My August Rundown

Sorry about the long wait for new reviews, folks. The decision to move from my former apartment to the new one was sudden and not entirely my decision. For three weeks, I barely had time to SEE any movies, let alone review them in a timely manner. And to top it all off, when I arrived at the new place, it took a week just to get the internet up and running. I'm just not one of those types who can pull out his phone and post from there. Typing just doesn't feel natural unless I'm sitting at my desk or in bed with the laptop. But since I DO want to get back into the swing of things, I'm just going to jot down my impressions of the movies I watched in August, a month with blessed few titles I actually cared to see. I'll include a brief synopsis, my findings, and a final score, based on an A+ to F ratings system. There were certainly a number of movies I wish I hadn't missed, but most of those, like The Spectacular Now or The Butler, are still out there. Sadly, so are many that I'm glad I didn't see. I'll catch up on them eventually, but for the moment I present to you what I would like to call... my August.

2 Guns is exactly the kind of gun-toting wise-crackery you would expect from a film that stars Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg. In this buddy-cop formula, the two actors play a DEA agent and a Naval Intelligence Officer, respectively, who go undercover without knowledge of the other, in an attempt to take down a vicious Mexican drug cartel. After they successfully rob a bank in an effort to solve the case, they discover one-another's true identities, as well as the fact that they have unwittingly ripped off a corrupt cell of the CIA. With the money lost in the wind and three whole organizations calling for their blood, two men who simply do not trust one another are forced to work together just to survive.

As I mentioned before, 2 Guns is definitely derivative of the buddy-cop formula that has existed in Hollywood for decades. Adding an international flavor with the Mexican drug angle helps, as does the easy chemistry between the film's stars, and the trio of heavyweights coming after them (played well by Edward James Olmos, Bill Paxton and James Marsden). Director Baltasar Kormakur (Contraband) knows how to film action, even if his directing as a whole is uneven and at times excessively violent. Still, the humorous edge does work wonders, causing the film to rise well above where it ought to have been. However, his is no game-changer for either Washington or Wahlberg. Despite their pairing, 2 Guns was never meant to be anything more than a flash in the pan. The story at times does get pretty bright, but other than some crisp dialogue the whole thing is barely memorable.

Score: B-

I'd been long awaiting Elysium, the sophomore entry from District 9 director Neill Blomkamp, and not just because District 9 was one of the best science fiction films of the past decade, if not all time. You had Matt Damon, who looked to kick the most ass since leaving the Jason Bourne franchise, and Jodie Foster, a talented actress who is just starting to get back into mainstream films after almost a decade of independents and laying low. The story takes place on a ravaged and over-populated Earth and follows Max (Damon), a former car thief trying to keep his life on the straight and narrow when a work incident exposes him to a lethal dose of radiation that will end his life in a manner of days. His only chance is to escape to Elysium, a wondrous man-made satellite that is the home of the rich and powerful, orbiting the Earth while leaving the sick and dying planet to the poor. There, and only there, they have the state-of-the-art medical facilities that can heal him. Hacked into an experimental exoskeleton designed to keep him alive, Max seeks to take over Elysium and change the class system forever.

In retrospect, it's easy to see how Elysium fails to live up to the bar set by its predecessor. District 9 had an amazing and believable universe set around its alien refugee invasion plot, and the story was subtle and nuanced leading up to its explosive-packed ending. Elysium lacks that same subtlety, and while the action never gets dull, Blomkamp's curious use of shaky cam makes the fights confusing, really taking you out of the story. The acting is also all over the place; while Damon is solid and Sharlto Copley's appearance as an evil mercenary is downright scary, Foster turns in a throwaway performance that is almost cartoonishly bad. You'll certainly enjoy yourself watching this, especially with the gorgeous visuals projected onto the big screen, but with such an obvious 99% message hammered down your throat, it's hard to get fully behind this otherwise-innovative tale.

Score: B

The concept behind We're the Millers was simply too good NOT to be true. When a low-level drug dealer (Jason Sudeikis) is forced to smuggle marijuana across the border from Mexico in order to pay off his blood-thirsty boss, he is unsure as of how to pull it off without getting caught. Desperate, he hires a broke stripper (Jennifer Aniston) and two local youngsters (Emma Roberts and Will Poulter) to play his "family", and the group travel down south to pick up the package. But two things happen: first, things get complicated as the gang discovers they haven't completed a transaction so much as they've stolen from a ruthless drug lord. The second is that, despite their initial dislike of one another, the four begin to grow into something resembling a family unit. But despite their growth, will these four people who are not as they outwardly appear be the victims of violence when that drug lord eventually catches up?

To the point, We're the Millers is way, WAY funnier than it ought to be. This is partially due to the work of Dodgeball director Rawson Marshall Thurber in keeping the pace and jokes flying, but especially thanks to the cast. While Sudeikis perhaps is the weakest link here, everyone else has chances to shine, especially British actor Poulter as a virginal teenager. Aniston also proves that she can still pull off angry well, and though her range is rather limited she does a great job of picking roles that let her tap into that vein. But perhaps the biggest scene-stealers are Nick Offerman and Kathryn Hahn as the parental units of another traveling family to whom the "Millers" become acquainted. While some of the jokes miss, far more hit that sweet spot perfectly, and when that 110 minutes has passed you'll wish you could stay for more of that great humor. We're the Millers is easily one of the funniest R-rated comedies in recent memory, and while that's really not saying much, it's a platitude well deserved.

Score: A-

I saw Blue Jasmine more out of respect for its director than for thinking it would be a great movie. Woody Allen is a legendary filmmaker whose efforts have largely been lauded in the industry even as they have often failed to garner a mainstream audience. His biggest hit in recent memory was easily Midnight in Paris, and it also happens to be my favorite of his films. After the mediocrity that was To Rome with Love, however, I remain convinced that Midnight will remain his high point for the distant future. Still, with a strong cast and strong Oscar buzz for Cate Blanchett, I figured I could spare a couple of hours and give this one a try. It follows Jasmine Francis (Blanchett), a former big-time society wife whose multimillionaire husband was a crooked financier, getting himself arrested and soon afterward dead in prison. Penniless and humiliated, Jasmine moves across country to San Francisco, moving in with her sister and hoping to turn her life around. But no matter what she does, whether it's getting a receptionist job, returning to school or meeting a romantic interest, she cannot escape the truth about where she came from and the mental instability that threatens to crack her soul at any second.

As I mentioned before, the cast is absolutely spectacular. Blanchett is especially divine, the marriage of Jasmine's demure personality to Allen's dialogue as expert a performance as you're likely to see this year. And there's more as well, as the group of actors includes standout performances by Alec Baldwin, Bobby Cannavale, Louis C.K., Peter Sarsgaard, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Sally Hawkins. But while the cast is first-rate, the pacing is a bit slow, and the characters a bit too numerous. Jasmine makes for an excellent character study, but the others - while certainly well-acted - are written as relative one-notes and given a bit too much to do. Blue Jasmine is a bit closer to Vicky Cristina Barcelona than it is to Midnight in Paris, and so it's better off as a future DVD rental than as a trip to the movies right now.

Score: B

With four wide releases coming out the weekend of August 18'th, Paranoia was the choice of my faithful movie-going sidekick Anne. I guarantee it wasn't the story of a war between two old tech giants that enticed her, but the starring role going to Liam Hemsworth, younger brother of Thor and up-and-coming Hollywood hunk. Oh, well, at least I get Amber Heard as part of the package.

Paranoia is the story of Adam Cassidy (Hemsworth), a blue-collar computer expert who finds himself trapped in a trade war between cell phone magnates Nicholas Wyatt (Gary Oldman) and Jock Goddard (Harrison Ford). Forced to spy on Goddard on behalf of Wyatt, Adam hopes to at least come out making enough money to take care of his dad. But when things go from shady to outright deadly, it'll take everything Adam and his precious few allies have to overcome and take down these seemingly untouchable forces.

As a brainless diversion, Paranoia has opportunities to be passable entertainment, and for the most part it takes them. There's equal parts humor, tension and action, and the story itself is decent, if laughably edited and entirely predictable. Director Robert Luketic (Killers, 21) isn't the best director out there, which should have been the first clue as to Paranoia's true potential. The acting and dialogue are also second-rate, and while Oldman and Heard really try their hardest to make the material work, Hemsworth is entirely vanilla. Worse, Ford puts in the kind of ham-fisted, paycheck-seeking performance that reminds you that without Han Solo and Indiana Jones, his career would be far less memorable. Despite a few smart choices, it's mostly wasted potential, and there's really not that much about Paranoia that makes me excited to see its eventual DVD release.

Score: C-

I've been awaiting Kick-Ass 2 for nearly three years. That was when the original Kick-Ass hit theaters with it's bizarre blend of ultra-violence and dry, bathroom humor. And for the most part, it worked. It heralded the rise of actors Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Chloe Grace Moretz and brought something radically different to the big screen. Expecting anything different from the sequel would be a mistake, especially considering the smaller budget and change of directors (from X-Men First Class' Matthew Vaughn to Jeff Wadlow, whose biggest movie to date is American martial arts flick Never Back Down). Kick-Ass 2 continues the story of every-man turned brawling hero Dave Lizewski as he adjusts to a world in which it's becoming cool to dress up in cool costumes and fight crime when the sun goes down. Kick-Ass soon finds himself surrounded by like-minded citizens determined to keep the streets safe. But when Chris D'Amico demands revenge on the hero for the death of his father, he puts together a gang of super-villains with one goal in mind; humiliate and kill Kick-Ass.

Frankly, if you liked the first movie back in 2010, there's absolutely no reason not to like this sequel. Despite the change of creative heads, Kick-Ass 2 is strikingly similar to its predecessor that you'd be certain they were made by the same filmmakers. There is the new emphasis over super-groups over the individual, and Wadlow does a good job expanding the universe that had already been set in the last go-around. And if I had the room there would be no end of praise for Moretz, whose character undergoes such an epic, identity-seeking journey that sets in nicely - if apart - from the rest of the story. There are some quibbles: Jim Carey is a bit misused (though genuinely unrecognizable) and doesn't quite fill the void left by the first movie's Nicolas Cage, and the special effects are a bit of a step back, though to be fair they looked worse in previews than they did in the final big screen product. Kick-Ass 2 is not a total package, but does a better job of reminding viewers why the first one was so good, feeling remarkably similar to the first Kick-Ass while still establishing it as a film all its own.

Score: B

The wait is finally over. The World's End is the final entry in director Edgar Wright's so-called "Cornetto Trilogy", following cult hits Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, the films that made Simon Pegg and Nick Frost household names. The World's End takes five grown men who were friends since childhood (Pegg, Frost, Martin Freeman, Paddy Considine, and Eddie Marsan), as they travel back to their hometown of Newton Haven at the urging of Pegg's alcoholic miscreant, in order to complete the "Golden Mile", a pub crawl spanning twelve bars across the village. What they discover along the way is that most of the townspeople have changed since they left; not in the normal ways, but replaced by human-like, blue-blooded robots from outer space. With no hope of escape and no discernible plan, the five friends can do only one thing: reach the final pub on the way, the "World's End", and hope for the best.

In the end, this might be considered the best of Wright's loosely-associated trilogy. The film pumps all of the character development and plot progression into the opening sequence, which would seem odd anywhere else but here allows the film to pace itself perfectly, as the lads go from location to location without having to stop and explain themselves. We largely understand their motivations from moment one, and it allows them to do what they do without causing confusion for the audience. It's great to see Frost play straight man off the wonderfully-irreverent Pegg (it's usually the other way around), and the humor hits on all cylinders, while still finding some room for some appropriate melodramatics when they're called for. The supporting cast also helps immeasurably, which is far different from the two-man shows that were Shaun and Hot Fuzz. The ending is a bit drawn-out, but The World's End is still a relative masterstroke by its creators, as Wright, Pegg and Frost put together an "End of the World" movie that handily beats the similar efforts that have been released the past few years.

Score: A

I realize now that logically I should have concluded with The World's End, but I of course blindly went in order of viewing. So we finish up with You're Next, a low-budget horror flick from Adam Wingard, perhaps best known for his additions to the V/H/S series of horror compilations. It's a familiar horror trope; an often-contentious family gets together for the first time in a while to celebrate their parents' wedding anniversary at their remote family summer home. Suddenly, and without warning, they are attacked and hunted by a group of mask-wearing killers intent on slaughtering the entire family. But this is no random attack; there's a reason these things are happening, and if anybody wants to survive, they'll have to find out who these attackers are, and why they're doing this.

You're Next starts off with cervical bruising (there, I said it), and for a while you're not sure if it will ever get any better. The trope has been done to death (home invasion horror is nothing new) and even horrible fare such as The Purge manages to include something new to the formula once in a while. Top that off with the acting, which ranges from stilted to just plain bad (the one exception is Australian lead Sharni Vinson, who is wonderful). Then, just as the film begins to veer into the point of no return, You're Next begins to emerge as something of a black comedy, riffing on the very genre it's emulating. Yes, the twists become obvious and the gore is pointless, but some of the deaths are actually pretty inventive and you actually get some glee out of watching little-loved or poorly-developed characters get offed in humorous ways. It's not as good as it could have been, but horror fans may enjoy it, even if absolutely nobody else will.

Score: B-

That, folks, was my August. As you can tell, eight movies is a little under my usual monthly average, and I'll be sure to catch up on Percy Jackson, The Mortal Instruments, The Butler, Getaway, Closed Circuit, Planes and more in the coming months, though whether I'll see them in the theater or on DVD remains to be seen. Thanks for your patience, and I'm looking forward to getting back to a regular posting schedule from now on!

Adventure Time

It's been two months since The Croods sauntered into theaters and became the first major children's hit of 2013 (Escape From Planet Earth might have technically been first, but just try and find somebody who actually remembers it). Now, just as the Dreamworks picture's theatrical run is just about wound down, who do you expect to pick up the slack? It's not Pixar, or Sony Animation, and certainly not Aardman. So who takes the reigns of children's animated theatrical showings now? Well, it's the blandly-named Epic, coming to us from Greenwich, Connecticut's own Blue Sky Studios (the makers of Rio and the Ice Age franchise). While animated movies that feature mainly action and adventure don't often do that well at the box office (Blue Sky's parent company 20'th Century Fox found that out the hard way thirteen years ago with Titan A.E.), Epic still had a couple of things going for it this past weekend. One - as I said - is that with the Croods effectively out of the way, the family film has no serious competition until the end of June. The second is director Chris Wedge, whose experience perhaps is not all that extensive (in this millennium he has only directed the first Ice Age and Robots), but he's still a talented filmmaker who can deliver impressive results. Sure, his name will never be featured among the likes of modern animation legends like Lee Unkrich or Brad Bird, but if he's going to make a movie, It doesn't hurt to take a look.

My, what a long neck you have...

M.K. (Amanda Seyfried) is a normal teen who moves in with her father Professer Bomba (Jason Sudeikis) after the death of her mother. Professor Bomba is an eccentric, constantly searching the forest to try and find evidence of a small, advanced society whose existence keeps nature alive and the forces of evil and decay in check. While M.K. scoffs at these theories, Bomba is in fact correct, as a war has long been raged between the destructive Boggans and their leader Mandrake (Christoph Waltz) and the noble Leafmen, led in battle by the noble Ronin (Colin Farrell) and ruled by the good Queen Tara (Beyonce Knowles). But the time is coming to name an heir, and an accident finds the skeptic M.K. shrunk down and joining the Leafmen in helping keep the balance in the forest, as Mandrake and his followers push to make the forest theirs once and for all.

The Three Amigos!

Epic has all the makings of a second-tier animated film, and it's not just because it comes to us from a second-tier production studio... actually, that might be the reason, so why don't I just move on? The animation is actually quite crisp... when the characters you're supposed to focus on are right in front of you. Character models are well-animated, with fluid movements, and look like they might have come off of the Disney or Pixar lots. The backgrounds as well are quite lovely, the lushness of the forest and the dark, Burton-esque bleakness of the Boggans' territory beautiful to behold. But when the "camera" pans back and we see characters moving at a distance, it's obvious where the animation budget was cut. Background characters or main characters moving at a distance appear to have jerky, simplified movements, completely distracting you from the rest of the world and marking the low-point of 3D animation. It pulls you out of the movie, and when the animation is this good, that's a shame.

Yes, he uses that sword. It's pretty awesome.

The story is another point of contention, not in that it's bad but in that the heroine-transforming, nature-saving tale it weaves cribs from bigger, oftentimes better fare. Obvious comparisons are James Cameron's Avatar and Fox's animated FernGully: The Last Rainforest, but the film also borrows heavily from epic adventures such as Star Wars and The Wizard of Oz with impunity. In fact, Josh Hutcherson's young Leafman Nod is almost an exact copy of Han Solo, right down to owing money to a crime lord. The characters are certainly a problem, as most of the talented cast can bring nothing new beyond the archetypes they are shoehorned into. They do the best they can, though some (such as Chris O'Dowd's snail who openly pines to join the Leafmen) are better than others (I'm looking at you, Aziz Ansari). Most of them, especially Seyfried and Waltz, manage do a great job regardless of the material. Still, there are a few question marks among the cast, most notably why they cast so many musicians in support roles. I mean, I get that Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler does the film's one (albeit truncated) musical number, and Beyonce of course provides a track for the closing credits (while doing a decent job acting-wise). But how did rapper Pitbull get in here? Especially when he couldn't even handle the half-dozen lines he was given? Was he supposed to provide something musically too? And if he did, what happened to it?

Christoph Waltz has never looked better!

But while there's absolutely nothing top-notch about Blue Sky's latest effort, it does enough, well enough, and prettily enough to be entertaining for families with nothing better to do. The story itself does solidly enough, and even picks up in the last act to provide sufficient entertainment for all ages. Throughout it is sweet and elaborate with it's message without getting too preachy for its own good, proof that the filmmakers didn't try to do too much with their decent idea. It's a shame that most people will forget completely about Epic  before long, as there's just nothing really memorable about the sub-two hours you spend in the theater. It's certainly good enough to take your kids to on a hot summer day as you await the arrival of Monsters University in a month, but by the same token it won't be something you'll need to see again, even when it eventually becomes available on DVD. Once again, this is a Chris Wedge production that is good enough, but not quite great. Never great.

Left Hanging with Chad

We're past the halfway point for 2012, and approaching he zenith of an exceedingly divisive election season that has called out practically every hot-button topic that exists in its progression. Whether you identify as a Republican, Democrat, or "Other", you have to wonder whether this is the absolute best or absolute worst time for the west coast to send us an R-rated election-themed comedy, and one headlined by two of the more frenetic comedians in movies today to boot.

To be blunt, I'm not that big a fan of the leads in The Campaign. While I did like Zach Galifianakis in the Hangover series, I haven't seen much else, and I'm still not sure the actor can do much more than be an amusing co-star. And while Will Ferrell has had his moments, I cannot say that I find him funny more often than not. A GOOD film with these two would perfectly satirize the electoral process while giving us great laughs in the meantime. A BAD film would be full of scatological "humor", nonsensical leaps of logic and be a complete mockery of the US political system. Hmm, one of the screenwriters co-wrote The Other Guys, but he also wrote Land of the Lost. And the director is Jay Roach, of Austin Powers and Meet the Fockers fame. Things aren't looking good...

It's like I'm watching a John Edwards documentary...

That The Campaign does manage to eek out its fair share of laughs is probably the biggest surprise in this whole show. When Democratic North Carolina Congressman Cam Brady's (Ferrell) campaign for his unopposed fifth term in office is derailed by a scandal, he opens the field to Republican candidate Marty Huggins (Galifianakis). Huggins, an everyman small-town tour guide, has been approached and supported by corporate honchos intent on removing the "embarrassing" Brady from office. What follows is a massive battle, as Brady is as determined to retain the perks that come with his appointment as Huggins is to help the people of his district.

Not quite sure which one could eat the other...

The film is at least partially a commentary on the dirty side of politics, covering everything from smear campaigns, super PACs, negative advertising, and kicking the other guy whenever the opportunity arises. As the battle goes back and forth between Brady and Huggins, it's easy to re-imagine the situation featuring your local leaders. The film even does a fine job of satire in showing the seeming willingness of the loyal voters who more often than not seek inspiring quotes and buzz words over actual job performance. The candidates are shown to be fully aware of this, never promising anything beyond vague positives while pretending they're everybody's best friend. In truth, neither candidate is portrayed as either good or bad; Brady is a jaded career politician who early in his career had actually hoped to help change things, while Huggins wants to fix things now, but is in the pocket of big business.

And this is why you never see candidates near one another besides debates.

Of course, the filmmakers' efforts at satire cross the line a BIT too much, and while there are a few times when it creates the perfectly hilarious moment (as when Brady famously punches that baby in slo-mo), most of the time the result is more uncomfortable than actually being funny. Many of the actions characters take (and the public's response to them) are so flagrantly bizarre that it practically declares the election process a farce. That said, I wonder if there is anyone out there who thinks that the Brady/Huggins campaign looks like business as usual in their district. Suffice it to say, Roach seems to plaster the idea that every politician, no matter their intent, will eventually forget all about the people they're supposed to be representing. It might have seemed like a more humorous idea when written down on paper, but considering how seriously people take politics these days, it might have come off as darker than originally intended.

Don't let this man ever run your political career.

Farrell and Galifianakis are at their best pretty funny, but neither stretches from their standard creative zones here. Farrell is doing his George W. Bush SNL impression throughout the entire film, even using the exact same accent (as though all southerners sound exactly the same). And Galifianakis' relative lack of facial hair doesn't cover up the fact that his sub-intelligent character demeanor is in full effect. Fortunately, the leads have a good enough support cast to keep things interesting, from Jason Sudeikis as Brady's straight-arrow campaign manager to Dylan McDermott as a psycho hired to make Huggins "not suck so much." Dan Ackroyd and John Lithgow are decent as the big business Motch Brothers (a play on the real life Koch Brothers), but don't really get enough to do. And while I wish the film had found a bigger role for Jack McBrayer, they perfectly cast veteran scene-chewer Brian Cox as Huggins' disapproving father.

He looks like something on To Catch a Predator.

I was never all that high on the idea of The Campaign, and the final product pretty much proved my initial beliefs. There are some laughs, and the film as a whole will be more fondly remembered than such fare as The Dictator, or the absolute crap-fest that was last year's Bad Teacher. But while you might get some laughs out of The Campaign's script, this is a title that cannot find that perfect satirical balance. Different leads, or perhaps even better writing, could have made this more than just another mediocre comedic outing, but there's really no reason that justifies seeing this film in the theater. It'll be on DVD before this fall's elections, most likely, and if you're that hard up for a Will Ferrell comedy, there are a few excellent options available (like Stranger Than Fiction or The Other Guys) for rental instead. This won't be one of them.

Every Worker's Fantasy

That's right! Even though I'm a little behind on the new releases, Mr. Anderson is back in theaters! Anyone else as excited as me? Hello?

I'll take the cricket chirps as a sign of support.

Anyway, my return to the big screen begins with a film I didn't even know I'd be seeing this year. As I transcribed the comprehensive Summer Movie Preview back in May, Horrible Bosses was barely a blip on my radar. Sure, I knew it starred Jason Bateman, Colin Farrell and the amazingly-talented Kevin Spacey, but there wasn't much more information available than that. No trailers (that I could find) had been released. Sure, it was getting a wide release, but so did Dylan Dog, and look what happened to that one. It wasn't until June that things finally began to come together, and Horrible Bosses actually became a film I wanted to see in theaters, and not just put off for DVD like so many Cedar Rapids. After all, how many of us have had desire for bad things to happen to our less-than-perfect bosses? Sure 99% of us would never do anything about it (I'm watching you 1% closely, you hear?), but here is a film that lets you - even if only a little - see what that experience would be like.

Athos, Porthos and Aramis they ain't

Three friends, Nick (Jason Bateman), Dale (Charlie Day) and Kurt (Jason Sudeikis), hate their jobs. More accurately, they hate their bosses, who do everything in their power to make their lives miserable. Nick, who slaves for insurance company President Dave Harken (Kevin Spacey), is passed over for a promotion that he rightly deserves, with Harken taking the job himself. Kurt actually used to love his job working at an industrial warehouse under Jack Pellitt (Donald Sutherland), but when Jack dies from a heart attack, Kurt is stuck working for his son Bobby (Colin Farrell), a lazy, cocaine-addicted good-for-nothing. Dale is engaged to be married, but constantly faces sexual harassment from his man-eater boss Dr. Julia Harris (Jennifer Aniston), who has some compromising photos taken from a time when Dale was drugged into unconsciousness. With the option of getting new jobs not available to the three, they hatch on a plan to murder their evil superiors. Hiring local criminal "Motherfucker" Jones (Jamie Foxx) to consult them on the fine art of assassination, the three embark on a mission many have considered, one few would actually follow through.

Everybody say hey! Everybody say ho!

Obviously Horrible Bosses is meant to be fantasy; that much is obvious. What isn't necessarily obvious is how funny attempted murder can actually be. Seeing Nick, Dale, and Kurt somehow bungling their way through this caper is hilarious, almost feeling as if the cast made it up as they went along. Any good comedian will tell you that great comedy is in your timing, and the direction of the film by Seth Gordon and a great screenplay come together to quickly and unexpectedly derive laughter from the audience with that very skill. Sure, there are the expected jokes that the trailers prepared you for, but thankfully the best stuff wasn't saved for preview audiences, as you're just as surprised by the cracks as you are by where the story goes. While the film goes on a few potty humor binges, it's encouraging that minor themes such as unemployment and sexual harassment are explored to some degree along the story's course. Sure, I don't expect much more than a cursory look, but that it bothers at all is a surprise and does the film all the better.

Don't you hate when Jennifer Aniston does that?

The cast is also a big part of why Horrible Bosses works so well as a comedy, as both heroes and villains have essential roles to play in the film's events. The good guys all have sympathetic goals. Bateman's Nick just wants a fair shake for all the hard work he's done, and while this role isn't a stretch from Bateman's recent work (Paul being an exception), he's still supremely qualified for this role, and makes a good frontman for the film to settle on. Day has wowed some good friends of mine on his FX show It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, but this was the first chance I've had to see him in a leading role, and that his character of Dale just wants to live in a "rape-free" workplace is unusually endearing, especially since most films would have had Dale as a female character with an overly-amorous male boss. This reverse positioning is really thinking outside the box, and Day makes the character all the more fun with his quirky attitude. Sudeikis is surprisingly good as a straight man, with his more quirky characters (like that in last year's Bounty Hunter) making him look like an extension of his Saturday Night Live career. Fortunately, he makes use of his comedic background while not coming off as a complete caricature in the process, his Kurt just hoping for a return to the workplace that he once loved.

Would you trust this man? They did.

As I mentioned before, the bad guys did some great work, too. Spacey of course was as amazing here as he is in just about everything he's ever done. Sure, he plays no Verbal Kint or Lester Burnham, but he still kills as a jealous, power-hungry psycho, and the film does well situating him as the main villain of the story. Farrell is also good as a smarmy lout, and the actor apparently had a lot to do with the character's creation, to his credit. Farrell is often overlooked when naming great modern actors (not entirely his fault, but hey he tries) but this smaller role is yet another good one. Jennifer Aniston is really the only disappointment, but that's not the actress's fault. While it's great seeing her change pace and take on a completely unlikable character, the role doesn't have as much to do with the main story as Spacey's or Farrell's. This results in an unfortunate imbalance among the film's foils, with Spacey taking up most of the time from Farrell and Aniston, whereas the three good guys have more or less equal playing time. Jamie Foxx slums it up as "Motherfucker" Jones (which leads to some hilarious dialogue). I guess now that he's won that Oscar, he doesn't care quite as much about what roles he takes; still, he does a good job here as his character advises the others how best to murder their enemies.

Mr. Anderson never condones a comb-over

Let me be the first to say that Horrible Bosses is one of the few 2011 titles that has had me laughing from beginning to end. I can't even say that about Bridesmaids, though that film made up for it by having much more heart. Still, there was nothing wrong and a lot right with this modern workplace fantasy, which took great actors, gave them a good script and good direction and let them run with it. The result is pretty amazing, and there's every chance that Horrible Bosses could wind up as the most gut-busting film this summer. Do yourself a favor; if you haven't already seen this title, don't wait for the DVD release. You'll just be postponing one of the funniest experiences this year, and who wants THAT?