The Boss - movie review
The Boss
Plot: A titan of industry is sent to prison after she's caught insider trading. When she emerges ready to rebrand herself as America's latest sweetheart, not everyone she screwed over is so quick to forgive and forget.
Cast: Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Bell, Peter Dinklage
Director: Ben Falcone
Rating: 15
Runtime: 1hr 39 mins
Release Date: Friday 10th June 2016
The Boss is nothing but a deplorable viewing experience with no moment of joy filled to the brim with despicable characters, whom you are meant to love, entirely unfunny and painstakingly long that it doesn't just become one of my least favourite films of the year but also one of the worst that I have ever seen. In all honesty, what did I expect from the director of Tammy, my least favourite film of 2014.
If I'm being entirely truthful, I just don't find Melissa McCarthy funny. I know that some do but I've never really got her comedic skills. She just delivers awkward humour that makes me cringe rather than laugh. The only time she ever seems to win me over is when she works with Paul Feig (Spy, Bridesmaids, The Heat) but with Ghostbusters coming soon, that looks to fall apart. Everything else that I have seen her in, I really dislike, and she is no different in The Boss. McCarthy plays Michelle Darnell, a wholly pretentious, smug cow who for some inexplicable reason, the film demands that you root for her. I'd rather support Voldemort on a murderous rampage in Hogwarts. McCarthy ad-libs so much that it spilt her character in two. Without the improvisation, Darnell was boring and humourless. With McCarthy's improvisation, Darnell was rude and humourless. So at least both versions have something in common. My problem with Melissa McCarthy is that I'm bored with her repetitive tropes. Almost every film she's in, even the Feig ones, play off of the fact at how she always falls over and has a potty mouth. It worked for Bridesmaids because we hadn't seen her that much before, but when she does it in every single film she appears in (I'm not kidding), it's not funny anymore. As for the character, Darnell looks like an amalgamation of a giraffe and Donald Trump. She has a horrifically terrible wig, almost as bad as the idiotic politician, and her neck scarfs are so abnormally high that they cover her neck to the point where I thought there would be a backstory to it all. It turns out that I was wrong. Appearing alongside McCarthy are Kristen Bell and Peter Dinklage. Bell, fresh off of her groundbreaking turn in Frozen, obviously is just cashing the cheques in until Frozen 2. Her performance and character were both so booooooooooooooring. She isn't inherently bad in this film but Bell looks uninspired throughout and her character is unbelievably freaking dull. I would say that she is likeable but I have no ground to base that thought on simply because her character is void of anything. Kristen Bell is a more than lovable actress but this is a paint by numbers role for her. As for Peter Dinklage, let me be the first to say, I'm worried. Dinklage is one of the best parts of Game Of Thrones as Tyrion Lannister and was more than decent as Bolivar Trask in X-Men: Days Of Future Past. In my honest opinion, those are the only two performances of his that I have really enjoyed. The rest are either merely passable or, in The Boss' case, terrible. Dinklage plays Renault, a business rival to McCarthy, but he turns what is a grounded premise that could potentially be a real life scenario into a full blown cartoon. I mean, he battles a group of people with a Samurai sword...
If the performances weren't dire enough, they had to deal with the plot. I have mentioned before, about many movies, that they can be incredibly generic to the point where I can explicitly guess in what way the movie will progress. However, The Boss takes the cake in being such a predictable movie that I could predict every twist, every joke, every plot point. As a matter of fact, each of these may as well have been signposted in bright attention-grabbing lights and it still wouldn't have been as obvious. The story of a rich egotistical megalomaniac losing it all and sympathising with the lower class has been overdone and then some more. I couldn't give a rat's arse about any of these characters as I impatiently waited to leave. I was close guys. I was close to giving up. Even McCarthy's improvisations weren't original. They were jokes I had seen her or better comedians do time and time again. I sat watching this film slowly dying inside knowing that I could have just as easily seen a better movie instead. For a film that is meant to have its audience howling with laughter, the only sound that ever left my mouth was a yawn because I could have easily taken a nap and it would have been more enjoyable. This is Ben Falcone's second directing attempt and I don't know if I can give him another chance. Tammy was an abomination and this was almost as bad so I'm concerned about anymore films he makes. However, and I do admire the fact that the husband and wife duo has got to be fun for them to do, but McCarthy and Falcone shouldn't creatively work together anymore but their productions are garbage. Also, for some stupidly ridiculous reason, Darnell's big plan to rebuild her business, is to sell Girl Scout Cookies leading to a wildly unfunny street brawl between two rivaling troops. I couldn't help but think that it was their attempt at an Anchorman fight but lacked, well, anything special.
The Boss isn't quite as bad as Tammy but it's like comparing a punch in the face to a kick in the balls. I'm still yet to be sold on McCarthy being this comedic goddess that some perceive her to be, and the whole film was just a pain to watch. I can't even say that I'm disappointed because that would suggest that I had hopes for this film to begin with. Consider me not a fan.
My Verdict: 1.5/10
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