- Aspect Ratio: 2:40:1
- Video Codec: AVC/MPEG-4
- Resolution: 1080p/24 (23.976Hz)
- Audio Codec: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
- Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
- Region: ABC (Region-Free)
- Rating: Unrated
- Run Time: 106 Mins.
- Discs: 3 (2 x Blu-ray + 1 x DVD)
- Studio: Warner Home VIdeo
- Blu-ray Release Date: October 11th, 2011
- List Price: $35.99
[amazon-product]B004EPZ08E[/amazon-product]
BestBuy.com
Purchase Horrible Bosses on Blu-ray+DVD+Digital Copy at CD Universe
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Overall
[Rating:4/5]
The Film
[Rating:3.5/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:1.5/5]
Click thumbnails for high-resolution 1920X1080p screen captures
(Screen captures are lightly compressed with lossy JPEG thus are meant as a general representation of the content and do not fully reveal the capabilities of the Blu-ray format)
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The Film
[Rating:3.5/5]
Nick Hendricks (Jason Bateman), Kurt Buckman (Jason Sudeikis) and Dale Arbus (Charlie Day) all have one thing in common. They seemingly enjoy their job, try to go into it with an open mind and do what they can in hopes of one day becoming something more in their field. Only issue that hinders them is their bosses. For Nick, there’s David Harken (Kevin Spacey). For Kurt, there’s Bobby Pellitt (Colin Farrell). For Dale, there’s Julia Harris (Jennifer Aniston). All literally do whatever they can do shoot down any sort of dreams these three guys have, making their jobs miserable. After a few too many drinks, the idea is brought up that life would be better if their bosses were dead. Now obviously, these three average Joes know nothing about murder. Enter MOTHERF*CKING JONES! (Jamie Foxx). Jones, having just done a dime in prison, seems like the perfect candidate for the murders. Only Jones convinces the three as a ‘consultant’ that they should do the murders themselves. The end result? Many, many hilarious situations.
Upon first seeing initial ads for Horrible Bosses, I knew I had to see this one. While the concept didn’t seem all that original, I was still intrigued by it. And when I saw the stellar cast involved, I knew I had to see this. So, the opening day came and I went and boy did I laugh! From the opening moments where the scroll comes across labeling David Harken as a ‘TOTAL F’ING ASSHOLE’, I couldn’t stop laughing. Quite possibly what hits in the right place is the idea of killing your boss. While I’m sure there are some fine people out there that will say they’ve never thought of this, I’m fairly confident that a majority of us have dreamed of killing a current or former boss. And of course if we were to ever even attempt it, the end situations might fall right into EXACTLY what occurs in Horrible Bosses. Right there is what makes this so damn funny. Oh, and the cast.
Oh, the cast where do we start. Spacey was a sadistic, cruel human being. The kind of character we simply want to see how low and mean he can be. Then you have Farrell, who in this reviewer’s humble opinion stole the show. Rude and obviously obnoxious, Farrell delivers this type of role in a fine manner. Aniston, while still eye opening at times, was the weak link here. The whole harassment bar is raised to levels one can’t imagine, scenes that make us shake our heads. Yet, Aniston wasn’t really consistent from scene to scene. Clearly it’s shown that her, and Spacey/Farrell, thoroughly enjoyed making the film. But she just didn’t do anything for me. The other remaining elements in Day, Bateman, Sudeikis and, as always, Foxx were excellent. In particular Charlie Day (one of the BEST parts of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia), hits that high, squeaky note in his voice that I’ve come to love his style for. Simply hilarious.
Video Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Arriving in a 2:40:1 framed, AVC-MPEG 4 encoded, transfer, Horrible Bosses makes its Blu-ray debut with solid video quality. A quick glance at this film’s initial moments may be a turn off to the viewer. The film has numerous low-lit sequences, all of which look fine. Deep, dark blacks dominate these scenes, detail levels are consistent and contrast is accurate (if sometimes a bit too turned up for this reviewer’s tastes). Flesh tones do showcase overly bronzed characters, particularly that of Harken. Please do note I wasn’t overly annoyed by this nor did it hinder the image, but this is something worth noting. Film grain is minimal throughout minus one or two quick moments, both of which occur during darker scenes. All in all, this is a good effort from Warner.
Audio Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
Moving to the audio portion of the film, the included DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track sounded just fine. Now, do note that Horrible Bosses, like most comedies, is front-heavy. Dialogue is well reproduced with no instance of drop out or muddled dialogue. Dynamics are mostly subdued only occasionally rearing its head from musical cues. There are moments, like that of the police chase, where the film’s atmosphere should be filled, however, such isn’t the case. Rears are absent during moments like this minus the occasional scream or background dialogue. Let’s be completely honest and say that Horrible Bosses will never, ever be a demo disc. I won’t label this as a ‘bad’ track, more the track suffers from the limitations that the genre has. In all, Horrible Bosses sounds fine.
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:1.5/5]
The disc is proved with a few brief featurettes, all in HD, as well as some deleted scenes. The package also comes with a DVD and Ultraviolet Digital Copy. No, that’s not the sci-fi action flick, but Warner’s new streamable digital copy format.
The supplements included with this release:
- My Least Favorite Career [HD, 5 minutes]
- Surviving a Horrible Boss [HD, 7 minutes]
- Being Mean is So Much Fun [HD, 7 minutes]
- The Making of Horrible Bosses Soundtrack [HD, 6 minutes]
- Deleted Scenes [HD, 10 minutes]
- Ultraviolet Digital Copy
- DVD Copy
The Definitive Word
Overall:
[Rating:3.5/5]
Hands down, Horrible Bosses just may be one of the funniest comedies of the year. Warner has put together a decent Blu-ray with good video and audio. The features, however, leave much to be desired as nearly all are just ‘fluff’. Due to that, I can only recommend a purchase for the biggest fans. The rest? A solid rental.
Additional Screen Captures
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[amazon-product]B004EPZ08E[/amazon-product]
BestBuy.com
Purchase Horrible Bosses on Blu-ray+DVD+Digital Copy at CD Universe
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com
Overall
[Rating:4/5]
The Film
[Rating:3.5/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:1.5/5]
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