It's always fascinating to hear a creative honestly reflect on past professional blunders, and Jason Bateman's been doing just that, reminiscing on last winter's Horrible Bosses 2. Discussing the project on WTF with Marc Maron, Bateman cited a lack of public desire for the sequel as the source of its failure:
"A lot of people saw the first one, but there are plenty of films that made a lot of money where no one is interested in seeing another one... People just werent interested in seeing another one. We saw the first one, we had fun, and I dont need to go see a second one."
That in essence, is probably the best review of Horrible Bosses 2 ever. I didn't abhor the sequel, and I really enjoyed the 2011 original, but I'm in full agreement the follow-up had no proper reason for being. The three leads (Bateman, Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis) have great chemistry together, but the sequel felt like a karaoke retread of the first with a few new faces arbitrarily scattered about the place. It wasn't terrible, but I'll be damned if I remembered anything 2 hours after leaving the theatre.Bateman didn't actually deride the film itself, rather just its cynical existence. The first movie made over $200 million, so a follow-up was always likely, but the candid comedian cautioned studios to really analyse the potential of a project before green-lighting it. Just because viewers respond to something once, doesn't mean they'll dip in again, especially if it has no quantifiable nutritional value. Case in point, Horrible Bosses 2 which managed just $106 million, making a third entry unlikely. You can currently see Bateman in The Gift, which unlike Horrible Bosses 2, is dense with ideas and memorable moments. Go check that out, and maybe in 2018 we'll get a studio mandated reheat with Chris Pine.