rated R

There have been plenty of R-rated comedies during the 2011 summer movie season and plenty more are on the way. It’s not a renaissance so much as a deluge, and the highest praise that can be heaped upon “Horrible Bosses” is that it is, in fact, part of the flood. It’s not even close to being as funny or likable as “Bridesmaids,” but it’s also not as offensively lazy and bad-natured as “The Hangover Part II.” “Horrible Bosses” succeeds as much as it fails, the sort of middling competence that will give you a few laughs and help you remember four months from now that yes, you already saw this movie, and don’t need to add it to your Netflix queue. If you were one of the titular horrible bosses, and “Horrible Bosses” was one of your employees, it would be so inconspicuous and barely memorable that you’d save your evil-employer powers for a richer target.

In “Horrible Bosses,” those targets are Nick (Jason Bateman), Dale (Charlie Day), and Kurt (Jason Sudeikis), old friends who are trapped under the oppressive heels of some sinister supervisors.
Vexing them are Dave Harken (Kevin Spacey), a psychotic, manipulative control freak; Bobby Pellit (Colin Farrell), a coke-addled dweeb with a collection of nunchuks and kimonos; and Julia Harris (Jennifer Anniston), a sexually aggressive dentist who probably belongs on a state registry.
There’s a recession on and new jobs are hard to come by, and so Nick, Dale and Kurt decide to deal with their bosses in the most logical way possible: they’ll kill them.

Exhibiting a flair for crime on par with their ability to find better jobs, they hire a “murder consultant” (Jamie Foxx), who suggests they each kill each other’s boss, a la “Strangers on a Train.”

Bateman, Day and Sudeikis share the sort of easy chemistry that leads to great riffing, and that’s what holds up “Horrible Bosses” during its sluggish beginning. The script, by John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein and Michael Markowitz, takes an easy, identifiable premise and drags the setup out to an interminable length. Bateman’s a great deadpan straight-man, Day is wonderfully manic, and Sudeikis is a charming-but-incongruous rake. Though they work well together, they always seem to be running in place. Spacey, Farrell, and Anniston, meanwhile, get to revel in their characters’ awfulness.

Things pick up quickly once the boys enact their plan (and Nick and Dale accidentally inhale a pile of cocaine), but just as quickly, the movie lurches to a halt. “Horrible Bosses” works best when its leads succeed (or think they succeed) despite gross incompetence. In one inspired bit, Day gets everyone out of police custody thanks to some barely-remembered lines he once heard in a “Law and Order” episode. In others, Foxx dispenses assassination advice and drops choice hints that his criminal background might be a tad embellished.

But just as often, the script, and director Seth Gordon, set the characters into motion but give them nothing to do. As a result, things get flat and unfunny pretty quickly. And as thin (yet promising) as the plot is, Gordon loses the thread completely by the end, even forgetting that there’s still one out of three bosses to deal with before the credits roll. That’s not to mention all the gay jokes and extensive talk of prison rape, which seems to be the go-to off-putting trend these days for comedies aimed at dudes.

Like “Bad Teacher,” “Horrible Bosses” could’ve been a satirical triumph, if only better writers and directors were involved. There are some throwaway jabs at Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers, but Gordon and the writers expend most of their energy on some lamely constructed (even by the most generous standards) poop jokes. Still, you’ll probably laugh a little, which is just enough to keep everyone involved in “Horrible Bosses” working another day.