Horrible Bosses
Warner Bros. Pictures | Release Date: July 8, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
57
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 40 Critic Reviews
Positive:
21
Mixed:
14
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallJul 6, 2011
The funniest comedy of degeneracy since "Bad Santa," and a career-changer for Aniston and Farrell if they'll only keep following their perverted muses. Horrible Bosses spins hostile work environments into a movie surpassing "9 to 5" and "Office Space" as the touchstone flick for disenchanted drones. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumJul 6, 2011
A bouncy, well-built, delightfully nasty tale of resentment, desperation, and amoral revenge that does for employer-employee relations what Danny DeVito and Bette Midler did for the bonds of matrimony in the great 1986 Zucker brothers comedy "Ruthless People." Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertJul 7, 2011
Funny and dirty in about that order. Read full review
88
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanJul 7, 2011
Markowitz, Daley and Goldstein sounds like a New York firm that delivers financial advice, but they're asking you to invest only $9 of your cash and 100 minutes of your time. They have written the funniest movie I've seen this year in Horrible Bosses. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJul 11, 2011
For something like Horrible Bosses to sparkle, the actors have to shine... and shine they do. Read full review
75
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottJul 8, 2011
Gets considerable gas from the fact that Bateman, Sudeikis and Day so convincingly play three idiotic pals. The real fun, though, is in the fantastic supporting cast. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyJul 7, 2011
What's right about Horrible Bosses is less easy to identify, but it comes down to something like esprit de corps. The three principal actors click. The looseness of the structure actually proves a benefit, allowing Bateman, Sudeikis and Day, all trained on television comedy, to bounce off each other, talk over each other and apparently pull lines out of the air. Read full review
75
USA TodayScott BowlesJul 7, 2011
It's over-the-top stuff, to be sure. But Bosses never crosses that line into the macabre. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianM. E. RussellJul 7, 2011
The movie is strongest when it stays with Bateman and Spacey, who play greatest-hits remixes of their best-loved performances. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubNathan RabinJul 7, 2011
In the film's funniest scene, a coked-up Day rocks out to The Ting Tings' "That's Not My Name" in a car in a state of ecstatic frenzy. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJul 7, 2011
Cleverly structured, Horrible Bosses works in spite of its cruder, scrotum-centric instincts. Read full review
75
Orlando SentinelRoger MooreJul 6, 2011
The first funny film to give those "Bridesmaids" a run for their money. Read full review
75
ObserverRex ReedJul 6, 2011
It's one of those revolting, raunch-fueled movies churned out in their sleep by the Farrelly brothers and Judd Apatow that I usually hate, but with real cleverness, off-center wit and edgy imagination. Imagine an X-rated Three Stooges farce, and you get the picture. Read full review
70
The New York TimesA.O. ScottJul 7, 2011
The laughter is mean but also oddly pure: it expels shame and leaves you feeling dizzy, a little embarrassed and also exhilarated, kind of like the cocaine that two of the main characters consume by accident. Read full review
70
TimeMary PolsJul 7, 2011
Almost every actor in it outplays the material they're working with, particularly Jason Bateman. Horrible Bosses would be worth seeing if only for the pleasure of watching him delicately bat indelicate comedy around. Read full review
70
MovielineStephanie ZacharekJul 7, 2011
Aside from having murder on their minds, these three are a lot more well-behaved than the "Hangover" guys. Read full review
70
SalonAndrew O'HehirJul 7, 2011
As inconsequential and virtually indistinguishable sub-Judd Apatow white-boy comedies fueled by prison-rape gags and pants-pissing anxiety around black people go, Horrible Bosses is pretty solid entertainment. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJul 6, 2011
Let's not pretend otherwise: The comedy here is profane, juvenile, silly. Fine by me, because some of it also is hilarious. Read full review
63
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanJul 7, 2011
Scorchingly raunchy - and yes, pretty funny. Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter TraversJul 7, 2011
Here's a hit-and-miss farce that leaves you wishing it was funnier than it is. Why? Because it wussies out on a sharp premise. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineNick SchagerJul 6, 2011
As its titular tyrants, Spacey, Aniston, and Farrell all revel in their over-the-top noxiousness, though the latter is mysteriously given short shrift even though his performance is far and way the most novel and gonzo. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanJul 7, 2011
All those who have to drag themselves to work every morning will surely find some comfort in Seth Gordon's cheerfully outrageous revenge comedy, Horrible Bosses. Read full review
50
New York PostKyle SmithJul 8, 2011
Idiocy can be funny, but let's not forget that for all of this movie's aspirations to be out-there, it relies on the staple of the sitcom mentality. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie RickeyJul 7, 2011
Short, sour and scabrous, Bosses is that paradoxical thing: a situation comedy where neither situation nor comedy is particularly effective where nonetheless Jason Bateman is sidesplitting, as is Colin Farrell in a supporting role. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJul 7, 2011
Horrible Bosses has a handful of hilarious moments, but it's not exactly funny and not exactly serious, either. Read full review
50
SlateDana StevensJul 7, 2011
Horrible Bosses doesn't quite qualify as a black comedy. Without the conviction to follow through on its own macabre premise, this underachieving little movie washes out to a muddy grayish-brown. Read full review
50
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsJul 7, 2011
Spacey evokes memories of other movies in which he's played a shark, and it's inherently fascinating to hear Aniston talking dirty and to see Farrell with a combover, but nothing in the film is genuinely provocative. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesJul 7, 2011
The story is so packed with over-the-top characters (including a hit man and hustler played by Jamie Foxx) that no one gets a chance to breathe. Read full review
50
Boxoffice MagazineSara Maria VizcarrondoJul 6, 2011
The laughs are proportionate to the stakes, which are middle-of-the-road. Read full review
45
NPRIan BuckwalterJul 8, 2011
When faced with the choice of which gag to go for, Horrible Bosses generally selects the raunchiest laugh possible, all other considerations be damned. Read full review
40
EmpireHelen O'HaraJul 22, 2011
These bosses cannot justify either murder or lasting comic memories, fatally compromising a farce that could have been great but ends up merely mediocre. Read full review
40
Time OutDavid FearJul 7, 2011
All the put-upon boorishness of an office drone (Bateman), a chemical-plant manager (Sudeikis) and their sexually harassed buddy (Day) might be forgivable, were Horrible Bosses actually funny instead of sporadically amusing and desperately vulgar. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenJul 7, 2011
Boasting a terrific cast, the movie is unable to parlay its abundance of comic talent into an abundance of original comedy. Read full review
40
VarietyJustin ChangJul 5, 2011
The manner in which the central scheme plays out is predictably moronic, vulgar and juvenile, though the parties involved just about make up for it. Read full review
40
Village VoiceKarina LongworthJul 5, 2011
This is middling TV material, almost comforting in its bland predictability - the kind of stuff you want on the seat-back screen when there's turbulence on a plane - but rarely actually laugh-out-loud funny, and never truly dark or daring. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeTy BurrJul 7, 2011
I say kill off everybody else and bring back Farrell for the sequel. Read full review
38
Miami HeraldConnie OgleJul 7, 2011
Slow-witted, clumsy and almost pathologically reliant on crude name-calling for laughs - Horrible Bosses represents the lowest end of the comedy spectrum. Read full review
33
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerJul 8, 2011
The coarseness wouldn't be so bad if at least the steady stream of obscenities were funny. Read full review
30
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternJul 7, 2011
Horrible Bosses has preposterousness to burn, but no finesse and no interest in having any. Read full review
30
The Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttJul 5, 2011
The lameness of the gags and dialogue and the film's frequent deep dives for the bottom at the expense of real comedy speak to desperation in Hollywood to figure out the audience for contemporary naughty comedy. Read full review
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