Horrible Bosses was a 2011 dark comedy that featured an all-star cast. The film depicts three friends,
all of which have terrible bosses that drive them to the point of total frustration and exhaustion during their daily working lives. Jason Bateman's character, Nick, is constantly harassed by his boss who is played by Kevin Spacey. His boss constantly berates him and promises him promotions that never arise. Charlie Day's character, Dale, is constantly sexually harassed by his periodontist boss, Dr. Julia Harris, who is played by Jennifer Aniston. Jason Sudeikis plays Kurt Buckman who comes under the management of a psychotic, amoral, company heir, Bobby, who is played by Colin Farrell. Each devise plots to get rid of their bosses without getting caught, and the movie takes very dark and funny turns as each try to achieve this.
Several actors were approached to have roles in the film, and some of these included: Ashton Kutcher, Owen Wilson, Tom Cruise, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Vince Vaughn, Matthew McConaughey, Ryan Reynolds, Dax Shepard, Johnny Knoxville, and Jeff Bridges. However, the role for Jennifer Aniston as the periodontist was written specifically for her. Upon taking the role, Jennifer Aniston insisted that she color her hair to a dark brown in order to distinguish herself from other characters she has played in previous films.
Aniston's character is extremely sexy and seductive, but also conniving and harassing. What makes her role with Charlie Day's character so funny is that the typical sexual harassment scenario is flipped; this time a woman in a position of power is doing the harassing. Of course, Day's character is a hopeless and relentless romantic who is completely committed to his fiancée, played by Lindsay Sloane. Unfortunately, Aniston's character threatens him by telling him that if he does not comply with her advances, she would tell his fiancée that they had numerous sexual encounters together. Not wanting to lose his job as an assistant to a periodontist, he devises a plan with his friends to take care of the problem.
The film was released on July 8th, 2011 and had a working budget between $35 million and $37 million. The film made a whopping $209 million and because of this, a script for a sequel has already been produced. The film received fantastic ratings and many stated that they thought Charlie Day's performance was so good, it overshadowed many of the other actors in the movie. Because of this, he will probably win several awards for his performance at the upcoming MTV Movie Awards.
The film was released on Blu-ray disc in October 2011 and sold over 400,000 copies in its first week of sales. As a result, the film garnered $6 million in sales from the DVD alone. During the Christmas season, it earned an additional $16 million. The DVD also contains deleted scenes, theatrical cuts, small featurettes, and a short on the making of the soundtrack. The cable television channel FX has received rights to release the premiere of the film on their frequency.
