Why don’t I take my own advice? I know that when Melissa McCarthy and her husband, Ben Falcone, team up they make humorless dreck like Tammy yet I still watched The Boss because I am living off the fumes of Kristen Bell’s brilliant series Veronica Mars, and I was unaware of Falcone’ involvement and was riding high after McCarthy’s hilarious work in Spy.
The good news is that The Boss is funny unlike Tammy. The bad news is that The Boss is only theoretically funny, but not literally laugh out loud funny. The Boss feels satirically germane in its self-help, inspirational, prosperity gospel vibe. A bunch of rival Girl Scouts brawling in the street over cookies is such a dissonant image that it should be funny. The sexual chemistry and resentment between McCarthy’s character and Peter Dinklage is believable and amusing. The Boss never quite comes together, and it felt like a lack of symmetry that the titular character revists her mentor, but not the nuns.
Skip The Boss unless you thought Tammy was funny because then you will think that The Boss is the funniest movie ever. For the rest of readers and viewers with good taste, watch Spy instead.