The uninspired, lowbrow, and unnecessary sequel, besmirching the memory of the deserving 2011 comedy hit, Horrible Bosses, resembles its predecessor in just about every possible way — except for the level of quality and the number of laughs. On those scores, the two films part company and exist on different planets.
Horrible Bosses 2 is so desperately unfunny that even the outtakes displayed during the closing credits fall flat.
That’s all the stranger when you consider that nearly the entire cast is back.
But instead of conspiring to get out from under the thumbs of their respective bosses from Hell, as they did in the original workplace romp, Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis, and Charlie Day as Nick, Kurt, and Dale, respectively, are attempting to be their own bosses for a change and launch their own business.
Entrepreneurs now, they’ve invented a bathroom accessory called The Shower Buddy.
But when they’re manipulated and scammed by an investor played by Christoph Waltz, who bankrupts their enterprise, they decide to kidnap his spoiled son, played by Chris Pine, and hold him for ransom as a way of getting their business back.
And they prove to be even more inept as kidnappers than they were as murderers.
Other key members of the original ensemble back for a second helping are Jennifer Aniston as a sex-crazed dentist, Jamie Foxx as a felon-turned-crime-coach, and Kevin Spacey as a currently incarcerated, vitriolic ex-employer.
But the bosses, so amusing if not hysterical in the first outing, are just nostalgic background reminders this trip.
Director Sean Anders (That’s My Boy, Sex Drive, Never Been Thawed), taking the directorial reins from Seth Gordon, works from a screenplay that he co-wrote with John Morris, based on a story by Morris, Anders, John Francis Daley, and Jonathan Goldstein.
Apparently, Anders either allowed or encouraged his central trio to improvise and to talk constantly, not just with each other but over, around, and through each other.
And, boy, do they overdo it.
Bateman, Sudeikis, and Day do, it must be admitted, seem to be having a good time.
Not so the audience, as we sit and wait and then realize that we’re experiencing the law of diminishing sequels, as a startlingly low percentage of their improv chatter is actually funny.
As for Aniston, she comes off as a good sport but a bad judge of script quality. The charmingly shocking impact of her raunchy role in the first film has now deteriorated to such a degree that we’re embarrassed for her.
Once again, absurdity, vulgarity, and profanity – all of which certainly have their place — are ingredients in this comedy cocktail, with slapstick, wordplay, and innuendo all part of the anything-for-a-laugh recipe.
But the spark is gone.
Crudity that doesn’t make you laugh just sits there and makes you cringe. And Horrible Bosses 2’s strained attempt to push the outrageousness envelope beyond the limits of the first film makes the performers seem like naughty middle schoolers trying to shock their elders while producing precious few chuckles.
The Orion spacecraft toyed with our hearts this morning, three times reaching the terminal countdown before the launch attempt was ultimately scrubbed. Twice, gusts of wind were to blame; the third time, a sticky valve refused to close. Here's what went down and what needs to happen before the next attempt.
Top image: Delta IV Heavy rocket and Orion on the launch pad after the launch attempt was scrubbed and recycled for 24 hours later. Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
With hundreds of thousands of people tuned in to watch the first test flight of NASA's new human deep space exploration vehicle, the Orion spacecraft, the launch was held twice for wind delays before being ultimately scrubbed due to a sticky valve. Here's what happened and what to expect next.
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Orion and Delta IV Heavy fully visible after the Mobile Service Tower rollback early on the morning of December 4, 2014. Image credit: NASA/Radislav Sinyak
Hold #1: A Wayward Boat and A Gust of Wind
The first hold in the countdown was called due to an unauthorized boat downrange of the rocket. When range control spotted a boat in the downrange box, they moved to both evaluate if it was a problem and to escort the boat out of the area. By the time they escorted the boat out, analysis had determined that given the boat's size and location, it wasn't actually a risk-violation anyway. While this is unconfirmed, rumour is that the boat was a cargo ship, and it's very unlikely to be the same wayward boat that previously delayed a Cape Canaveral launch.
In the same attempt, a gust of wind triggered an automated hold. Winds were steadily at the upper limit of acceptable for the launch condition criteria, but the orientation was drifting slightly. This small change in direction was important because the rocket has a different drag profile from different orientations, leading the winds to slice around it like a knife or barrel into it like a garage door, and because drift is substantially less optimal in some directions.
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Wind blowing the rocket into the Umbilical Tower? That'd be a very bad day. Image credit: NASA/Radislav Sinyak
If wind pushes the rocket slightly into a cleared area, it's no big deal. If wind pushes the rocket into the Fixed Umbilical Tower holding the swing arm, that's a big freaking deal that will rather quickly and irreparably end the launch. The structure holds equipment essential to launch up until the very last minute, so fully clearing the area is not an option.
Hold #2: A Gust of Wind (Again!)
For the first forty minutes or more of the launch window, winds were steadily high, right at the boundary of acceptable limits. Any slight change in direction was enough to trigger automatic alerts as the wind crossed over a more stringent threshold demanded by impact of the wind on the spacecraft at that orientation.
In the entire first half will-it-or-won't-it launch window, the pad didn't have a single 4-minute gap where the rocket would be clear to launch even if the boat hadn't caused a minor initial delay. As the morning wore on, the winds started to die down.
Hold #3: A Sticky Valve
By the time the winds died down, the rocket had been fuelled and ready to go on the launch pad for an extended time.
After the rocket is fuelled, the liquid hydrogen and oxygen is so cold that it constantly evaporates, spilling out clouds of vapour. A small flame to the side of the launch pad constantly burns off hydrogen to reduce the risk of detonation. Even so, enough hydrogen pools up that Delta IV rockets have an unnerving and absolutely badass habit of setting themselves on fire during a launch.
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Wondering if waiting to watch the launch is worth it? This is an actual photo of a Delta IV Heavy rocket casually setting itself on fire during a launch. Image credit: ULA
All of this means that the tanks need constant trickle-refuelling during the launch countdown to keep the tanks topped up, which is done by the fill and drain valves. They stay open until partway through the terminal 4-minute countdown, at which point they close tight and stay closed for the remainder of the launch and flight.
While the valves on the liquid oxygen tanks behaved fine, two of the three valves on the liquid hydrogen tanks stuck open. The last time this happened during a Delta IV Heavy launch, it was during a launch that extended late into a long launch window, like this one did, and the valves got too cold and froze open. After the valves warmed up, the post-scrub analysis and tinkering didn't require the replacement of any hardware before the next, successful, launch attempt.
White vapour marks evaporating fuel, and a hydrogen flare stack reduces the risk of detonation from fuel buildup. Image credit: NASA
Based on this past experience, the team tried to trouble-shoot the sticky valves. First they tried cycling them open and closed repeatedly. When that failed, they pressurized the tanks and held it for two minutes before releasing, but were still unable to resolve the technical issue before the launch window expired.
While the United Launch Alliance engineers will be treating this as a unique incident and investigating to find out what happened, it's very likely that the problem is exactly the same.These valves are massive ball valves on the order of 20 to 25 centimetres in diameter, and rocket fuel is really, really cold. Liquid oxygen is at a chilly -183°C, while the liquid hydrogen is even colder at -252°C. That the valves on the port and central hydrogen tanks got cold and sluggish is entirely feasible. If so, the fix is off-loading the fuel and waiting for the rocket to warm back up before trying again.
The entire rocket is brand new, manufactured this year and on the pad just 64 days.
It's hard to be annoyed at a delayed launch when the scenery is this gorgeous. Orion as seen from the Vehicle Assembly Building. Image credit: Kat Robinson
Scrubbed for a 24-hour Recycle: Looking Forward to the Next Attempt
The next launch attempt is currently scheduled for 7:05 am EST on Friday morning, once again with a long window extending until 9:44 am. The flight profile for Exploration Test Flight 1 remains exactly the same.
United Launch Alliance engineers will investigate Delta IV Heavy rocket and its sticky valve today. If it's as simple as a valve made sticky from a long, cold wait, it'll be ready to launch tomorrow morning. However, Space Complex 37 only has the capacity to launch a Delta IV Heavy any two of three days due to limited storage facilities for consumables. With the amount of liquid hydrogen and oxygen that boils off during the countdown, the local storage tanks are quickly drained. Once fuelling begins, the launch attempt is on, and the next attempt will be the last until more supplies are brought on-site. If the launch attempt goes ahead on Friday morning but fails to blast off, the next attempt cannot be until Sunday. Alternately, the attempt can be delayed until Saturday morning.
Everything with the Orion spacecraft has looked good throughout the entire launch sequence, but every hold and reset cycle puts ware on the spacecraft battery. Each time the countdown hits T-9 minutes, Orion is on internal battery power. Each time the launch is placed back on hold, the countdown backs up and Orion moves back to external power. The battery can only take so many cycling charges while staying within ideal parameters, so the Lockheed Martin team will need to assess how the battery is holding up and how many more launch attempts it can take.
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The weather report for tomorrow is 40% probability of conditions within the launch criteria, significantly worse than this morning's 70% probability. However, despite forecasts of higher wind velocities, the projected orientation is more favourable to allow for a clean launch without the risk of the rocket drifting into scaffolding. The weather report in the splashdown area is also more intense, with possibile of 2-meter waves in the recovery zone. This is still within acceptable parameters for the aircraft carrier, and is unlikely to cause a launch delay. Weather conditions currently look much better for Saturday with 70% probabilities of conditions meeting launch criteria.
US Navy and NASA recovery teams were ready and waiting in the splashdown zone off the coast of Baja California this morning, and will be back tomorrow. Image credit: NASA
While ramping up to a fourth launch attempt this morning, the team switched from automatic to manual monitoring of wind conditions. This was the standard practice up until about two years ago, so both manual monitoring and the switch from automatic to manual are well-regulated, well-practiced processes. At the moment, the intention is to start the next launch attempt with automatic monitoring unless a clear reason to use manual monitoring rears up.
Exploration Test Flight - 1 has the launch window reserved on the range for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday mornings. If Orion still hasn't launched, they can work with the range for a Sunday morning attempt. After that, any further delays will start impacting other scheduled launches, and require more logistical dancing to make everything work smoothly.
While it is disappointing to face a 24-hour recycling on the launch attempt, this is a normal part of spaceflight. It happened just last week with the Morpheus Lander prototype hitting an automated abort then facing extensive weather holds before a beautiful and futuristic test flight.
The US has revealed it tried to rescue UK-born American hostage Luke Somers, who is being held by al-Qaeda in Yemen.
President Barack Obama authorised the mission last month, it said.
"Regrettably, Luke was not present, though hostages of other nationalities were present and were rescued," the National Security Council said.
A man identifying himself as Luke Somers, who was abducted in 2013, has appeared in a video, saying his life is in danger and appealing for help.
The video also shows a member of al-Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula (AQAP) threatening to kill Mr Somers unless unspecified demands are met.
Mr Somers, 33, worked as a journalist and photographer for local news organisations and his material appeared on international news outlets, including the BBC news website.
'Classified'
On 25 November, US and Yemeni forces rescued six Yemenis, a Saudi and an Ethiopian being held by AQAP in an operation at a mountain cave in the remote Hajr al-Sayar district of Hadramawt province. Seven militants were reportedly killed.
US National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said: "As soon as the US government had reliable intelligence and an operational plan, the president authorised the department of defence to conduct an operation to recover Mr Somers."
She added: "The details of the operation remain classified.
"The overriding concern for Mr Somers' safety and the safety of the US forces who undertake these missions made it imperative that we not disclose information related to Mr Somers' captivity and the attempted rescue."
Ms Meehan said the president "could not be prouder" of the US forces who carried out the mission.
"Their effort should serve as another signal to those who would do us harm that the United States will not tolerate the abduction of our people, and will spare no effort to secure the safe return of our citizens and to hold their captors accountable," she said.
AQAP's threat to kill Mr Somers follows the murder of five Western hostages since August by Islamic State, which controls parts of Syria and Iraq.
AQAP is regarded by the US as one of the deadliest offshoots of al-Qaeda.
The group is based in eastern Yemen and has built up support amid the unrest which has beset the impoverished country since the overthrow of President Ali Abdullah Saleh in 2011.
Dutch inventor and artist Theo Jansen is bringing his Strandbeests to Miami. How did the creatures evolve to walk by themselves?
He describes them as ‘skeletons that walk on the wind, so they don’t have to eat’. He compares their creation to an evolution of ‘new forms of life’, and plans to leave them to ‘live their own lives’ in herds on beaches. Theo Jansen is not just in the business of making sculptures.
The Dutch artist’s Strandbeests will be appearing on Miami Beach this week as part of Art Basel. Even that, though, will be more than an art event. “Miami is like a continuation of the experiments I did on the beach at home,” he tells BBC Culture. “The side effects could be that I learn something.”
When we imagine artificial intelligence – the technology warned about by experts like Elon Musk and, this week, Stephen Hawking – we might think of sleek robotics or HAL-like virtual entities. It’s unlikely that many would picture PVC tubes and polymer sails lumbering along a beach. At times marching in step like a troupe of can-can dancers, at other moments jerky and tentative, the beasts are surprisingly quick for their size. They are quiet, too: with no electric parts or motor, they can sneak up on the unwary onlooker.
Jansen, who is 66 years old, has big plans for his creatures. “Within the next 20 years I want the animals to be independent from me, so they take their own decisions – when to walk on the beach, what to anchor themselves against during storms or when to move away from the water.
He acknowledges that he’s trying to accelerate the pace of evolution. “AI means that you teach a beast to learn, and I’m not that far yet. I’d love to go to that stage of evolution, but I’m afraid my animals are still very primitive and you couldn’t even compare them to a worm,” he says. “They’ve only been around for 24 years, and normally evolution takes millions of years. I’ve a very short time – maybe I’ve still got 20 years to live – and I’m in a hurry with the evolution of the beast.”
Jansen began building the Strandbeests in 1990. Mindful of rising sea levels and what that might mean for the Low Countries, he imagined a race of wind-powered beach creatures that could bring sand from the water’s edge inland to build a never-ending barrier. With his Sisyphean task of dune creation, the Strandbeest was born.
“The first animal in 1990 could only move its legs lying on its back. The leg system evolved in the first couple of years, and then I found better ways to connect the tubes – at first I just used Sellotape to make the connections, and later I found out that you could use heat.” Each October, Jansen starts work on a new beast; the following May, when it is half-finished, he takes it to the beach near where he lives in Scheveningen and sets it free to roam throughout the summer. “In the autumn I’m wiser, and I declare the animal extinct – it becomes a fossil. These fossils go out to the boneyard, which are the exhibitions.”
Although they are still basic, the Strandbeests are now more self-sufficient. “They’ve found better ways to protect themselves against storms, they have sensors that feel the water and feel the hardness of the sand. They’ve become better and better at surviving on the beaches.” One development means they can now walk on soft as well as hard sand. “It’s easy to walk on hard sand because they’re pushed by the wind, but on soft sand they need a special drive system which is driven by pressed air.
“Now the animals have a way of storing the wind,” says Jansen. “There are wings which go up and down in the wind, and there are pumps connected to those wings which pump air into bottles at high pressure. The pressed air can drive muscles – ski poles that lift the animal and help push it over the soft sand.”
Jansen often strays into the language of the engineer, and it’s easy to forget that his creatures are also beautiful. “I don’t want to make ‘nice’ animals, I just want to make surviving animals,” he says. “They can be very nasty; my relationship with the beasts is different from what it is with people or animals. They are so low in their evolutionary development I still see them as machines.”
They might be nasty, but the Strandbeests have struck a chord. Videos of their strolls along the beach have had millions of views, while 3D printed versions have proliferated. There are currently travelling exhibitions of Strandbeests in Nagasaki, Paris and Moscow; the six creatures in Miami will go on to tour the US, taking in Chicago, Massachusetts and San Francisco.
Most commentators marvel at how lifelike they are. Jansen, however, is not aiming to mimic the natural world. “I want to forget everything that I know about existing nature. I want to make new animals, and not imitate the old evolution. So any resemblance between a dinosaur and my work is purely coincidence.”
Despite his scientific approach, the artist does find himself becoming attached to his creations. In a film about his Strandbeest ‘fossils’, Jansen admits to feeling sad when he retires each creature: “They die, and I die a little as well, because I have to say goodbye to the animals.”
Strandbeest: The Dream Machines of Theo Jansen is presented at Art Basel in Miami Beach by Audemars Piguet in partnership with the Peabody Essex Museum.
Mariah Carey is known for her five-octave voice, her slinky dresses and her many hits, including "All I Want for Christmas is You."
Unfortunately, she is also known for her tardiness. And her behavior this week at the Rockefeller Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony in New York won't do anything to help that reputation.
Because of her history, NBC decided to tape Carey singing her holiday classic before a live audience Tuesday night, then air it Wednesday for the network's coverage of the 82nd annual Rockefeller Center tree lighting.
But the self-titled Queen of Christmas kept the audience waiting for three hours Tuesday before NBC made the decision to cancel the performance. According to TMZ, Carey was delayed because she was meeting with her lawyer about her divorce settlement with husband Nick Cannon.
The 46-year-old actor will reprise his role as James Bond in Spectre, director Sam Mendesannounced during a press conference Thursday morning at Pinewood Studios in the U.K. Actors Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, RoryKinnear and Ben Whishaw will all return in roles introduced in 2012's Skyfall. Newcomers include Dave Bautista, Monica Bellucci,Andrew Scott, Léa Seydoux and Christoph Waltz.
Craig first played 007 in 2006's Casino Royale, then in 2008's Quantum of Solace and 2012's Skyfall.
Skyfall writers John Logan, Neil Purvis and Rob Wade are also returning.
Scott will play MI5 employee Denbigh, while Bautista will play a henchman called Mr. Hinx. The sexy Bellucci and Seydoux are the new Bond girls, named Lucia Sciarra and Madeleine Swann, respectively. Waltz will play Oberhauser—a character who, coincidentally or not, shares the name of Bond's former ski instructor. It has been rumored that Waltz will really play Bond's old nemesis, Ernst Stavro Blofeld.
Spectre—an acronym for Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion—was the name of the international crime syndicate, whose 'Number One' was Blofeld himself.Bond will drive an Aston Martin DB10, which was also unveiled at the press conference.
Spectre will shoot across the globe in locations such as the Austrian Alps, London, Mexico City and Morocco. Principal photography is scheduled to begin on Monday.
Expectations are high for Spectre, as Skyfall was a surprise hit. After its release, it became the seventh-biggest movie of all time with $1.1 billion in earnings, the second-biggest film of 2012 behind The Avengers and the highest-grossing film in U.K. box office history. It won two Oscars and two Grammys.
Adele performed the Skyfall theme, though it's yet to be revealed who will sing Spectre's main song.
The 24th James Bond movie will be released in the U.K. on Oct. 23 and on Nov. 6 in the U.S.
The document outlines what Future Earth, launched at the 2012 Rio +20 Summit, hopes to contribute towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
It has identified eight global challenges, including "water, energy and food for all" and decarbonisation.
The strategy also focuses on the roles of policymakers and funding bodies.
"Future Earth is a global research platform aimed at connecting the world's scientists across the regions and across disciplines to work on the problems of sustainable development and the solutions to move us towards sustainable development," explained Future Earth science committee vice-chairwoman Belinda Reyers.
"It really is an unprecedented attempt to consult with scientists across the world as well as with important stakeholders and policymakers," she told BBC News.
"It will consider what kind of science is needed in the medium-term to really move us towards more desirable futures."
Dr Reyers - chief scientist at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in Stellenbosch, South Africa - said the strategy had been distilled down to eight "sustainability challenges":
Deliver water, energy and food for all
Decarbonise socio-economic systems
Safeguard the terrestrial, freshwater and marine natural assets
Building healthy, resilient and productive cities
Promote sustainable rural futures
Improve human health
Encourage sustainable consumption and production patterns
Increase social resilience to future threats
"Within each of the eight challenges, we have developed what we see as fundable research programmes that scientists and funding agencies can use as a starting point for building their programmes and strategies," she explained.
Dr Reyers explained the strategy aimed to build on the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) process within the United Nations framework.
The SDGs are the successor to the UN Millennium Development Goals, which come to end in 2015.
The concept of sustainable development - defined as "development that meets the needs of the present, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" - has been on the international policy scene since the late 1980s and the publication of theOur Common Report report by the Brundtland Commission.
However, Dr Reyers said that the time was now right for a global science platform to work alongside the established policy framework.
"Future Earth builds on the legacy of the past 20 years of investment in sustainability science, but that investment was very fragmented.
"We are also much more aware of the future, thinking about challenges such as nine to eleven billion people on the planet in the coming decades and how we can feed them in a warmer and less predictable world.
"If you look at news headlines, the scale and complexity of sustainability challenges that we are facing are very evident, but also very different from those outlined in the Brundtland Commission documents. Now we have things like the Ebola outbreak in West Africa and the widespread droughts in California.
"Using sustainability challenges, societal needs and policy priorities to direct our science makes it both more relevant and accessible," she observed
