MELISSA MCCARTHY & KRISTEN BELL IN THE BOSS

Here are the only two good things about THE BOSS... Bell's breasts...

A movie that works in reverse, and yet, doesn't really work at all, THE BOSS stars Melissa McCarthy as, you got it, an overweight (though not as overweight) bitch who doesn't take crap from anybody. Sound familiar?

And here, like most of her other ventures after hitting the A-list from BRIDESMAIDS, the overall punchline revolves around her title character who, in this case, after growing up in an orphanage (seen in a short prologue), McCarthy's Michelle Darnell becomes really, really rich... Something that's supposed to mean everything, and yet we only witness her reign of (abuse of) power in two relatively quick scenes, and during one she's giving a speech to a horde of fans who love her for... what exactly? Did we miss something? Is this a sequel?

Here they are again...

Well what makes her tick is never quite clear, nor is the fact that, when she hits rock bottom and goes to jail, losing everything only to find harbor in her put-upon ex-assistant, single mother to a smart daughter, Kristin Bell as Claire, do we go through another failed plot-line: It doesn't matter how Michelle has to deal with being suddenly poor since we hardly experienced her being rich...

So with horrendously awkward direction by the star's husband, Ben Falcone, cutting away from scenes before the audience has time to either laugh, or not, we finally grasp a little piece of something that actually... almost... kinda... works... That being Michelle's predictable financial comeback when she and her "friend" become partners in a business having to do with tasty brownies and Girl Scouts (or a group based on them)... A sort of blue humor reboot of TROOP BEVERLY HILLS, for anyone who remembers such a picture, with a dash of another 80's oldie, BABY BOOM...

Kristen Bell

But try as this "third movie" does, with a few quick laughs and an attempt for last-minute character-development (thanks to Bell and daughter, actually playing real human beings as opposed to a gimmicky, uneven cliché)... it all collapses really quick. You see, a little spoiler here: our anti-heroine has an extremely difficult, if impossible, task in staying close with people who really care about her, and, so, she's exactly like her own damn story: vanishing right before an actual plot (or anything, for that matter) arises. POOF!

RATING: *1/2
TRIVIA: Anyone offended by the breast comments on the first two photos, well, both are featured heavily in a really, really long (and almost effective) scene so, they are, in fact, characters on their own, in a sense... And as nice as Ben and Melissa seem to be, both like Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman, below-average looking stars who stick (or once stuck) together, there's an attempt at making us feel that looks don't matter when the very pretty Bell dates a fat, sloppy dude resembling a chipmunk who's been through a blender, twice, so that's pretty annoying, for sure • While Ben is a nice husband, he can't seem to capture his wife in a funny way (see TAMMY for proof), unlike Paul Fieg, who directed the superb BRIDESMAIDS, a so-so THE HEAT & the surprisingly decent SPY, and... we'll cross the Ghostbusters reboot when we get there, but it looks like pure blasphemy to the original • The reference to the 1980's comedy TROOP BEVERLY HILLS centers on a rich lady (Shelley Long) who, suddenly not so rich, becomes a troop leader to Girl Scout types while battling a manly bitch "scoutmaster," just like happens here, kinda • Speaking of Ghostbusting, another 80's movie that this attempts a stab-at is TRADING PLACES, only Dan Aykroyd's rich dick deserves what he gets, so it's enjoyable watching him deal with it • And click here to read another review, the only other concerning actress Kristen Bell on this site: it's funny since yours truly (like happened above, half-jokingly) asks forgiveness for being politically incorrect towards her hotness... must mean something.