'Horrible Bosses' deserves a pay cut

If the studios can recast "The Hangover" with women and call it "Bridesmaids," why not recast the classic comedy "9 to 5" with men and call it "Horrible Bosses"?

One reason, which director Seth Gordon ("King of Kong") and his screenwriters simply ignore, is that "9 to 5," released in 1980, focused specifically on women trapped in a mostly mustachioed workplace. By showing sexual harassment from the viewpoint of strong, vibrant females played by Lily Tomlin, Dolly Parton and Jane Fonda, "9 to 5" became a feminist touchstone that also worked as broad (so to speak) farce.

Nobody is thinking big picture in "Horrible Bosses," even though it arrives at a time of high unemployment, housing foreclosures and widespread rage over Wall Street wealth. Aside from one very funny scene involving a former Lehman Bros. employee (P.J. Byrne), "Horrible Bosses" could have been made in almost any year.

And with almost any actors. Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day (FX's "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia") are nearly interchangeable as employees planning to kill their abusive employers. They are, respectively, Kevin Spacey, a sneer in a suit; Colin Farrell, briefly entertaining as a maniacal cokehead; and Jennifer Aniston, adventurously cast as a sex-crazed dentist. Jamie Foxx plays a dimwitted "murder consultant" with an off-color nickname.

All three bosses don't equal one Dabney Coleman, so deliciously hateable in "9 to 5," and they make for an overcrowded, distracted film. The humor is consistently crude -- who knew Aniston could talk that way? -- but never sharp. "Horrible Bosses" is a workplace comedy that's merely punching the clock.

What's a nice girl do in a film like this?

In "Horrible Bosses," Jennifer Aniston's character is one you haven't seen her play before. She's a dentist who sexually harasses her assistant, complete with lewd dialogue, revealing outfits and outlandish advances.

Better known for playing sweeter characters in romantic comedies, Aniston acknowledges that her "Bosses" role is a "departure," but she says she couldn't resist sinking her "teeth into something this juicy." "The minute it showed up at my door and I read her first scene, I was dying to do it," the actress said.

Aniston also admits, however, that when it came time to do the character, she wondered what she had gotten herself into.

"The truth is when you get there you go, 'Oh God, now I have to do this like in front of people,' " she said.

Aniston refers to one scene where she's trying to blackmail her assistant (Charlie Day) into having an affair with her using photos she took of him while he was unconscious.

"It's like, you think it's so hysterical and great," she explained, "but then comes the day when you actually have to straddle sweet Charlie Day with his pants down and it's just that day, you're like, 'Oh God. I choose to do this, right?' Yes."

-- Associated Press