Jennifer Aniston, Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, Colin Farrell, Jamie Foxx and Kevin Spacey star in raunchy, foul-mouthed, unsentimental and shrewd comedy

BY JOE TYRRELL

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

MOVIE REVIEW

In the current multiplex, just like the job market, many people are settling.

That's the truth behind "Horrible Bosses," which like its title characters is raunchy, foul-mouthed, unsentimental and shrewd. Notice that smart is not among those adjectives, but it could be dumber.

Resembling an upside-down mortgage, this is a movie where the supporting players bring a lot more wherewithal than the leads.

Reliable Jason Bateman plays Nick Hendricks, an office drone expecting a big promotion after eight years in the same job. The key to getting ahead, Nick confidently assures us, is to always eat shit.

Nick does not realize he is facing an all-you-can-eat buffet. His boss, Dave Harken, is played by Kevin Spacey. Not the kindler, gentler, Bobby Darrinesque Spacey, the smarmy, vicious "Swimming with Sharks" Spacey. "I own you," Harken says as his microwave stare cooks Nick where he stands.

Nick's friend Kurt loves his job at a chemical company. After all, avuncular owner Jack Pellit (Donald Sutherland) has just told Kurt that he will take over one day. That's despite Jack's cokehead son Bobby, Colin Farrell breaking his own world record for sleazy. Kurt, get that in writing before... too late.

The third downtrodden worker, dental assistant Dale, has a different problem. Although Dale is engaged to perky Stacy (Lindsay Sloane), his boss is all over him. In her practice, there's lots of drilling.

On the other hand, dentist Dr. Julia Harris looks exactly like Jennifer Aniston as the crown of creation. Dale is Charlie Day of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," who as usual displays more nervous energy than should be contained in a human body. Dude, chill.

As a result, Aniston's persistent attempts at coupling with him seem more like a cross-species experiment than sexual harassment. But she's a trouper. It takes goofy ladies man Kurt to conclude that in this society, anyone as hot, hot, hot as Doc Julia could never sexually harass a soul.

And all three men are inclined to stay put, especially after encountering a former "most likely to succeed" pal (P.J. Byrne) who once worked for Lehman Brothers and is now offering hand jobs for cash. He must have learned that at Lehman.

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