Review “Horrible Bosses 2”

It took five people to attempt to rekindle the chemistry of Jason Bateman, Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis have with “Horrible Bosses 2” a comedy that doesn’t go “The Hangover Part 2” route in rehashing the script of the first movie, cutting and pasting the same scenes except that it is “In Thailand”.

Nick (Bateman) Kurt (Sudeikis) and Dale (Day) are now entrepreneurs and have developed “The Shower Buddy” and in quick exposition Dale has triplets, Nick is the sane one of the bunch and Kurt is still Kurt. You would watch this movie basically for the banter between the three. As for the “plot” itself? Well it isn’t cutting and pasting “murder” for “kidnapping” it is very close to that. The cast of the whole movie are not phoning their performances in. After a semi-disastrous demonstration of their product on an LA morning talk shows, flames erupt when Bateman says the name of the company’s website, “Nick Kurt Dale.com” and Keegan-Michael Key suggests politely they should reconsider changing the name of the website.

That doesn’t stop Rex Hanson (Chris Pine) from inviting the boys into a meeting to pitch their product, turns out Rex is messing with the guys and the real villain Bert Hanson (Christoph Waltz) steps in and finances, the manufacturing of the shower buddy.

Shortly after the first product rolls off the production line, they find out that they will be losing their business, because the loan that Bert gave them is going to default, in order to repay the debt Kurt will bid pennies on the dollar for the 100 thousand shower buddies, that he ordered.

This doesn’t sit well with Nick, Kurt and Dale, and in desperation hatch a scheme to kidnap Rex for the exact same dollar amount of the loan, that they are set to default on. By this time two of the three bosses show up and drop out. Dave Harken (Kevin Spacey) gets the best lines and proceeds to emasculate the boys, ok I know that didn’t sound right, trust me Spacey gets the best lines, meanwhile there is an attempted robbery of a tank of laughing gas from the dental office of Julia Harris (Jennifer Aniston)at night, things get complicated when Dr. Harris support group meet up at the office and Kurt and Dale are in a storage closet and Nick tries to bail everyone out.

There is nothing in the way of character development for anyone, Nick as I said earlier is still the sane one of the group, Kurt is the crazy one, with a one track mind and Dale is still frantic, channeling Charlie from “It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia” Aniston’s Dr. Harris still has her same addictions from the first movie, Spacey is still mean, I would to if I were in prison and “Mother F**ker” Jones (Jamie Foxx) is still, well a………..actually he is wanting to open a Pinkberry, but needs start up capital.

There is a twist of sorts, with Rex hatching a kidnapping scheme luring the three into the scheme kicking and screaming. A welcomed addition to the cast is Detective Hatcher (Jonathan Banks) who brings the growl of Mike Ehrmantraut from “Breaking Bad” with a mild lighter touch.

If you’ve seen the trailer, sadly you’ve seen a majority of the best parts of the movie, as far as sequels go, you could do a lot worse than “Horrible Bosses 2”, you could check out “Smokey and the Bandit 2” or “Another 48 Hours”. Like I said it took five people to cook up this sequel, I would like to see in the future perhaps, Day, Bateman and Sudeikis take on another comedy and go in different directions, for example Bateman directed and starred in “Bad Words” and Sudeikis had “We’re the Millers” last year, which also is headed for a sequel, I have no idea how they will pull that off. There are a few laughs here the movie isn’t terrible, by any stretch, just go in with very low expectations.

Review L.A. Confidential

Any other year “L.A. Confidential” would’ve been a bigger contender for best picture. What was in “L.A. Cofindential’s” way? A little independent film named “Titanic” also in the grouping for best picture that year along with those two were “Good Will Hunting” “As Good As It Gets”  and “The Full Monty”.

“L.A. Confidential” did take home two Oscars one for Kim Basinger for best supporting actress and the other for best adapted screenplay for writer director Curtis Hanson

(“The Hand That Rocks The Cradle” “The River Wild” “8 Mile” “Lucky You”) and co-screenwriter Brian Helgeland

(“42” “The Taking Of Pelham 1-2-3” “Payback”) for tackling and adapting James Ellroy’s mammoth noir novel.

The cast is first-rate with only Basinger, Kevin Spacey and Danny DeVito as the bigger named stars at the time. In the leads is Russell Crowe (“Gladiator” “3:10 To Yuma”) as

Wendell ‘Bud’ White a detective with a penchant for dishing out punishment, Guy Pearce (“Memento” “The Hurt Locker”) is Edmond Exley an up and coming street cop whose father is a legend in the LAPD.

If you ever want to see how screenwriting works read Ellroy’s book and see how Hanson and Helgeland were able to cannibalize a few characters and consolidate some plot lines and still tell a very cohesive story. If Hanson and Helgeland had tried to tackle this sprawling epic page for page you would’ve had a mess on your hands like Brian De Palma’s “The Black Dahlia” which I think is very unwatchable, I’m not here to disparage that film at all, it shows you how difficult it is to adapt Ellroy’s prose and it takes people with a lot of passion and love to do this, Hanson and Helgeland got a very lucky break with producers Arnon Milchan, David L. Woper, Michael Nathanson and Dan Kolsrud. In 2003 there was an “L.A. Confidential” tv pilot shot with Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) in the Vincennes role, you can see the pilot if you buy the deluxe DVD package.

I didn’t get to see “L.A. Confidential” during its theatrical release, I remember the trailer though it was showing when I saw “Breakdown” before the “L.A. Confidential” trailer there was also the trailer for “Titanic” honestly I had no intent of ever seeing however I was transfixed on the shot of all the passengers plummeting to their death when the boat started to capsize, I admit I was hooked on that shot. The “L.A. Confidential” trailer intrigued me in terms of keeping its aesthetic of Los Angeles circa the early 50’s, the movie was filmed in an around LA and it is stunning and beautiful.

I finally did get to see this movie on home video so yeah I was denied the whole movie going experience with that and it is disappointing however I spent nearly two hours transfixed by this movie there are not enough superlatives from Hanson’s direction & writing (along with Helgeland) to Dante Spinotti’s cinematography for which he was

robbed of that Oscar because of the “big boat iceberg” movie (Pete Holmes description not mine) Jerry Goldsmith score is noir perfect without being clichéd, who also lost out to Big Boat Iceberg’s composer James Horner.
So what is this movie about? Good question Mickey Cohen (Paul Guilfoyle) is busted for tax evasion and the heroin trade in Los Angeles may dwindle if the competition doesn’t get a hold of Cohen’s supply which is easier said than done. Those who attempt to abscond Mickey’s heroin usually end up riddled with bullets. It’s up to Dudley Smith (James Cromwell) and his police department to both find the missing heroin and kick anyone out of the city of Angels who attempt to find it. Smith has plenty of resources from “Bud” White who temporarily loses his shield over “Bloddy Christmas” a jail riot the Edmund Exley uses to leverage his way into Detective Lieutenant position in the LAPD, along the way is looked upon as a scourge by his fellow officers. Jack Vincennes (Kevin Spacey) is a hot shot detective and a technical advisor on the show “Badge of Honor” that he loses out on because of “Bloody Christmas”. White, Vincennes and Exley’s must trust one another when the “Nite Owl Massacre” happens a shootout at a diner leaving every patron dead including Bud Whites recently retired partner Dick Stensland (Graham Beckel) .

Sid Hudgen’s (Danny DeVito) is publisher of “Hush-Hush” magazine is in cahoots with Vincennes. Pierce Morehouse Patchett (David Strathairn) is a respected land developer who dabbles in the entertainment industry and has a few local politicians in his back pocket because of said politician’s ‘indescretions’. District Attorney Ellis Loew (Ron Rifkin “Alias”) and Police Chief (John Mahon) try to manage the chaos and mayhem. Leading lady Lynn Bracken (Kim Basinger) has people always telling her she looks like Veronica Lake, Bud White on the other hand doesn’t think so, Bracken looks way better than Veronica Lake.

After the Nite Owl Massacre suspects are nabbed and taken court life seems go be going smoothly for Exley, White and Vincennes, each getting what they want whether it’s going back to “Badge of Honor” climbing the ranks of the LAPD or spending time with Lynn, each seems satisfied what picks away at them was the ease as to how the suspects were caught and brought to justice, it’s an itch that none of them can leave alone they scratch away at it and there are consequences to those actions.

Like I said in the beginning everyone involved with this film bring their “A” game, and gives you a film that you can watch at least once a year.