Posts Tagged ‘Jason Sudeikis’

‘Horrible Bosses’ more proof that three is the new two RICHARD CROUSE METRO CANADA Published: June 30, 2011

horrible-bosses-jason-sudeikisAlthough Jason Sudeikis stars in the new comedy Horrible Bosses, he says in real life he’s never worked for a horrible boss.

A short retail career—“It was not my forte,” he says—saw a manager harp on him about “hanger integrity” which he explains is “the act of making sure all your hangers in a closet or on a clothing rack face the exact same way.” But he doesn’t remember her as horrible. “Passive aggressive, yes, and very detail oriented. But horrible, no.”

His current boss, Saturday Night Live head honcho Lorne Michaels gets more effusive praise. “I picture him laughing a lot,” he says. “I think that is what keeps him so spry.”

In Horrible Bosses, the handsome actor—he’s good-looking enough to have dated January Jones!—plays Kurt, who, along with Jason Bateman and Charlie Day, plot to kill their evil employers. “I just think Jason and Charlie are so great,” he says. “I watched and thought, ‘Golly, they’re so frickin’ funny. I hope people are alright with me.’”

The plot sounds sinister, and Sudeikis admits “you could do a Fox Searchlight movie of this” but his movie isn’t serious in any way. “I don’t know if any of our characters go through an emotional arc,” he laughs. “It never gets too dark. There’s not going to be any copycat situations. It’s not going to start things up around the country, or the world for that matter.”

It’s a buddy comedy expanded to three, just like another big hit this summer, The Hangover Part 2. “People, if they want to be crappy about it will say, ‘Oh, they want to be The Hangover,’ but it is totally different.”

I mention a tweet someone sent after seeing Horrible Bosses. “Three is the new two,” it read.

“I’ve been working on my own theory that four is the new rule of comedy in this new generation,” he says. “One establishes the premise, two hits it, third is the punch line, then the fourth one is a comment on what the first three were.”

Horrible Bosses is being released amidst the crash, boom, bang of the summer blockbusters. I ask him if he’s concerned about competing with the likes of Transformers.

“Out of the movies that are being released around it, it’s the one I would go see,” he says. “I just happen to be in it, which is nice.”

WE’RE THE MILLERS: 3 ½ STARS

The War on Drugs© is over, at the movies at least.

The sound of Nancy Reagan screaming “Just say no!” from beyond the grave hangs over “We’re the Millers,” where drug dealers—no, make that drug smugglers—are the heroes of a mainstream movie.

Ex-SNLer Jason Sudeikis plays Dave, a low-level drug dealer who agrees to smuggle “enough weed to kill Willie Nelson” from Mexico to the United States to settle a debt.

To cover his tracks he concocts a plan to move the marijuana in a giant RV. To complete the picture he recruits a stripper (Jennifer Aniston), a homeless street punk (Emma Roberts) and a neighbor (Will Poulter) to pose as his “all-American” family. Only a heartless border guard would stop a vacationing family, right?

Well, because this is an anything-goes comedy, nothing happens as planned, but after getting shot at by Mexican drug kingpins the unlikely group learns what it means to be a real family.

Occasionally very funny, “We’re the Millers” benefits from some good casting.

Aniston plays against type as a sassy stripper and Poulter does some impressive and funny eyebrow acting. Also hilarious is Kathryn Hahn, who is quickly becoming the go-to actor for quirky comedic cameos in big movies and on TV.

Only Sudeikis, the star, seems out of place. He’s fine playing the big-hearted but scuzzy drug dealer but is less interesting when he has a change of heart.

Which brings us to the movie’s last twenty minutes. The raunchy-ish comedy—there’s some full frontal nudity, stripping and a funny kissing scene involving multiple partners—spoils the promise of the premise with a mawkish last twenty minutes. What was an edgy comedy gets weighed down with sentiment as the drug smugglers find redemption for their actions.

Not since Cheech and Chong has this much dope been played for laughs, but with its sappy cop-out ending “We’re the Millers” leaves the audience feeling duped, not doped.