The Boss

Melissa McCarthy stars as Michelle Darnell - a boastful, egotistical, know-it-all corporate titan who is the CEO of three Fortune 500 companies (she’s Donald Trump with a vagina). After getting the best of her nemesis, Renault (Peter Dinklage), the vanquished opponent rats her out to the SEC for insider trading.

Unlike just about any CEO in the history of the world accused of breaking the law, Darnell actually goes to jail and all of her property and funds are seized (that’s how you can tell it is a movie and not real life).

Upon getting out of the big house, Darnell has nowhere to turn but to her long suffering assistant, Claire (Kristen Bell), and even she wants to turn her back on the fallen leader, but Claire’s kindhearted daughter, Rachel (Ella Anderson), invites Michelle to stay with them in their tiny apartment.

Eventually, you can’t keep this businesswoman down, and she comes up with a new way to rise to the top.

Will Michelle succeed when she recruits Rachel’s friends to sell Claire’s delicious brownies?

The Boss has riotous moments of crude, but hilarious humor. Unfortunately, McCarthy, director Ben Falcone and Steve Mallory (who all teamed up to write the movie) run out of ideas and start to rely on silly, misplaced mawkish sentimentality in a weak third act that almost ruins The Boss.

Outrageousness rules the day when we see the ugly tactics Darnell is willing to use to win at business. It’s the kind of naughtiness we like to laugh at in a movie, even if it might be a sly commentary on today’s workplace and corporate environment.

McCarthy is perfect as the almost psychopathic Darnell throwing herself into each sight gag and vile comment, while Bell cruises along as the straight woman who must react in horror as the audience is laughing uproariously.

However, The Boss falls apart in the last act as it becomes all emotional and icky. It feels like McCarthy and the team either ran out of good ideas for comedy, or felt some phony need to humanize Darnell and provide a softer ending. This effectively puts the brakes on The Boss and makes you wonder if you should stick around for the clichéd ending about to unfurl on the screen.

The Boss is rated R for sexual content, language and brief drug use.

108 Minutes