Entertainment
‘Horrible Bosses 2’ – this one’s not boss material
Film: “Horrible Bosses 2”; Cast: Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis, Charlie Day, Chris Pine, Christoph Waltz, Brandon Richardson, Jennifer Aniston, Kevin Spacey and Lindsay Sloane; Director: Sean Anders; Rating: **1/2
“Horrible Bosses 2” conjures images of vicious and maleficent employers who treat their employees shabbily and probably that’s why the 2011 released film “Horrible Bosses” was a predictable runaway success.
But, taking off from its predecessor, “Horrible Bosses 2” graduates from this premise to the idea of being one’s own boss and sensitive towards their employees. And thus, probably, this film fails to leave an impact.
No longer burdened by their respective previous employers, the trio, Nick Hendricks (Bateman), Kurt Buckman (Sudeikis), and Dale Arbus (Day) have turned into entrepreneurs, producing an innovative shower. They are now looking out for partners to help them take this venture forward, to a different level.
Soon their paths cross with a multi-millionaire businessman, Bert Hanson (Christoph Waltz), who lures them with a whopping order. They go all out, beyond their means, to achieve their targets. But when they are duped by Bert, they realise that after all they “are not boss material”.
Now down in the dumps and bankrupt, as their revenge and survival strategy, they plan to kidnap Bert’s grown-up son Rex (Chris Pine), who willingly becomes their victim.
Prior to that, they seek help and advice from their old pal Jones (Jamie Foxx) as well as Nick’s foul-mouthed, now imprisoned ex-boss (Kevin Spacey). But all in vain.
Packaged with a series of set pieces of crass slapsticks and insinuations which intentionally inject humour and sub-plots, which are loosely assembled events that swing on morality, the entire plot seems contrived.
Director Sean Ander’s efforts lack the much-needed punch. The writing is lethargic. The dialogues are on-the-face-blunt, tactless and mediocre, which suits the characterisation.
With the trio acting as dumb-idiots, their performances are good and credible, but definitely not outstanding. Bateman seems like the sane one who is always frustrated, Sudeikis is always on a hop and Day is squeaky, loud and irritating.
Of the supporting cast, Christoph Waltz and Chris Pine as the father-son duo are worth a mention. They are in fact, the surprise package in this edition. Waltz is good as the slime-bag businessman, but it is Chris Pine, as his over-enthusiastic, wayward as well as enigmatic son, who steals the show.
Jennifer Aniston as Dale’s filthy, sex-addicted former employer along with Kevin Spacey, in their short screen time, helps in keeping some semblance of consistency with “Horrible Bosses”. They are just reduced to stock characters and hence leave no impression on the audience.
With overall good production values, cinematography and action, which includes an unexpected car chase, “Horrible Bosses 2”, with a potential for a truly dark comedy is, in turn just an ordinarily, good-natured comedy sans the bosses. It clearly lacks the zing.
International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.
Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.
The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.
Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile
The primary data samples analysed by Casino Days reveal that mobile connections dominate the market in South Asia and are responsible for a whopping 96.6% of gaming sessions, while computers and tablets have negligible shares of 2.9% and 0.5% respectively.
The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.
“Some of the reasons behind this massive difference in device type are affordability, technical advantages, as well as cheaper and more obtainable internet plans for mobiles than those for computers,” the researchers comment.
Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings
Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.
Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).
Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.
The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.
Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.
Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities
The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.
On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.
Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.
“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.
The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.
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