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210 spoof comedy

Last year, "The Hangover" became the brightest dark horse of the year. First, at an ultra-low cost of 35 million, it achieved an outstanding box office of 270 million in North America and 460 million globally. , making Warner Bros. a lot of money; then Bradley Cooper, after floating in the ranks of third-tier actors for many years, soared and achieved a big turnaround in his career; and finally, at the Golden Globe Awards at the beginning of this year The film unexpectedly won the Best Picture in the Musical Comedy category, continuing its dark horse journey to the end..

“"The Hangover" is a typical spoof comedy. First of all, the twists and turns of the plot are eye-catching and give you an advantage from a creative perspective; then there are all kinds of unexpected laughs. The actors do not hesitate to sacrifice their image to spoof, with various Incredibly inspired lines. This is what created this miraculous work.

After that, many producers began to try to imitate this model, hoping to create a dark horse again. After all, the investment in comedy has always been low, most of which are less than 50 million, and there is no need for publicity and distribution. If you exert too much effort, as long as you can get over 100 million in North American box office, you will be able to make a profit without losing money - this does not include overseas box office. The low risk is undoubtedly a big plus..

“"Bad Boss" is a project born out of this trend..

In fact, New Line Cinema bought the script written by Michael Markowitz in 2005, and the director negotiated at that time was Frank Oz, but New Line Cinema was not interested in it. I don’t have enough confidence in this style of comedy and have never been able to start filming..

“The huge success of "The Hangover" led New Line Cinema to dig out the long-shelf project again and find John-Francis-Daley and Jonathan-M. -Goldstein) jointly wrote the script. Both of them are complete novice screenwriters. Before this, they had only written the script of the American TV series "Bones" and knew nothing about movies. But their styles are very obvious. John is a twenty-four-year-old young man, while Jonathan is a thirty-nine-year-old middle-aged man. Both of them have been ups and downs in Hollywood for a long time, and they have a lot of knowledge about the industry. A completely different experience, but not brainwashed by Hollywood's fixed routines, maintaining enough fresh creative power.

Thus, the script of "Evil Boss" was finally born！

The movie tells the story of three hapless ordinary employees. Nick's boss is a bastard with a shameless face on his forehead. He is arrogant and narcissistic. He also enjoys torturing his subordinates and refuses to promote them; Kurt The boss of Dell is a middle-aged bald lunatic. He is slowly embezzling the company's property, but destroying Kurt's reputation. His career is in jeopardy; Dell's boss is a sexy single female doctor, but this woman However, he has a serious erotic/maniacal tendency and teases male subordinates almost regardless of the occasion, which makes Dell miserable..

The three clerks were good friends with each other. In the bad economic situation, resignation was obviously not the best choice. One night, under the stimulation of alcohol and a nervous black man's advice, they decided: kill Your own boss! So, the story begins.

“The idea of ​​"Bad Boss" is very novel, but very close to reality. In real life, almost everyone has experienced troubles in the workplace, and bad bosses can turn daily life into disasters. Everyone is eager to give the boss Some lessons, but they have to swallow it in order to survive.

This movie appeared under such a background, using an absurd and uninhibited method to vent the inner pain of depressed employees. However, the brilliance of the movie does not lie in this idea, but in shaping the bosses into lively and interesting characters. character, a jerk, but not disgusting.

John is responsible for writing the role of the clerk, while Jonathan is responsible for writing the role of the boss. The sparks and whims between the two are all displayed in the six characters, and finally create a story that is full of jokes but is real and believable. letter script.

“The jokes of "Bad Boss" come from many aspects. Part of it comes from the oppression and grievance between the boss and the employees. This kind of spoof humor supports the first half of the movie; the other part comes from the process of the employees trying to murder the boss in the second half. The silliness and accidents, the laughter of the plot itself and the humor created by the lines, as well as the simple but surprising performances of the actors, truly bring out the charm of comedy..

There is no doubt that "Horrible Bosses" is an ingenious but hilarious comedy.

Objectively speaking, the quality of "Horrible Bosses" is still a bit worse than that of "The Hangover". The two screenwriters are too immature, and the production of jokes is a bit deliberate and lazy. The two screenwriters of "The Hangover" had previously They have collaborated on three works, and their thoughts are obviously more mature and unified; as for the director, there is a huge gap. Todd-Phillips was already good before "The Hangover" "The Road", "The Singles Club", and "Boys" have all achieved good box office results, and Seth Gordon is only the second time he has been in charge of a film director..

The gap in experience has led to a gap in the completion of the two works. This can be seen in the reputation of film critics. The overall media review of "The Hangover" is 73 points, while the overall media review of "Horrible Bosses" Only fifty-seven points - although this score is already considered a passing grade in comedy works.

Despite this, "Bad Boss" was enthusiastically received by the audience after its release. Like "The Hangover", it was an investment of 35 million, and finally received a box office of 117 million in North America, and the global box office was also Reaching 209 million, it really made New Line Cinema a small profit-New Line Cinema had been acquired by Warner Bros. and was a label under Warner Bros. In other words, Warner Bros. Drawing success from "The Hangover" and "Horrible Bosses".

“"The Hangover" was later made into a trilogy, and the sequel to "Horrible Bosses" was naturally on the agenda. However, the second part of "The Hangover" was really unsatisfactory. It can be said that it made money at the box office but lost in reputation. , so much so that the box office and reputation of the third part have plummeted; the same is true for "Evil Boss", the second part collapsed completely, and naturally there are no plans for a third part..

Despite this, "Horrible Bosses" can still be said to be a successful and impressive comedy..

When Renly saw that the script in his hand was actually "Evil Boss", he had to admire Andy's boldness and determination. Judging from the first twenty pages of the script, this was indeed an eye-catching script, but the character The challenge is also very difficult.

Given Renly's age, he naturally cannot play the role of the boss, but can only play the role of a staff member, and each of the three staff members has their own sufferings..

Nick is a downtrodden character. In the first half of the story, his performance difficulty is relatively low. He mainly shows the hardship and torture of the overtime workers. Just follow the script. There is limited room for personal development, but in the second half, his reaction is The transformation will be more obvious, from orderly to chaotic, from wise elite to stupid youth..

Kurt is a tangled character. Under the warm-hearted image of a good old man, he has to endure the greed and disgust of his boss. This character is quite interesting. On the surface, he looks like a typical gentleman, but when he takes off his guard, he becomes stupid. That kind of contrast is so cute that it really makes people laugh..

Dale is the character who has been violated. To put it simply, he needs to be like Liu Xiahui, who can remain calm in the face of all kinds of temptations and seductions. The point is, occasionally a man's key parts are directly attacked. , his shyness and panic make people laugh even more. But he is not a man with explosive hormones like Dwayne Johnson. He is more like... the one who endures among good gay friends..

It can be said that each of the three characters has its own characteristics and excitement, and the difficulty of the performance is naturally different..

If Renly were to choose, he personally believes that Nick's performance is the least difficult. The gap and connotation of the character itself are relatively limited. It is more like playing a prude in the entire movie, preventing the movie from being ridiculous and thorough. It's a circus, but the challenge is also the most mediocre..

Kurt and Dale each have their own merits. Kurt is a master of stupidity, and the feeling of swinging back and forth between honesty and stupidity must be very interesting to perform; while Dale is a resigned doormat, suffering from the boss's wretchedness. But he can't resist. Just thinking about the performance in his mind is enough to make people laugh..

No matter which one of these two characters is played, it will be a subversive performance, especially Dale. However, compared to the three employees, Renly feels that the role of the three bosses is more challenging, and that is A truly exceptional performance. Unfortunately, he is too young and not suitable. Even though his soul is old enough at this time.

This is really a pity.

Renly didn't do much research on comedy scripts, but he knew that one of the regrets of "Bad Boss" was that the script positioned the roles of the three bosses very clearly and accurately, like a scalpel, which gave the actors With a larger performance space, the characters are very easy to stand out, and it also gives the movie more laughs; however, the roles of the three staff members are not clear enough, and are somewhat confused. They are all equally stupid, equally frustrated, and equally confused, which leads to The jokes will be a bit repetitive, but it’s not easy to spark..

If the screenwriter can give the three characters a clearer main line of development, corresponding to the three bosses, then the overall quality of the work will be improved. It does not mean the depth of the characters or the thickness of the performances, but the laughter that the characters themselves burst out, including the characters. Character setting, funny style and so on - the core of comedy is to make the audience laugh. This is also the most important task of an actor, isn't it?？

But taking a step back, it is extremely difficult for Renly to challenge comedy performance, no matter which role he plays among the three staff members, because the performance method and rhythm of comedy are different from those of the drama. Even if he is stupid, You can't just make the audience laugh casually. In other words, comedy requires real "comedy talent"”.