I really hate it when bad movies happen to good people. Despite bursting onto the entertainment scene with a killer supporting role in Bridesmaids (2011) and a star turn in Mike & Molly (2010- present), Melissa McCarthy has struggled to find material truly worthy of her talent. She's a reliable box office draw and can be trusted to perform exceptionally well with an assortment of interesting characters so why is she constantly being saddled with wafer-thin plots, broad and boring scripts and paint-by-numbers directorial choices? Is it pride; risk aversion; nepotism?

The Boss is the story of Michelle Darnell (McCarthy) a larger-than- life business tycoon, who looses it all for insider trading and is forced to start from the bottom once more. Armed only with a mega- maniacal ego and aided by her former assistant turned partner Claire (Bell), Darnell desperately tries to claw her way up to the top of Chicago's industry professionals. Undermining her at every turn however, are a multitude of former colleagues and competition who will stop at nothing to keep her at bay. Her most nefarious foe is Renault (Dinklage) a former lover whose obsession with Darnell is rivaled only by his obsession with the ways of the Samurai.

McCarthy (predictably) does a stellar job channeling her inner Trump. The story begins with Darnell as a young girl being dropped off a number of times by would-be adoptive parents which, while being a lazy setup does give the audience a reference point in which to pin our aspirations. McCarthy takes that baton and runs with it; fleshing out the broadly drawn character into one you could imagine exists in real life. You're never made privy as to why everyone hates her and abandons her (other than Renault) though I suppose one could gleam such insights by her unofficial motto "Family is for suckers." Also despite once again being a lazy setup, the emotional payoff by the end isn't exactly deserved, but thanks to McCarthy's sensitivity she at least saves it from being offensively ham-fisted.

One can't help but think there was a much better comedy left on the cutting room floor here. There are extended moments of improvisation that go no where, and could have been sacrificed for the sake of filling in plot-lines that are dropped or disappear into the ether. One particular plot-line surreptitiously involves Kathy Bates as Darnell's former sensei Ida Marquette who despises her but we never find out why. You'd think with two very talented actresses a moment of catharsis could have been captured on film but instead we get five minutes of McCarthy and Cedric Yarbrough taunting Claire for being the smartest gal in the room.

Speaking of Kristen Bell; the former Veronica Mars (2004-2007) star plays a variation of the nagging, humorless, smarter-than-thou wife we've seen in hundreds in sitcoms and comedic vehicles. Her character is so irredeemably oppressive and boring that when Claire and Darnell have the third act falling out we all know is coming, I was less worried about what would happen to her than I was about why no one was standing in front of Chicago's Cloud Gate sculpture during the film's wistful montage. Her character arc completes itself with a budding romance with Mike (Labine) that was neither interesting nor convincing.

Yet despite all it's faults, the movie achieves what it set out to achieve, that is to say it makes it's audience laugh and laugh often. This is largely accomplished on the strength of bawdy R-rated humor and McCarthy's shrewd comic timing. Peter Dinklage, who gives a particularly daffy performance, has a lot of fun riffing, joking and tumbling with McCarthy, thus saving the film's third act contrivance from completely ruining the movie. The Boss is certainly not worth the price of admission unless you're already a fan of Melissa McCarthy. Yet for those already annoyed by her shenanigans, The Boss is just further confirmation that she's simply playing to the Plebes.

"I don't need anyone. I'm going straight to the top." Michelle Darnell (McCarthy) has had a hard life. Living in and out of orphanages growing up hardened her and made her the woman she is today; one of the richest and most powerful women in the world, and former prison inmate. When she is released she has nothing and no one to turn to, except her former assistant Claire (Bell). Willing to accept her in for a few days but after Michelle takes Claire's daughter to her Girl Scout meeting everything changes. After watching the last few McCarthy movies I have said that she only has a few movies left before her humor starts to get played out. After watching this one I realize that I am wrong. She is as hilarious as ever in this one and is one of her best movies she has ever made. She really lets loose in this movie and says and does things that are different then her usual unsure of herself characters, and it works. There is something about her that is just so likable that even when she plays a character like this you can't help but laugh with, and not at. Overall, one of the funniest and smartest comedies I have seen in a while. I laughed out loud many many times watching this, and I watched by myself. McCarthy is a comic genius and I can't wait till her next movie. Watch this today, unless you offend easy. I easily give this an A…a very very hilarious A.

Sometimes a filmmaker is simply too emotionally invested in a movie to see when it needs to be better than it's turning out to be. Of course, every filmmaker needs to be passionate about his/her cinematic endeavor, but there is such a thing as letting emotions get in the way of sound artistic judgment. It often happens when the same person both writes and directs a movie (his/her "passion project"), especially when also acting in the movie. Then, there's an even greater danger of things going wrong when these kinds of overlaps involve a married couple. It happened when Dax Shepard wrote, co-directed and starred in the pointless action-comedy "Hit and Run" (2012) which co-starred his real-life wife Kristen Bell. In 2014, another couple, Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone, took the practice of overlapping jobs and complicating it with marriage to another level by co-writing and co-starring in "Tammy" while Falcone also directed. That movie made money, but was poorly received by most critics and many Movie Fans as well. 2016 has the pair taking the same chance with the comedy "The Boss" (R, 1:39), which, ironically, co-stars Kristen Bell (but her husband is nowhere in sight). So, is "The Boss"… boss? Read on.

McCarthy stars as Michelle Darnell, a high-powered businesswoman and motivational speaker whose childhood (back and forth between an orphanage and foster care) taught her that the only person she can depend on is herself. She's self-centered, arrogant and basically amoral. Michelle generally uses and abuses her personal assistant, Claire (Bell), and Michelle's bodyguard isn't much more than her personal hype man. When Michelle is arrested for insider trading and sent to jail for five months, everyone abandons her, former lover and long-time business rival Renault (Peter Dinklage) buys her companies and the authorities freeze all of her remaining assets. Looks like someone has to start all over again.

When Michelle is released from jail, she doesn't have anyone to call or anywhere to go, so she takes a taxi to Claire's apartment. When Claire gets home from her new job (where she works for a crazy Darnell disciple played by SNL's Cecily Strong), Claire's pre-teen daughter, Rachel (Ella Anderson), convinces her mom that they have to do something to help Michelle. Claire allows her former boss to stay in the apartment until she gets back on her feet, but Michelle's feet remain reclined on Claire's couch until Claire forces Michelle to do something to earn her keep. Michelle takes Rachel to her Dandelions meeting (think Girl Scouts) where the troop leader (Kristen Schaal) is discussing their cookie sales.

Michelle gets an idea that her "way back" is to form a group called Darnell's Darlings which will teach girls business skills as they sell the unusually delicious brownies that Claire makes from an old family recipe. Michelle gets Claire to make the brownies and help with the troop and gets Rachel to help her recruit various tough girls and other misfits to join up and sell brownies for a percent of the profits. Michelle also approaches her estranged former mentor (Kathy Bates) for financing to help expand the business, but as all this is going on, Renault and his equally evil assistant (Timothy Simons) are keeping tabs on Michelle and her new business, hoping to increase the payback that he feels her still owes her.

"The Boss" is mostly unoriginal, uninspired, unrealistic and unfunny. The clichéd plot lazily recycles the often used story of a main character who has been hardened by a tough life and doesn't know how to give or receive love. Falcone's direction randomly makes use of McCarthy's talent for physical comedy, but rarely gets her or the other actors to show us anything interesting or even very likable about their characters. Both the script and the acting give us characters who often change their tones and their attitudes toward other characters abruptly and with no clear reason why. We also see characters meeting for the first time, but acting like they already know each other, again without explanation.

There is also a lack of realism in the way the script portrays the fallout from Michelle's crimes, and her business dealings as the head of Darnell's Darlings, but this comedy's biggest flaw is its lack of… comedy. There are a few laughs to be found here and there, but the movie's other problems just kill the mood. Besides that, the movie's attempts at humor are overly dependent on cartoonish violence involving children, cursing around, by and at children, and vulgar sexual references which come off as more crude than funny. McCarthy herself has been much funnier in previous films and hopefully she'll be funnier again in her future projects. Sadly, her character in this film is one boss who should be fired herself. "D+"