Bad: The story feels like five drafts of five different scripts awkwardly pasted together Do we really want to see McCarthy lead a bunch of off-brand Girl Scouts into battle against a different band of off-brand Girl Scouts? The answer turns out to be yes, or at least it would be if the movie did a better job of executing that idea. Like a lot of great physical comedians, McCarthy is most at home in wide shots, where she can more effectively ply her trade.Īnd it all kinda works here and there, provided you're willing to accept The Boss as a series of comedic sketches, only loosely connected by a plot. Whenever The Boss just settles in and lets McCarthy be McCarthy, it's a much better movie.ĭirector Ben Falcone (who's also McCarthy's husband) is content in these scenes to step back and watch as, say, she dons a silly-looking mouthpiece to have her teeth cleaned by her employees or gets into a boob-slapping fight with her new roommate.

She's an effortlessly funny performer when she's in her wheelhouse - which seems to be expressing genuine concern for those she cares about while balancing the more emotional moments with ridiculousness and slapstick. Still, there's a reason McCarthy's movies always make money.

That might sound like the basis for a well-rounded character, but. The Boss alters her character depending on the needs of whatever scene she's in, and she vacillates between protagonist, antagonist, and broad comic support. Now, vaguely chastened and without a penny to her name, she's forced to move in with a former employee played by Kristen Bell.Īs we'll discuss in a bit, there's very little about Michelle that makes any sense whatsoever. McCarthy's Michelle Darnell is a woman who hit the heights of the Fortune 500, only to watch everything crumble beneath her when a corporate rival found a way to make her take the fall for insider trading. Good: Melissa McCarthy really does make a good boss The scenes where Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Bell just hang out are often fun. Here's the good, bad, and weird of The Boss.

That it ultimately doesn't is testament to just how hard it's always been to write good scripts for these sorts of movies.

It doesn't have a story beyond, 'What if Melissa McCarthy played the boss?' That it almost succeeds is a testament to her strengths as a performer and the rest of the game ensemble cast.

How long is the boss movie