Last year's "Hangover" became the most shiny dark horse of the year. First, it achieved an excellent box office of 270 million in North America and 460 million in the world at an ultra-low cost of 35 million. , so that Warner Bros. made a lot of money; then Bradley Cooper, after many years of ups and downs in the ranks of third-tier actors, soared into the sky and achieved a big turnaround in his career; finally, at the beginning of this year, the Golden Globe Awards Upset won Best Picture in the Musical Comedy category and went all the way to the end.
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"Hangover" is a typical spoof comedy. First of all, the twists and turns of the plot make people's eyes shine, and they have the upper hand from a creative point of view; then there are all kinds of unexpected jokes. An incredible line of inspiration. That's what made this work of wonder.
After that, many producers have begun to try to imitate such a model, hoping to create a dark horse again. After all, the investment in comedies has always been low, and most of them are less than 50 million. In addition, there is no need for too much promotion and distribution. As long as the box office can reach over 100 million in North America, you can make a steady profit without losing money—this has not yet been calculated. As for the overseas box office, the low risk is undoubtedly a big plus.
"Evil Boss" is a project born under this trend.
In fact, New Line Pictures bought the script written by Michael-Markowitz in 2005, and the director was negotiated by Frank-Oz at the time. This style of comedy does not have enough confidence and has not been able to start shooting.
The huge success of "The Hangover" has led New Line Cinema to dig up the long-lost project again, finding John-Francis-Daley and Jonathan-M-Goldstein. M-Goldstein) teamed up to write the screenplay, both of whom are complete new screenwriters, having only written the screenplay for the American TV series "Bones" before, and didn't know anything about the movie. But the styles of the two of them are very obvious. John is a young man who is only twenty-four years old, and Jonathan is a middle-aged man of thirty-nine years old. After turning around for a while, I have a completely different experience in the industry, but I have not accepted the brainwashing of Hollywood's fixed routines, and have maintained enough fresh creativity.
So, the script of "Evil Boss" was finally born!
The film tells the story of three hapless ordinary employees, Nick's boss is a shameless bastard, arrogant, narcissistic, and at the same time takes pleasure in torturing his subordinates, refusing to let them get promoted; Kurt Dale's boss is a middle-aged, bald, neurotic who is slowly embezzling company property, but destroying Kurt's reputation, and his career is in jeopardy; Dell's boss is a sexy single female doctor, but this woman However, he has a serious erotic/erotic/crazy tendency, and he teases/teasing male subordinates almost regardless of the occasion, which makes Dell miserable.
The three small staff are good friends of each other. In the bad economic situation, resigning is obviously not the best choice. One night, under the stimulation of alcohol, and a neurotic black man advises, they decide: kill own boss! So, the story begins.
The idea of "Evil Boss" is very novel, but it is very close to reality. In real life, almost everyone has experienced troubles in the workplace, and a bad boss makes daily life a disaster. Everyone is eager to teach the boss a lesson, but they have to swallow it in order to make a living.
It is against this background that this movie appeared, using an absurd and uninhibited way to vent the inner pain of the distressed staff. However, the genius of the movie is not in this idea, but in shaping the boss into a lively and interesting one. character, asshole, 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 whimsy between the two people are all displayed in the six characters, and finally a funny but true story is achieved. The script of the letter.
The jokes of "Evil Boss" come from many aspects, one part comes from the oppression and suffocation between the boss and the staff. This kind of spoof humor supports the first half of the movie; the other part comes from the staff trying to murder the boss in the second half. The stupidity and accidents in the process, the humor of the plot itself and the humor created by the lines, plus the simple but stupefied performances of the actors, really carry forward the charm of comedy.
Needless to say, "The Evil Boss" is an ingenious but hilarious comedy.
Objectively speaking, the quality of "Evil Boss" is still a little worse than that of "Hangover". The two screenwriters are too immature, and the production of laughs is a little deliberate and lazy. The two screenwriters of "Hangover" previously Having worked together for three works, the thinking is obviously more mature and more unified; and there is a huge gap in the director, Todd-Phillips (Todd-Phillips) was already good before "The Hangover" The reputation of "Hala Hit the Road", "Single Men's Club", "Police Duo" have all achieved good box office results, and Seth Gordon is only the second time in charge of the film director.
The difference in experience has led to a gap in the completion of the two works. It can be seen from the word-of-mouth of film critics. The media review of "Hangover" is 73 points, while the media review of "Evil Boss" is 73 points. Only fifty-seven points - although, this score is considered a pass in comedy works.
Despite this, "Evil Boss" was warmly sought after by the audience after its release. Just like "The Hangover", it was an investment of 35 million yuan, and finally received a box office of 117 million in North America, and a global box office of 209 million, which really made New Line Pictures a small profit. A fortune - New Line Pictures has been acquired by Warner Bros., a label owned by Warner Bros. In other words, Warner Bros. has achieved success with two works, "The Hangover" and "Evil Boss".
"Hangover" was later made into a trilogy, and a sequel to "Evil Boss" was naturally put on the agenda. However, the second part of "The Hangover" was really unsatisfactory. It can be said that it made a box office and lost word of mouth, so that the box office and word of mouth of the third part declined by a cliff; the same is true for "Evil Boss" , the second part collapsed completely, and naturally there was no plan for the third part.
Nonetheless, "Evil Boss" can still be said to be a successful comedy, which is impressive.
When Renly saw that the script in his hand was actually an "evil boss", he had to admire Andy's boldness and decisiveness. From the first twenty pages of the script, it was indeed an eye-catching script, but the characters The challenge is also very difficult.
With Renly's age, he naturally couldn't play the boss, he could only play the clerk, and the three clerks all had their own pains.
Nick is a character who has been ravaged. In the first half of the story, his performance is relatively low, mainly showing the hardship and torture of the overtime family. Just follow the script. There is limited space for personal development, but in the second half of the story, his reaction The shift will be more obvious, from orderly to chaotic, from wise and elite to stunned.
Kurt is a tangled character. Under the zealous image of a good old man, he has to endure the greed and disgust of the 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. The contrast is really cute.
Dale is a character who is violated. In short, he needs to be like Liu Xiahui, facing all kinds of temptations/temptations, all kinds of seductions/attractions, but not in a mess. The point is that he is occasionally attacked directly on the key parts of a man. , his shyness and panic is even more unbearable. But he's not the kind of man with hormones like Dwayne Johnson, he's more like... the one who suffers from good friends.
It can be said that the three characters each have their own characteristics and splendor, and the difficulty of performance is naturally different.
If Renly chooses, he personally believes that Nick's performance is the least difficult, and the gap and connotation of the role itself are relatively limited. It is more like playing a serious existence in the whole movie, avoiding the film's rudeness and stereotypes. Play a circus, but the challenge is also the most mediocre.
Kurt and Dale have their own strengths and weaknesses. Kurt is a fool, and the feeling of swinging back and forth between honesty and stupidity must be very interesting to perform; while Dale is a submissive air bag, plagued by the boss's salty hands, But he couldn't resist, just thinking about the performance in his mind was enough to make people laugh.
It would be a subversive performance for either of those two characters, especially Dale. However, Renly felt that the role of the three bosses was more challenging than the three staff members, and that was the real exception. It's a pity that his age is too young to be suitable. Even if his soul is old enough at this time.
This is really a pity.
Renly didn't study the script of the comedy much, but he knew that one of the major regrets of the "evil boss" was that the script's positioning of the three boss characters was very clear and accurate, like a scalpel, which gave the actors With a larger performance space, the characters are very easy to stand out, and at the same time give the movie more laughs; but the roles of the three staff are not clear enough, but are somewhat confusing, the same stupid, the same suffocation, the same confusion, which leads to There will be some repetition of the jokes, but it is not easy to spark.
If the screenwriter can give the three characters a clearer development line, corresponding to the three bosses, the overall quality of the work will be improved by one section. It's not about the depth of the character or the thickness of the performance, but about the laughter that the character bursts out, including the character's character setting, funny style, etc. - Comedy, the core point is to make the audience laugh, which is also the most important thing for actors mission, isn't it
But taking a step back, it is extremely difficult for Renly to challenge comedy performances, no matter which role it is in the three staff, because the way and rhythm of comedy performances are different from the main drama, even if it is stupid, It's not just about making the audience laugh. In other words, comedy requires true "comedy talent."