User Reviews

Melissa McCarthy is hilarious... This movie is better than its rating. Yes there are things that would never happen and people gripe about that but this isn't a freaking documentary it's a comedy. It's supposed to be a bit ridiculous. It's a good movie if you want a laugh. I'm looking forward to the next one written by her and Ben Falcone.

Michelle Darnell (Melissa McCarthy) was rejected by adoptive parents many times and learned to not rely on families. She becomes a hard-nosed successful businesswoman. Darnell gets 5 months for insider trader after being outed by bitter ex Renault (Peter Dinklage). Her long-suffering assistant Claire Rawlings (Kristen Bell) finally quits. When she gets out of prison, she has nobody and nowhere to stay. She guilts Claire's daughter Rachel for a place to crash. She goes to Rachel's Dandelion meeting and decides to start the competing Darnell's Darlings to sell Claire's brownies. She convinces Claire to date Mike Beals (Tyler Labine) and quit her job under bad boss Dana Dandridge (Cecily Strong).

Some of the jokes work well and some others are awkwardly bad. There are plenty of stupid pratfalls that aren't smart enough. Melissa needs to trim back those bad jokes that aren't working. She and husband Ben Falcone need help to sharpen up their material. The basic premise has good bones. They have the lovely Kristen Bell. The little girls are cute and the girl fight is hilarious. Melissa and Ben have a tendency to inject bad low-grade comedy in all the wrong places. This is better than some of their other comedies and this could have worked much better than this.

I really hate it when bad movies happen to good people. Despite bursting onto the entertainment scene with a killer supporting role in Bridesmaids (2011) and a star turn in Mike & Molly (2010- present), Melissa McCarthy has struggled to find material truly worthy of her talent. She's a reliable box office draw and can be trusted to perform exceptionally well with an assortment of interesting characters so why is she constantly being saddled with wafer-thin plots, broad and boring scripts and paint-by-numbers directorial choices? Is it pride; risk aversion; nepotism?

The Boss is the story of Michelle Darnell (McCarthy) a larger-than- life business tycoon, who looses it all for insider trading and is forced to start from the bottom once more. Armed only with a mega- maniacal ego and aided by her former assistant turned partner Claire (Bell), Darnell desperately tries to claw her way up to the top of Chicago's industry professionals. Undermining her at every turn however, are a multitude of former colleagues and competition who will stop at nothing to keep her at bay. Her most nefarious foe is Renault (Dinklage) a former lover whose obsession with Darnell is rivaled only by his obsession with the ways of the Samurai.

McCarthy (predictably) does a stellar job channeling her inner Trump. The story begins with Darnell as a young girl being dropped off a number of times by would-be adoptive parents which, while being a lazy setup does give the audience a reference point in which to pin our aspirations. McCarthy takes that baton and runs with it; fleshing out the broadly drawn character into one you could imagine exists in real life. You're never made privy as to why everyone hates her and abandons her (other than Renault) though I suppose one could gleam such insights by her unofficial motto "Family is for suckers." Also despite once again being a lazy setup, the emotional payoff by the end isn't exactly deserved, but thanks to McCarthy's sensitivity she at least saves it from being offensively ham-fisted.

One can't help but think there was a much better comedy left on the cutting room floor here. There are extended moments of improvisation that go no where, and could have been sacrificed for the sake of filling in plot-lines that are dropped or disappear into the ether. One particular plot-line surreptitiously involves Kathy Bates as Darnell's former sensei Ida Marquette who despises her but we never find out why. You'd think with two very talented actresses a moment of catharsis could have been captured on film but instead we get five minutes of McCarthy and Cedric Yarbrough taunting Claire for being the smartest gal in the room.

Speaking of Kristen Bell; the former Veronica Mars (2004-2007) star plays a variation of the nagging, humorless, smarter-than-thou wife we've seen in hundreds in sitcoms and comedic vehicles. Her character is so irredeemably oppressive and boring that when Claire and Darnell have the third act falling out we all know is coming, I was less worried about what would happen to her than I was about why no one was standing in front of Chicago's Cloud Gate sculpture during the film's wistful montage. Her character arc completes itself with a budding romance with Mike (Labine) that was neither interesting nor convincing.

Yet despite all it's faults, the movie achieves what it set out to achieve, that is to say it makes it's audience laugh and laugh often. This is largely accomplished on the strength of bawdy R-rated humor and McCarthy's shrewd comic timing. Peter Dinklage, who gives a particularly daffy performance, has a lot of fun riffing, joking and tumbling with McCarthy, thus saving the film's third act contrivance from completely ruining the movie. The Boss is certainly not worth the price of admission unless you're already a fan of Melissa McCarthy. Yet for those already annoyed by her shenanigans, The Boss is just further confirmation that she's simply playing to the Plebes.

Melissa McCarthy stars in a senseless adult comedy movie. "The Boss" failed to entertain me from the start till the end.The comedy is too cheap and the obscenity in language and behavior did not make me laugh at all. Honestly,I thought I am watching a silly porn-like comedy movie.

Melissa McCarthy portrays the role of Michelle Darnell, a shameless and a selfish businesswoman who does everything bad for the sake of her own arrogant welfare. Her wicked and reckless behavior led to her imprisonment of course.

I am totally disappointed with this boring movie because its senseless vulgarity and the lack of comedy made of this film a total waste of time and a bad movie of the year 2016.

Melissa McCarthy strikes again – this time at a rival troupe of juvenile sweets peddlers known as the Dandelions. The Boss was laugh out loud hilarious, but also heartfelt. The bizarre cast of characters in this film provided for some absurd and funny moments, but the best scenes were between Darnell and her newest protégé – the young Rachel, who quickly became like family to the money hungry Darnell. McCarthy always excels at physical comedy, but it was her character's confidence and quick wit that carried the film. Overall, I simply loved this film.

I was ready for a fun, entertaining comedy and it failed at every level. Melissa and her hubby should not ever collaborate on a venture again, the writing and execution was forced which did not flow. We love Melissa, however she should have taken her concept to a professional writer. Peter Dinklage did not deliver which was completely surprising considering his career performance with Game of Thrones. For the most part he looked like he was in pain in all his scenes. I'm sorry to say, it is not even worth a future video rental. This is the first review I have written, I want to save you the pain! I wish I would have read reviews before spending my time and money. Let's wish Melissa a better script for any future movies, as this was a pure dud.

I used to be a girl scout, and I'm now a business woman. This has become quite the guilty pleasure.

There being a minimum, I'll give some further details. This is not a comedy for everyone. Children probably wouldn't be watching this. There is VERY strong language & there are sexual themes through out the movie. It's not subtle. It is vulgar.

I would describe this movie's humor similar to that of "Sausage Party", being that if one is easily offended they most likely would not enjoy this movie.

Personally however, I think it's delightfully absurd, cheeky, & playfully cantankerous with just the right kind of trashy.

What can i say but wait for her next one. There isn't a redeeming scene in this entire film.

She would have been better off leaving this for someone else and put all her efforts into reprising her role as Sookie in the Gilmore Girls remake (luckily she will be a bit player at least).

The script should never have gotten green lit, its atrocious.

I don't have adequate words to express show truly awful this is.

From the moment you see that over the top televangelist haircut, you should be forewarned that this is going to be truly terrible

Avoid

Im reading the reviews here and what I gathered was that people who gave this movie 1 / 2 / 3 are somehow disturbed with the fact that it is done by a married couple, it is starred by a full figured woman who is married to the director and that it has majority of women. When men slap and kick each other in the movies nobody bats an eye. I believe that if the child gets in the movie business the parents are quite well aware of the pros and cons and they study the lines with their kids so its not Melissa's fault there. Shes a writer not a priest. There is a "just for gags" program on TV. Its stupid as hell but it makes people laugh. It's a comedy for goodness sake not a tfue story. As for the reviewer who told us to watch his review on YouTube... I wouldn't watch it even if you can pay me. Its not possible to sit for more than an hour in the movie and give it 1. Its not an ebay product. You only give it a 1 if you stayed for 5 minutes and felt it wasnt for you. This is a great comedy. Well done. Having said that... there were few mistakes like when Michelle told Claire that she had a cellmate for the last six months when really she was arrested for 5 months.

What's with these critics who tell people not to watch certain movies? What the hell is that? Make your own conclusions yes... but dont tell people not to watch the movie just because you hated it. That's what shows that it goes deeper than the movie. I call that hating...

A funny light hearted comedy, the casting was well done, all complimented each other. The story plot even though far fetched, but remember it's a comedy, is entertaining. Worth seeing on cable. Melissa McCarthy is entertaining and the out-takes at the end are very funny. Better than other comedies out there.

This movie is very funny. Love Melissa Mccarthy. She can play almost any role and she can dance.

And what one earth is wrong with Melissa McCarthy? She is beautiful, talented, funny….and yet she keeps making these foul, way too much sex pieces of trash. It's hard to figure out why. Do people in Hollywood think there are no more decent people out here wanting to see good, funny movies? Nobody left without the mouth or mind of a waste container? If so, they are wrong. The thing is, with this movie in particular, it could have been very funny. Good cast, fair premise, but instead we ended up with a film that was nothing much more than garbage. When a movie ends and everyone is just looking at each other with, "What the heck did we just waste money on?" looks on their faces, it's not good. Even worse, waiting for this one to come on, we were treated to a couple of coming attractions with pictures as bad, or worse. Foul language, as if the writers have completely lost any ability to write witty, clever dialogue, or dialogue at all that isn't merely four letter words, over the top sex that, frankly, is not interesting, is tiresome, and is so over- done. Who decides to spend money putting out money for this stuff? Nobody with any intelligence, I'm thinking. Too bad. You're cheating movie audiences, big time.

TV shows: Almost every year you see a new clever comedy show like Scrubs, Simpsons, Big Bang Theory, Southpark, Malcolm in the Middle, ... You don't have to like it, but at least acknowledge that it is very clever and well written.

With movies on the other side it's a different story. Here the trend is that it is getting worse and worse. We are almost at a point where we were in the 80's.

The problem: The movies make money and as long as this is happening we will see movies like "The Boss" in the future. Or another theory - I'm getting to old for this kind of movies.

There comes a point when Mellissa McCarthy is Mellissa McCarthy in films! I think we've had the best from he and the little bits of shock value in a film with so many kids, was slightly cringeworthy.

It's not without it's funny moments and it is watchable with a few giggles

'THE BOSS': Three and a Half Stars (Out of Five)

Slapstick comedy flick, re-teaming actress Melissa McCarthy with writer/director Ben Falcone (her husband); the two previously performed the same duties on the 2014 hit comedy flick 'TAMMY'. McCarthy stars in the movie, and she also co-wrote the script; with Falcone and (actor turned first time screenwriter) Steve Mallory (who also played a small part in 'TAMMY'). The film costars Kristen Bell, Ella Anderson, Peter Dinklage, Tyler Labine and Kathy Bates (who also costarred in 'TAMMY'). It tells the story of a very successful businesswoman, named Michelle Darnell, who's imprisoned for insider trading, that tries to make a comeback by selling delicious brownies. Michelle Darnell is based on a character McCarthy previously created for the comedy troupe 'Groundlings'. The movie performed well at the Box Office (like all of McCarthy's films), but it also did poorly with critics (like almost all of McCarthy's movies). I liked it (like most of McCarthy's films).

Michelle Darnell (McCarthy) was an extremely rich and powerful businesswoman; and then she was busted for insider trading. When she gets out of prison, 5 months later, none of her old business associates want anything to do with her anymore. Only Michelle's former dedicated assistant, Claire (Bell), will help her out. Claire lets Michelle stay with her, and her daughter Rachel (Anderson). At first the ex-con is extremely annoying, but then she learns to bond with Claire and Rachel; and when she learns how good Claire's home cooked brownies are, she gets an obsessive new business idea.

I think McCarthy is a very talented comedic performer, and writer, and this character is brilliant. So the movie is definitely funny. It's a little hit-and-miss, but it's more hit than miss (I think). It's not hilarious, or an exceptionally well made film; but if your'e looking for laughs, it should deliver. Unless you're just not a fan of Melissa McCarthy, or her style of comedy (everyone has their own tastes), than this film probably isn't for you.

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I can't believe I let my friend drag me into watching this .... atrocious film.

This movie relies on ugly, immoral jokes that demean and pigeonhole people into old fashioned stereotypes. Making fun of lesbians? Seriously who does that anymore?! Also, if the jokes are ugly and cheap to begin with, forcing child actors to say them doesn't make the jokes any prettier. Slang terms and vulgar words do not automatically equal humor. Far from it.

Absolutely tasteless.

The Boss lacked subtlety, and I found myself comparing Melissa McCarthy's role to Donald Trump, and not in a good way, mind you. There was nothing funny about the film---the violent attempt at slapstick humor failed. It was badly timed and came off rather flat. No one was likable except Peter Dinklage's role. Even then, he is shoved into a stereotype about funny midgets. What are we? 8 year old children? That was the last time I ever laughed simply because someone was shorter than average.

There is a way to mix violence/vulgarity to create a comedy (See Deadpool, Hot Fuzz, etc.), but The Boss definitely never even took off. Just pure failure.

Hated the film. I don't recommend wasting your brain cells on this.

A film that is both funny and works to McCarthy's strengths. It is a little over the top at times (and a little more "adult" than you might expect) but it's definitely a film that will make you laugh out loud.

Sometimes a filmmaker is simply too emotionally invested in a movie to see when it needs to be better than it's turning out to be. Of course, every filmmaker needs to be passionate about his/her cinematic endeavor, but there is such a thing as letting emotions get in the way of sound artistic judgment. It often happens when the same person both writes and directs a movie (his/her "passion project"), especially when also acting in the movie. Then, there's an even greater danger of things going wrong when these kinds of overlaps involve a married couple. It happened when Dax Shepard wrote, co-directed and starred in the pointless action-comedy "Hit and Run" (2012) which co-starred his real-life wife Kristen Bell. In 2014, another couple, Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone, took the practice of overlapping jobs and complicating it with marriage to another level by co-writing and co-starring in "Tammy" while Falcone also directed. That movie made money, but was poorly received by most critics and many Movie Fans as well. 2016 has the pair taking the same chance with the comedy "The Boss" (R, 1:39), which, ironically, co-stars Kristen Bell (but her husband is nowhere in sight). So, is "The Boss"… boss? Read on.

McCarthy stars as Michelle Darnell, a high-powered businesswoman and motivational speaker whose childhood (back and forth between an orphanage and foster care) taught her that the only person she can depend on is herself. She's self-centered, arrogant and basically amoral. Michelle generally uses and abuses her personal assistant, Claire (Bell), and Michelle's bodyguard isn't much more than her personal hype man. When Michelle is arrested for insider trading and sent to jail for five months, everyone abandons her, former lover and long-time business rival Renault (Peter Dinklage) buys her companies and the authorities freeze all of her remaining assets. Looks like someone has to start all over again.

When Michelle is released from jail, she doesn't have anyone to call or anywhere to go, so she takes a taxi to Claire's apartment. When Claire gets home from her new job (where she works for a crazy Darnell disciple played by SNL's Cecily Strong), Claire's pre-teen daughter, Rachel (Ella Anderson), convinces her mom that they have to do something to help Michelle. Claire allows her former boss to stay in the apartment until she gets back on her feet, but Michelle's feet remain reclined on Claire's couch until Claire forces Michelle to do something to earn her keep. Michelle takes Rachel to her Dandelions meeting (think Girl Scouts) where the troop leader (Kristen Schaal) is discussing their cookie sales.

Michelle gets an idea that her "way back" is to form a group called Darnell's Darlings which will teach girls business skills as they sell the unusually delicious brownies that Claire makes from an old family recipe. Michelle gets Claire to make the brownies and help with the troop and gets Rachel to help her recruit various tough girls and other misfits to join up and sell brownies for a percent of the profits. Michelle also approaches her estranged former mentor (Kathy Bates) for financing to help expand the business, but as all this is going on, Renault and his equally evil assistant (Timothy Simons) are keeping tabs on Michelle and her new business, hoping to increase the payback that he feels her still owes her.

"The Boss" is mostly unoriginal, uninspired, unrealistic and unfunny. The clichéd plot lazily recycles the often used story of a main character who has been hardened by a tough life and doesn't know how to give or receive love. Falcone's direction randomly makes use of McCarthy's talent for physical comedy, but rarely gets her or the other actors to show us anything interesting or even very likable about their characters. Both the script and the acting give us characters who often change their tones and their attitudes toward other characters abruptly and with no clear reason why. We also see characters meeting for the first time, but acting like they already know each other, again without explanation.

There is also a lack of realism in the way the script portrays the fallout from Michelle's crimes, and her business dealings as the head of Darnell's Darlings, but this comedy's biggest flaw is its lack of… comedy. There are a few laughs to be found here and there, but the movie's other problems just kill the mood. Besides that, the movie's attempts at humor are overly dependent on cartoonish violence involving children, cursing around, by and at children, and vulgar sexual references which come off as more crude than funny. McCarthy herself has been much funnier in previous films and hopefully she'll be funnier again in her future projects. Sadly, her character in this film is one boss who should be fired herself. "D+"

"I don't need anyone. I'm going straight to the top." Michelle Darnell (McCarthy) has had a hard life. Living in and out of orphanages growing up hardened her and made her the woman she is today; one of the richest and most powerful women in the world, and former prison inmate. When she is released she has nothing and no one to turn to, except her former assistant Claire (Bell). Willing to accept her in for a few days but after Michelle takes Claire's daughter to her Girl Scout meeting everything changes. After watching the last few McCarthy movies I have said that she only has a few movies left before her humor starts to get played out. After watching this one I realize that I am wrong. She is as hilarious as ever in this one and is one of her best movies she has ever made. She really lets loose in this movie and says and does things that are different then her usual unsure of herself characters, and it works. There is something about her that is just so likable that even when she plays a character like this you can't help but laugh with, and not at. Overall, one of the funniest and smartest comedies I have seen in a while. I laughed out loud many many times watching this, and I watched by myself. McCarthy is a comic genius and I can't wait till her next movie. Watch this today, unless you offend easy. I easily give this an A…a very very hilarious A.

This was a bad movie. The movie was not funny. It was boring. I didn't laugh once. The acting is not good. It was very disappointing. The plot was dull. The directing was bad. The story was unoriginal. The main character was unlikable and annoying. The jokes were bad. I should have gone to see Demolition or Hardcore Henry. I almost fell asleep. It was a big letdown. There was no moral. The story felt very outdated. It was worse than Batman V. Superman Dawn of Justice. It was so bad I couldn't believe it was real. It doesn't even deserve a star. It deserves a Razzie because it was so bad. Even my friend didn't like it. It needed better writing. Please do not see this movie. I did not like the movie.