Veterans of raunchy female-oriented comedies like Girls Trip and Bridesmaids, Tiffany Haddish and Rose Byrne unite for 2020’s Like a Boss. Best friends since middle school. Mia Carter (Haddish) and Mel Paige (Byrne) now run their own cosmetics business.

In this organization, Mia acts as the creative genius, whereas Mel serves as the one who watches the books. Mel realizes that their company runs a deficit and finds itself more than $400,000 in debt.

Desperate to save their business, Mel and Mia get a potential lifeline from Claire Luna (Salma Hayek), the founder and CEO of massive makeup titan Oviedo. She offers them a financial partnership that can keep Mel and Mia afloat.

Of course, strings come attached. Mel and Mia struggle to keep their business in their own hands – and their friendship intact – as Claire attempts a semi-hostile takeover.

Nothing about the trailers for Boss inspired much optimism in me, as those ads offered mild mirth at best. Still, the movie boasted some talent, so how bad could it be?

Really bad, as it happens. Although we get an occasional chuckles, most of Boss takes us into a Laugh-Free Zone.

Don’t expect coherence from the film, as it exists to showcase a variety of wacky sequences more than a real story. That’s not the end of the world, as some fine comedies have come with only the loosest of plots.

Unfortunately, Boss doesn’t join them, and we find zero creative inspiration on display. One can smell most of the jokes far in advance, and they display no freshness at all.

Boss largely ignores its “plot” for long stretches– well, long for a movie that clocks in at a mere 83 minutes. Given the film’s brevity, it seems shockingly bloated, as even with a running time that barely qualifies as feature length, Boss feels elongated.

Granted, the nature of the story sets it up to give us something somewhat episodic in nature. Basically the tale should revolve around the frantic antics of Mel and Mia as they deal with Claire’s threat – lather, rinse.

As I implied, this structure wouldn’t bother me much if the movie brought out laughs, but it doesn’t. Oh, the talents of the actors manage the occasional chortle, but these seem few and far between, and they decrease as the film progresses.

That happens because any novelty wears off pretty quickly. During the movie’s first act, we’re still open to the notion we’ll get a fun movie, and the charms of the actors allow some minor laughs.

Before long, though, the proverbial ennui sets in, and there’s not much Haddish, Byrne or any of the others can do about it. Whatever skills they possess wither in the face of the tired gags and incoherent storytelling.

Ultimately, little about Boss satisfies. A stale stab at comedy, it wears out its welcome long before it actually ends.

Like a Boss appears in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This was a mostly good but erratic image.

Sharpness was generally solid. However, more softness cropped up than anticipated, so the movie occasionally came across with a less than precise presentation.

Jagged edges and shimmering became a minor presence when we saw roofs, but these remained mild, and edge enhancement were absent. Source flaws also failed to present any problems, as the movie offered a clean image.

In terms of colors, the film favored the usual mix of teal and amber, though we got a few brighter hues at times. I thought the hues looked fine, as they were solid within the design parameters.

Blacks seemed deep and tight, while shadows were generally good. A few shots appeared somewhat thick, but low-light images were usually pretty nice. This turned into a largely satisfactory picture but not a consistent one.

As for the film’s Dolby TrueHD 7.1 soundtrack, it seemed decent for the tale at hand. It favored the usual “comedy mix” and didn’t present chances for the soundscape to explode.

We did find a few broader scenes – such as at bars and parties – but the track usually opted for stereo music and general environmental material. These didn’t seem exciting, and the surrounds lacked much to do. Even a sequence with drones kept the material mainly focused in the front.

I thought audio quality appeared positive. Speech seemed distinctive and natural, with no rough tones or other issues.

Score and songs displayed clear, warm music, and effects functioned well. Those elements were reasonably realistic and full throughout the movie, so this ended up as a low-key but workable mix.

Minor supplements fill out the disc, and With Coworkers Like These, Who Needs Friends? runs five minutes, 41 seconds. It provides notes from director Miguel Arteta, producer Marc Evans, and actors Tiffany Haddish, Rose Byrne, Salma Hayek, Billy Porter, and Jennifer Coolidge.

“Coworkers” tells us that cast and crew loved each other and everyone had a great time. No real information emerges.

”Get Some” With Ron and Greg goes for two minutes, 17 seconds. This brings an in-character reel with Mel and Mia’s sleazy competitors, played by Jimmy O. Yang and Ryan Hansen. It’s promotional and not especially amusing.

Two Deleted Scenes finish the disc: “You Need Me to Help You” (0:38) and “Now Hit Me” (1:54). Connected, both look at how Claire tries to get to Mel.

Really, these act as before and after for what I assume was a big gag in which Claire and Mel go through “indoor skydiving”. Perhaps they never shot the “action” part of this, so we’re left with bookends that don’t really go anywhere.

A second disc provides a DVD copy of Boss. It lacks any extras.

Despite some good talent involved, Like a Boss offers a near-total dud. The handful of laughs generated in the movie’s opening act turn to bored silence for the majority of this stinker. The Blu-ray brings moderately good picture and audio along with modest bonus materials. Like a Boss ends up as a witless loser.