We're the Millers Review
By: MattInRC
Does We're the Millers deliver plenty of laughs, or get arrested for indecent exposure?
The problem with today's crass comedies is simple they're just not that funny. Think about what doomed Grown Ups 2 or Hangover III: ill-conceived plots surrounded by skits that relied too heavily on ad-libbing. But when those scenes lead to more groans than laughs, you know the industry has missed the point. Luckily, We're the Millers doesn't succumb to this pitfall, instead delivering lots of laughs and proving that comedies can be a little crass and still entertain.
The plot is fairly simple: small-time pot dealer David Clark (Jason Sudeikis, Horrible Bosses) is forced to drive an RV filled with weed across the Mexican border after his stash is stolen by some local thugs. There's a bit of a cameo here in Clark's creepy pin-stripe suited contact who sends him on the journey, so we won't ruin that one. Knowing that a white dude driving alone across the border will attract attention, Clark recruits a fake family, including the runaway Casey (Emma Roberts, Hotel for Dogs), the nerd Kenny (Will Poulter), and the middle-aged stripper Rose (Jennifer Aniston, Office Space). Along the way, they meet a vanilla midwestern couple (Nick Offerman and Kathryn Hahn) while trying to keep a Mexican drug lord (Tomer Sisley) from killing them.
Once the cast is assembled, the movie's goal is clear: turn this fake family into a real one through misfortune. Luckily, the film never degrades into a need to light it up in order to bond: there's plenty of incestuous kissing, phallic-symbol Pictionary, and tampon talk - for example - to make up for it. Rawson Marshall Thurber brings his Dodgeball mentality to the game, enlisting Wedding Crashers penners Bob Fisher and Steve Faber for the ride. The result is something that's hilarious at its ends but a little slow in the middle. That, and too many side stories including an ill-conceived romance for Roberts, results in an avalanche of resolutions that come together too quickly for us to truly enjoy it. That's not to say Millers is a failure - far from it; there are many points when things approach comedic genius, with Sudeikis leading the family down one ridiculous premise after another. There's an odd sort of warmth to this that's hard to pin down, but suffice it to say that you don't feel like you need a shower after watching it; that alone should be enough to attract mainstream audiences.
Speaking from experience, Poulter plays the nerd perfectly, caught between the straight man drug dealer and his fake stripper wife. His dorky looks and big date with a tarantula provide some of the best moments here. But as much as we want to like her, it's Aniston who still feels like a dark Jedi version of Rachel, complete with one or two of her Friends textbook 'Oh my god!' one-liners. She's definitely having fun here, but even the stripper scenes feel a little forced, making us realize that she might never choose Oscar-type projects nor ever be offered them. Roberts rounds out this experience with several good reactions and plays off Poulter fairly well as the cooler sister that Kenny never had. But it's Sudeikis who's the ring leader here, and without him this is just another faulted project doomed for the $7.99 clearance bin (Adam Sandler movies, do you hear me?!). Thurber is clearly letting Sudeikis and team ad-lib, and the result is some of the best comedy we've seen since Ted.
I've heard lots of complaints from critics about the film's gross nature and seemingly cookie-cutter script - what do they know? We're the Millers is one of the funniest comedies of the year, and should power it to box office heaven for more reasons than seeing Aniston fulfill an old man's fantasy. While not perfect in the slightest, the strong cast and inventive gags will provide audiences with something very funny to end the Summer 2013 movie season. We're the Millers is rated R for crude sexual content, pervasive language, drug material and brief graphic nudity and has a runtime of 98 minutes.
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