I had low expectations going into this film, having watched the first again just hours before only to be disappointed with how little of the film I found funny this time. This being the first time seeing 2, I pleasantly enjoyed it. What surprised me the most was Chris Pine's psychotic performance - one great moment of the film is when Kurt yells that Rex is "fight-clubbing" himself (watch Fight Club by the way, great film and it will only make the joke funnier). From this moment and many others like this, 2 is similar to 1 in that it is a meta- film; it is not about making movies but discusses pop culture and the characters recognize crucial plot moments in the film saying "this is the part where..." or "what a great twist" and so forth. Meta-films have the effect of reflecting on themselves, reminding the audience that this is fiction, and while I have discussed this recently in class I'm not sure whether it necessarily makes a film "better," but it is interesting to think about. What I both liked and disliked about the film is that it made use of jokes and similar plot structure from the first film. It was amusing to hear Harken use the "50 states" quote from the first film, but that made the film seem to rely on old material in order to be funny, and this isn't even clever like how 22 Jump Street actually made fun of the fact that it was a sequel. The plot structure relied on imitating that of the first film in certain ways which really brought my enjoyment down since it could not be more original - but at least it wasn't an EXACT copy like The Hangover Part 2. I was also surprised with what this film was able to do visually with a few different montages and the transitions between segments of those montages. My verdict is that Chris Pine was surprisingly the best part of this movie, and overall, even though I rate it higher mainly because the jokes of the first have grown old on me, it is as good as Horrible Bosses. 3.0/4.0
Review of Horrible Bosses 2
