of pilots these four Jaegers remain humanity's last hope for survival. Charlie Day and Burn Gornman play two scientists who are studying a way to counterattack the Kaijus. 

The lead performances from Hunnam and Kikuchi are pretty weak for an action movie. I really never felt chemistry between them and was disappointed with their performances. Idris Elba is a great actor, but I never felt connected to his character either. The rest of the pilots didn't have a backstory or anything that allowed us to care for them either. The two scientist were mostly added for comedic relief and I wasn't very impressed. My favorite performance came from Ron Perlman (Hellboy), an underground lord who trafficked dead Kaiju body parts. He had a very small role, but I thought those scenes were the most interesting ones of the movie. I liked the action scenes, but they get tiresome after a while and I needed to care more for the characters in order to enjoy this more. Pacific Rim is just too ridiculous and it suffers from a weak screenplay. It is a very noisy film with no character development whatsoever. Pacific Rim is one of Guillermo del Toro's weakest films to date (along with Pan's Labyrinth which is way overrated). 

My Review: Horrible Bosses (8/10)

¨You can't win a marathon without putting some band aids on your nipples! ¨

I`ve been on a hot streak recently with comedies; this is the third one in a row that I`ve found really funny. The laughs began with Bridesmaids, then came Cedar Rapids, and now Horrible Bosses; another hilarious comedy that perhaps is a little more mainstream than the others and has more stereotypical characters, but it is saved by the wonderful cast who really got a lot of laughs off me. Sometimes it can be hilarious to make fun of some of these stereotypes, especially when we are dealing with bosses. The characters aren`t deep or anything, they are more of caricatures than normal people, but that is ok because when a comedy is done right it totally works. The plot of the story isn’t new either; we`ve seen it before in other movies and the film even mentions them. So why did I have such a fun time with this film? The cast was brilliant! We got to see Jennifer Aniston in a role that I never thought she would do; she says things you`d never think would come out of her mouth. Then you have the rest of the cast all delivering several laughs. Sometimes the actors have such a great chemistry together that the movie just clicks and you find all the situations funny. It`s like when you hear a joke that isn`t that funny, but the person who tells it does it in such a great way that you just can`t stop laughing. The cast makes this R-rated comedy worth it and I had a great time with Horrible Bosses.

The premise of the story is pretty simple: it`s about three friends who hate their bosses (extremely horrible ones) and begin talking about how they wish they would die. They can`t just quit their jobs because they run into an old schoolmate of theirs who shows them how difficult it is to get a job during the recession. Their only option seems to be to kill their bosses. Nick Hendricks (Jason Bateman) works for Dave Harken (Kevin Spacey) at an important business company. Nick has worked really hard the last few months in order to get the promotion he has been expecting for a long time. Dave however gets upset because Nick happened to show up two minutes late one day to work and doesn’t give him the promotion he rightfully deserves, and goes as far as blackmailing him so he won`t quit either. Dale (Charlie Day) works as a dental assistant for Dr. Julia Harris (Jennifer Aniston) who sexually harasses him and claims she will tell Dale`s fiancé that they`ve had sex if he doesn’t sleep with her. Dale can’t get a job anywhere else because he`s been mistakenly charged with a child sex offence for peeing in a park near to a school. Kurt Buckman (Jason Sudeikis) on the other hand loves his job and his boss Jack Pellit (Donald Sutherland), but unfortunately he suffers a heart attack and passes away, leaving the company in his coke addict son`s hands: Bobby (Colin Farrell). He wants to cuts expenses and tells Kurt that he must fire all the obese and disabled employers. Kurt, Dale, and Nick get together and decide the only solution to their problems is murdering each other`s boss.

Horrible Bosses is extremely funny, despite the strong language. It has memorable performances from Jennifer Aniston, Kevin Spacey, and Colin Farrell in roles we are not used to seeing them in. Jason Sudeikis, Charlie Day, and Jason Bateman are extremely funny in every scene they are together in; their chemistry was just great. The situations these guys got themselves into was hilarious; beginning from trying to hire a hitman online (with a really funny cameo from Ioan Gruffudd), to getting criminal advice from an ex-con named Dean MF Jones (played by Jamie Foxx), ending up breaking into Bobby`s house and accidently sniffing some of his cocaine. Charlie Day also gets some laughs while lip singing to The Ting Tings ¨That`s Not My Name¨ while staking Dave`s house. I had a really great time during the entire movie, and there are just too many memorable scenes to point them all out. All I can say is that you should go check out this movie if you ever felt like you had it bad with your boss. I guarantee you won`t complain anymore after seeing what these guys had to put up with. Seth Gordon did a great job with the direction of this film and I highly recommend it if you`re in the mood for laughing.

  

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