MOVIE REVIEW: The Boss

Melissa McCarthy plays one of the worlds most successful businesswomen who loses it all after the Federal Government investigates her for insider dealing.  After she goes bankrupt she fights her way back up the ladder with the help of her former Personal Assistant.

Over the last few years Melissa McCarthy has made a lot of comedic films and one of the best was out last year and it was called Spy.  In Spy there were a lot of jokes and most of them landed perfectly with Jason Statham adding to the comedy gold.  From what I’ve seen of the upcoming Ghostbusers remake I’m hopeful that it will be good entertainment.  That’s just my opinion and in doing this job for over three years now I know not to write a film off with just what the masses on social media rant about.

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In The Boss McCarthy plays  Michelle Darnell, a businesswoman who has made it her duty to not allow personal connections to interfere in her life and success.  As a result she’s made more than a few enemies and treats people like trash.  When an Ex lover and competitor informs the Feds about an insider trading deal that Michelle takes part in she is sent to White Collar prison for five months and as a result has all her assets frozen and is bankrupt.  On her release she is forced to live with her former Personal Assistant who has moved on to a banking job.  It doesn’t take long for Darnell to see a chance at regaining her fortune with the help of her Personal Assistants daughter.

Unlike Spy a lot of the jokes here in The Boss don’t land.  It’s not that it’s a bad film, it’s just that you can write most of the script yourself, you’re about three steps ahead in your mind, but when the jokes do land they are good.  As the film goes on more and more than the jokes get slightly better.  One of the scenes in the film that made me laugh my cute backside off was the fight between the pre-teen girls in the street.  When you go see this you’ll understand.

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The casting here is what we call in Ireland as Grand, when we say something is Grand it means it’s okay, it’s perfectly okay without being amazing.  McCarthy plays a character here rather than a normal person in an extraordinary situation, like she did in Spy, and the character needed to have sharper lines and more slam dunks put downs.  Her Personal Assistant is played by Veronica Mars herself Kristen Bell.  Adding to the cast is Ella Anderson, Kathy Bates, Peter Dinklage, and Tyler Labine.  Everyone plays their part well enough that you don’t wonder why they took the role.  Dinklage is amazingly over the top as the businessman who is obsessed with Darnell and the Japanese culture.

While the laughs are not thick and heavy the story keeps you entertained and there is enough in the script to make you want to see this film again.  Personally I don’t think I’d go back to a cinema to watch this, it’s more of a home cinema treat.  But please don’t get me wrong, as I’ve said in other reviews, it feels as though I’ve been seeing a lot of terrible films lately, but The Boss is not terrible, it’s just not amazing.

Fingers crossed that the next comedy outing outside of Ghostbusters from McCarthy is more Spy than The Boss.  With talent for giving us more laughs than any other comedienne out there I can’t wait to see what she brings us after her supernatural adventure.

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

Director: Ben Falcone
Writers: Ben Falcone, Steve Mallory
Stars: Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Bell, Peter Dinklage

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Garth Cremona (RIP)
Comic book creator and movie reviewer. You can find out more at www.dublinwriter.com
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