The plot is pointlessly convoluted but perhaps the biggest disappointment is how humourless the movie is
When Martin Amis was asked if he’d ever consider writing for children, he reportedly answered: “I might, if I had brain damage.” His sniffiness completely disregards the genius it takes to see the world through a kid’s eyes – not something this Boss Baby sequel pulls off with any flair. It is a noisy and nonsensical film, with a pointlessly convoluted plot that sailed over the head of the four-year-old I watched it with. The frantic pace will leave grownups feeling as if they’ve been battered over the head with a brick, or at the very least reaching for the Anadin Extra.
The novelty in the first film of seeing a baby in a business suit with tiny Trump hands, sucking a dummy and voiced by Alec Baldwin, has well and truly worn off. The Boss Baby 2 is set a few decades later: little Ted (Baldwin), the double-espresso-drinking boss baby, is all grown up into a hedge fund CEO. He’s got no time for family – “I can’t do
Christmas on the 25th” he says, one of a handful of decent lines snuck in for adults. His big brother Tim (James Marsden) is now a stay-at-home dad with two daughters – and the single flicker of human interest here is Tim’s heartbreak at his preteen Tabitha (Ariana Greenblatt) growing apart from him.