Reel Critics: A ‘Horrible’ use of Oscar winners

“Horrible Bosses 2” is not about bosses, office work or 9 to 5 jobs. It’s about a Marx Brothers-style farce with no grounding in reality.

Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day reprise the characters from the original film. They bring likable camaraderie to their predictable roles, which are just slightly above the Three Stooges level.

The boys get involved in a business deal gone bad, and the situation leads them on a reckless path of revenge. Oscar-winner Christoph Waltz plays the billionaire target of their wrath. The boys hatch a bizarre plot to kidnap his son and extort money from the ruthless tycoon.

Jennifer Aniston again plays a nymphomaniacal dentist who causes problems for everyone involved. Her lascivious antics provide most of the R-rated entertainment. Two more Oscar winners, Jamie Foxx and Kevin Spacey, appear briefly to spice up the mix.

Snappy dialogue among the many players generates some good laughs. But the criminal silliness of their caper overwhelms the comedy. It leaves you wondering how so much talent can be used to so little effect.

—John Depko

*

Less ‘Homesman,’ more homeswomen

“The Homesman” is Tommy Lee Jones’ second directorial effort. It’s as dry as the dust blowing off the Nebraska prairie and just as exciting.

Though well-crafted and sensitively acted, it’s slow moving and lacks the resonance of a better Western such as “Unforgiven.”

Life in the 1850s consisted of dirt, disease, loneliness and unending hard work. Females had it especially rough: For varied reasons, three women in one remote community are driven insane with grief. Their husbands are ill equipped to care for them, and someone must take them back east where they can be properly looked after.

Mary Bee Cuddy (Hilary Swank) volunteers for this dangerous and pitiful task. Perhaps it’s to prove that she’s as tough and capable as a man (she is), or perhaps it’s a respite from her life as a “plain as a tin cup” and “bossy” spinster.

Along the way, she enlists the help of a squatter, George Briggs (Jones), whom she saved from hanging. Together they get through an arduous five-week journey to Iowa, a trip much more difficult than anyone expected.

Nobody does cantankerous like Jones, but it’s not enough to pad a two-hour movie. I wanted to know more about Mary Bee and the other women — how did they end up so far from a more refined upbringing, from being loved?

Swank is wonderful as a kind woman for whom life no longer seems to hold any promise. The scenes where she proposes marriage (to more than one man) as a business merger are just crushing.

“The Homesman” comes to a quirky and abrupt ending, almost like the director was thumbing his nose at us. Take that, Clint Eastwood.

—Susanne Perez

JOHN DEPKO is a retired senior investigator for the Orange County public defender’s office. He lives in Costa Mesa and works as a licensed private investigator.

SUSANNE PEREZ lives in Costa Mesa and is an executive assistant for a company in Irvine.