Just Don’t Mention Arrested Development…

“Sweet ‘stache bro!” These are the first words Charlie Day, co-star of Horrible Bosses, utters as he shakes my hand. I tell him I’m not sure my wife agrees. “Yeah, you went total Deadwood on her!” he laughs.

The last of my three interviews of the night, speaking to Day feels like a well-earned reward after an hour jammed between sweaty photographers and sugar-jacked entertainment reporters.

“I watched a footy game today,” Day continues with genuine excitement (and, I suspect, slight inebriation).  “Melbourne got their ass kicked by West Coast. It was brutal. Brutal. It was embarrassing.”

Day’s appearing in Melbourne with co-stars Jason Bateman (Arrested Development) and Jason Sudeikis (Saturday Night Live) to promote the good old-fashioned buddy flick Horrible Bosses. Chatting on the red carpet, it’s clear the trio enjoyed making this film. (It’s also clear that he’s enjoying being interviewed a sight more than Nick Frost and Simon Pegg did a while back.)

“I had a great time,” says Day. “The two of those guys (Sudeikis and Bateman) are some of the funniest guys. They were cracking me up constantly.”

“It was great,” agrees Bateman. “The director let us just kinda be idiots and it worked for the movie. It felt kinda silly while we were doing it but it (came) together really well.”

Not to quibble with Mr Bateman, but calling Horrible Bosses “kinda silly” is a bit of an understatement.

Bateman, Sudeikis and Day play three buddies tortured at the hands of workplace superiors played by Kevin Spacey, Colin Farrell and Jennifer Anniston respectively (“They really classed up the film,” says Bateman). When they drunkenly fantasise about how much better their lives – and the world in general – would be if their bosses were dead, they find the more they talk the better it sounds.

Convinced they’re doing the world a favour – and armed with some dubious advice from ‘murder consultant’ Dean ‘MF’ Jones (Jamie Foxx) – they decide to go for it and kill their (wait for it…) horrible bosses (zing!).

To dwell on the absurdity of this flick is to miss the point entirely. Horrible Bosses is all about delivering stupid laughs. Though a bit patchy in spots, it does a pretty decent job of it – especially when the stars (Day in particular) have room to improvise.

“They know I write, they know Sudeikis writes and Bateman writes as well,” says Day. “So they said, have fun, run around a little bit and you know, they kept some stuff that was in the script and they kept some stuff that we did.”

“When allowed the opportunity to improvise – and you can improvise within character, within story – it’s something which does benefit the film a lot,” says Sudeikis. “It was fun. It’s even fun doing press with these guys.”

I pretty much have to agree. Though not particularly memorable, if you’re in the mood for a little mindless fun, you can do a lot worse than Horrible Bosses.

Horrible Bosses opens today.