Méchants patrons 2

Alors que Horrible Bosses, sous la direction de Seth Gordon, dénonçait avec un humour mordant les injustices du milieu du travail aux lendemains de la récession, cette suite illustre sans finesse, à coups de gags grossiers rarement drôles, l'écart entre la classe moyenne et l'infâme 1%.

Dans ce genre d'exercice, le but est de faire rire le plus gras possible en poussant la vulgarité dans ses derniers retranchements. Force est de reconnaître que certains gags atteignent leur cible parfois sur ce plan. Cela dit, il aurait quand même fallu que les concepteurs de Horrible Bosses 2 y mettent un peu plus d'efforts. S'appuyer sur un script bancal dont les grandes lignes semblent avoir été griffonnées sur un bout de table de taverne un soir de beuverie n'est guère un gage de réussite.

A movie called ''Horrible Bosses'' or even a movie called ''Horrible Bosses 2,'' should essentially write itself. Unfortunately, that's exactly what the creators of these two movies wanted their cast to do, and the result is puerile, ugly and painfully unfunny.

Le complot qu'ont imaginé Anders et sa bande est boiteux. Anders a aussi échoué à maintenir une certaine cohérence. Parfois, les personnages parlent les uns par-dessus les autres, donnant lieu à une cacophonie incompréhensible. D'autres moments sont pur cabotinage.

As I wrote in my review, I don't necessarily want to see a third Horrible Bosses, because I think the concept has played itself out. But I like those three characters, and I could see them showing up in, like, a Police Academy movie. 

It's quite strange that it all doesn't come together more with such an impressive troupe, but I think it's because everyone is just having so much fun that they forgot the importance of an actual script; ad-libbing can be a wonderful thing, but it can only take you so far, and when it begins to feel like ad-libbing, it just becomes a chore to watch after a while.

What's even more problematic, the distinctions that made Nick, Kurt, and Dale interesting in the first film seem to have melted into an inchoate mush of sameness. In part, it's because these characters are no longer reacting to their own distinct workplace environments, but rather to the same uninspired plot developments.

Ultimately,''Horrible Bosses 2'' comes across as more depressing than humorous, in that all of these performers are undeniably more talented than the material they’ve been given.