The Boss: A lazy Melissa McCarthy vehicle that relies on pratfall comedy

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The Boss is not a Bruce Springsteen biopic, and the critics are not bellowing "Bruuuce," they are booing. Rightly so, for this is a lazy Melissa McCarthy vehicle that relies on relentless potty-mouth moments – it's so funny when otherwise decorous characters continually do the vulgar! – and the pratfall comedy of McCarthy. She plays a meanie mogul whose thrice-orphaned childhood drives her monstrously self-centred will to dominate. When her empire crumbles, she's hapless at being humble. Though a cast that includes Kristen Bell and Peter Dinklage does the best it can, there's nothing sane with which to work. A little-girl street brawl tiredly relies on slow-motion; a samurai-sword finale is just plain dumb; and a sofa-bed sight gag is only half-funny, so let's do it twice, because that's the math of a hack, which is what director, actor and co-writer Ben Falcone is. Though Falcone, who is also McCarthy's husband, must at least get credit for showing his face on screen.