It’s been three years since Nick Hendricks, Kurt Buckman and Dale Arbus tried to murder their horrible bosses. Now they’ve decided they never want to have bosses again. Instead, they’re going to be the head honchos of their new entrepreneurial effort, Nick & Kurt & Dale, Inc. Their first product? A hybrid water-and-shampoo dispensing nozzle they dub the Shower Buddy.
When an appearance promoting the product on a Los Angeles morning show goes horribly (and predictably) awry, it seems their dream will die before it’s even born. But wait—who’s that on the phone? Rex Hanson? Son of catalog-gizmo kingpin Bert Hanson? Where there’s money there’s hope!
And so to make some big money with the Hansons they scrape together some small money (half a million dollars!) to put together an inventory of 100,000 Shower Buddies. Right before Bert bails on them. Turns out he’s waiting for Nick & Kurt & Dale, Inc. to go belly-up so he can swoop in to scoop up the Shower Buddies for pennies on the dollar.
It’s a dastardly deed, a horrible response from a horrible man who suddenly seems a lot like their old horrible bosses.
There’s only one thing they can think of to do, of course: kidnap Rex and demand a ransom to cover their losses.
Never mind, of course, that Dale’s assessment of their ability to execute this revenge-fueled crime is one of very few wise things anyone says in this fiercely foul tale. He blurts out, “We’re not criminals. We suck at crime!”
Indeed. And I guess I should also note that while they get an F for entrepreneurial acumen, at least they’re “trying” to push toward a grand goal.
We hear the first few words of the Serenity Prayer at Julia’s sex addiction support group.
Speaking of sex addiction, Julia (again) tries to seduce the happily married Dale here. Devoted (in his own way) to his growing family, Dale (barely) manages to escape Julia’s clutches, prompting Julia to later tell his wife, Stacy, that he’s the only man who’s ever successfully resisted her sexually seductive wiles. That’s as close to a twisted-up positive as we’re going to get.
Most of the rest of the vast sea of sexual content in Horrible Bosses 2 is verbally venereal. Among the myriad sexual topics: oral sex, fisting, scrotums, anuses, penises, circumcision, dildos, celebrities’ breasts, conversations about sexual positions in a foursome, a gratingly graphic discussion about a homosexual encounter between two 14-year-old boys, references to men being raped by women and other men, questions about pubic hair preferences (as Julia heads into the bathroom with a razor), the inclusion of urination and defecation in foreplay, an argument about why Kurt can’t fire the attractive women he hires if they don’t have sex with him, two conversations about which male actors the guys would most like to sleep with, and an email address with a reference to testicles.
When the guys start thinking that Nick is switching “teams,” Kurt and Dale talk about how great it will be to have a gay friend. Julia kicks her sex addicts support group out of her office—so she can have sex with Nick. (His new “gay status” is a turn on for her.) Security camera footage pictures the two of them going at it. They’re mostly naked, and the grainy, black-and-white screens show graphic movements.
After Dale pushes her away, Julia turns her attention to Stacy, telling him, “I’m going to f— your wife.” A visual gag suggests that Dale (seen through translucent glass) is manually stimulating Kurt, among other things. Julia shows up in lingerie; other women wear bikinis and revealing outfits.
One man is shot twice and killed. Another is plugged in the chest and ends up hospitalized. A police officer is held hostage. Rex repeatedly hits himself and bangs his head into a table to make it look as if he’s been beaten. A car chase snakes through Los Angeles and ends with a vehicle plunging off a bridge where it’s suspended by a chain link fence. Someone’s crammed in the trunk of a car. Someone else is tied and taped up.
Nick, Kurt and Dale discuss murdering Bert and Rex, then selling their organs on the black market.
More than 300 rude, crude, profane, vulgar and obscene exclamations. About 135 of them are f-words (including a dozen or so paired with “mother,” one splitting Jesus Christ’s name and another breaking up “oh my god”). Dean “MF” Jones returns, and most people call him by the full version of his middle initials. There are 60 or so s-words. References to the male anatomy (“c–k,” “d–k,” “pr–k,” “balls,” “ball sack” and “boner”) tally in above 30. Female anatomy quips include “vagina,” “puss” and “t-tties.” Other vulgarities come in the form of “a–,” “a–hole,” “p—” and “p—ant.” We also hear “b–ch” and various plays on the n-word. We see several obscene hand gestures. God’s name is abused 30-plus times (a dozen times with “d–n”). Jesus’ name is misused six or eight times.
Several scenes take place in bars. Early in the morning, Rex offers the guys a drink from his well-stocked office bar. The guys’ kidnapping plan hinges on breaking into Julia’s office to steal nitrous oxide (she’s a dentist), with which they hope to incapacitate Rex. (They end up knocking themselves out when the container’s valve is accidentally opened.) A conversation revolves around how to slip someone a drug in his drink.
“Mere” malfeasance and kidnapping eventually morph into a $5 million extortion plot. Oh, and a plan to frame folks for patricide, too.
Rex treats a Hispanic housekeeper horribly, making racist jokes at her expense and even throwing a shoe at her for not doing a good enough job. She responds by going into a bathroom, sticking his toothbrush down the back of her pants and rubbing vigorously. We then watch him brush his teeth with the soiled instrument.
Bert cynically says, “You thought hard works creates wealth. The only thing that creates wealth is wealth. I have it, you don’t.” He quips that the American Dream is made in China.
There are some movies that should never earn enough money to secure a sequel. Horrible Bosses (which came out in 2011) is Exhibit A. Alas, three years later, our worst fears are raunchily realized by director Sean Anders, who previously helmed the sordid Sex Drive and has writing credits for We’re the Millers and Hot Tub Time Machine.
In the interest of sparing you any more foul and filthy lists or litanies, I’ll just skip to the end and say it’s crystal clear here that Horrible Bosses 2 is desperately trying to be even more horrible than its predecessor. It’s really no more than that, and it’s certainly no less.
After serving as an associate editor at NavPress’ Discipleship Journal and consulting editor for Current Thoughts and Trends, Adam now oversees the editing and publishing of Plugged In’s reviews as the site’s director. He and his wife, Jennifer, have three children. In their free time, the Holzes enjoy playing games, a variety of musical instruments, swimming and … watching movies.
