Rawson Marshall Thurber’s (director of the 2004 comedy “Dodgeball”) “We’re the Millers” is a raunchy comedy that offers a slight twist on the family vacation-comedy subgenre, and while there are some laughs to be had, the movie isn’t particularly innovative or memorable.
As the title suggests, there is, in fact, a Miller family, but (and here’s the twist) they’re not a real family, and instead of going on vacation, they’re going to Mexico to smuggle weed.
“The Millers” consist of all your typical comedy-movie losers and outcasts. The ringleader is Dave Clark (Jason Sudeikis) a small-time weed dealer who gets his stash stolen from him. To avoid getting whacked by his drug dealer Brad Gurdlinger (an immensely underused Ed Helms), he must go to Mexico, pick up a shipment of weed and bring it back.
This is a risky task, and a beaded, longhaired loser like Dave won’t be able to get the weed across the border by himself, so he needs to pretend he’s a straight-laced, dweeb father bringing his straight-laced, dweeb family on vacation.
He enlists the help of Rose (Jennifer Aniston), a stripper who’s not happy with her life, to be his wife; Kenny (Will Poulter), the dorky, virgin, 19-year-old who lives in the same building as Dave, to be his son; and Casey (Emma Roberts), a runaway living on the street, to be his daughter.
The rest of the movie plays out pretty much the way you’d expect it to. There’s an awful lot of bickering between the artificial family members (some of which is amusing). There are a few close calls (one at the border and one involving a creepy Mexican cop), and their already-risky task of bringing the weed back over becomes even more dangerous when they find out that they’re actually stealing from a vicious drug dealer named Pablo Chacon (Tomer Sisley).
And, of course, they have a couple of encounters with a nutso family whose actually on vacation (led by “Parks and Recreation”’s Nick Offerman and Kathryn Hahn, who end up being the two funniest people in the entire film), and of course, they get into some funny and awkward situations.
The movie’s much funnier than it should be. To his credit, Thurber doesn’t let a majority of the major comedic set pieces go on too long. For example, there’s one amusing scene that involves the two sets of parents swinging that could have been absolutely terrible (if it had gone on longer), but Thurber knows how not to let it overstay its welcome.
Sudeikis (of “Saturday Night Live” fame) is a solid comedic lead who fits right into his slacker character. Aniston and Roberts also make the best of their characters, even though they’re not given much to work with (the female characters are, by far, the weakest in the picture). And Poulter has his moments, even if you can see his character arc a mile away.
Speaking of that, you can practically see every plot point, every turn coming from a mile away: the constant bickering, the close calls, the love interest for Kenny, the falling-out between the “family” members, followed by their making-up.
That’s the major problem with “We’re the Millers”: There aren’t any surprises, which might not have been such a problem if the movie was funnier, but even the laughs are inconsistent. For every funny set piece, there’s one that falls flat.
In addition, the bad guys are completely bland and exist only because the story calls for bad guys.
“We’re the Millers” is much better than it looks, although that’s not saying much. It may be better to just wait for it to be available through Redbox.
To comment on this review, write to QAMagNews@nwlink.com.
[[In-content Ad]]