Metacritic reviews

Melissa McCarthy is hilarious in every scene of The Boss, but the movie rarely keeps up with her.

McCarthy has a great knack for vicious verbiage, and in combination with her supreme physical control there's pleasure in seeing Darnell tear an opponent to shreds, even (or especially) when she's in the wrong.

A sporadically funny film that has moments of real heart in what’s otherwise a formulaic study of an aggressive businesswoman who learns to stop being so selfish.

The raucous comedy fails to keep up with its charismatic star.

The Boss is a better film than Tammy, but it still flounders, almost capsizing in its sloppy final third.

Its paper-thin characterizations, hackneyed plotting and overdependence on viciously profane humor put this effort more in the minor league of Tammy, McCarthy's previous collaboration with her director/co-screenwriter husband Ben Falcone, than her truly inspired work with Paul Feig on Bridesmaids and Spy.

McCarthy, who can toss off an insult like “Suck my d—k, Gigantor!” and give it a vague impression of wit, coaxes forth just about every laugh and stray chuckle that could possibly have been extracted from the material.

It’s a comedy that seems perpetually in search of laughs it almost never finds, as if the filmmakers showed up on the first day of production, looked at the script, and realized they’d forgotten to write any jokes, and then had to scramble to find some on set.

If they gave out badges for smutty language, this movie would have lots. There’s nothing wrong with that. But filthy doesn’t automatically equal funny.

Many of The Boss’s troubles stem from its constant, unpredictable shifts in tone.