AS Sean Anders’s sequel to Seth Gordon’s 2011 pungent dissection of business power plays progressed, I suppressed an urge to walk out.
The moments of best merit in “HB2”, jointly directed by Anders and Gordon, involve cameos from Kevin Spacey, in jail where “HB1” left him, all venom and bile, and Jennifer Aniston as a sex-addicted shrink joyously offering a full degustation menu of erotic delights to Nick (Jason Bateman) implying that if it’s not dirty, it’s not being done right.
Nick and fellow dismissed employees Kurt (Jason Sudeikis) and Dale (Charlie Day) establish a company to produce and market “Shower Buddy” to simplify the labour of getting clean. For capital, they approach the online marketing mega-firm run by Bert Hanson (Christoph Waltz) and his nasty son Rex (Chris Pine). When the Hansons sneakily take control of the new company, the trio decide to recover their lost capital by kidnapping Rex, for which they engage MF (Jamie Foxx) as technical consultant.
All this has potential to sustain a moderately intelligent comedy potboiler. “HB2” offers moments that almost satirise how to try in business without really succeeding. But Anders’s screenplay prolongs the film by using stupid as a surrogate for comical.
As the trio gets deeper bemired in their hare-brained scheme, the unremitting stupidity of Kurt and Dale spirals out of control. Some may find that amusing. Nick, who should know better, does nothing to resist.
It is a sad truth that few sequels live up to the promise extended by their predecessors.
At all cinemas
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