Directed by: Rawson Marshall Thurber
Starring: Jennifer Aniston, Jason Sudeikis, Ed Helms, Emma Roberts, Nick Offerman, Kathryn Hahn, Will Poulter
I'm fully aware that not every movie made is going to be a Best Picture nominee. Some movies aren't made with such lofty expectations. I'm pretty sure the cast and crew of We're The Millers knew they won't have to set their alarms to wake up when the Oscar nominations are announced in January 2014. I expect a film that's advertised as a comedy to be funny. I hope when I plunk down $11.00 for a movie that it holds up its end of the bargain and entertains me at least at its intended level.
Based on those standards, I didn't think We're The Millers was funny or very entertaining. It sets up a premise that delivers the typical payoffs with little energy expended. The script goes through the paces and leaves the actors with little to do. The best thing I can say about it is that not one joke involves ingesting a bodily fluid or characters vomiting. One character has a testicle bit by a tarantula, which sadly I saw coming early. You don't introduce a spider in the first act without expecting it to bite someone later on. What exactly is funny about a testicle blowing up like a balloon anyway? This is the type of cheap laugh a movie resorts to when it lacks inspiration.
The film stars Jason Sudeikis as Dave, a low-level drug dealer who is robbed of his stash and about $33,000 in cash he owes to his supplier Brad (Helms), a seemingly cheerful sleaze who calls everyone "buddy" and has an office in what looks like the middle of an aquarium. There's even a prized great white shark forebodingly swimming in the background. Brad's plan for David to pay him back: Go down to Mexico and smuggle a "smidge, smidge and a half" of weed back across the border, which adds up to about two metric tons. In order to avoid detection and suspicion, Dave hires a stripper neighbor (Aniston), a runaway girl (Roberts), and an 18-year old naive virgin (Poulter) to pose as his family, The Millers, as they sneak the drugs over the border in a humongous RV. The stripper, Rose, works in one of those movie strip clubs where the girls wear entirely too much clothing. Rose, of course, is the stripper with a heart of gold. Aniston needs to develop a habit of saying no to scripts like this.
Getting the drugs and back across the border is relatively easy, but then the crew attracts the attention of fellow RV vacationers The Fitzgeralds (Offerman and Hahn), who are friendly and able to help out when the Millers' RV breaks down. This leads to a misunderstanding by the Fitzgeralds that the Millers are swingers in a deadening scene that could've worked, but missed. The virgin Kenny also attracts the Fitzgeralds' sweet teenage daughter, which leads to a strange scene in which both Rose and the runaway Kasey teach him how to kiss. That Kenny is a lucky bastard.
The Millers are soon hunted by the Mexican drug dealer the weed actually belongs to. This leads to a scene in a garage in which Rose performs a striptease for the dealer. Aniston, assuming it's her body and not a double's, looks great and manages a sexy dance without even having to remove her top. There's even a shower helpfully nearby along with sparks that fly out of nowhere to add to the effect.
The actors in We're The Millers all give it their best effort, but they need a script that serves them better. There are one or two chuckles, but that's about it. I think the film needs more of an edge. The Millers, despite all of their flaws, are nice, likable people. They're much too nice to be thrown into such an unremarkable film. I saw The Incredible Burt Wonderstone a few weeks ago and it contained scenes of outrageous humor that weren't afraid to push the envelope. The characters were rough around the edges and it was very funny. I also think of Bad Santa, where Billy Bob Thornton played a mean SOB drunk who poses as a shopping mall Santa in order to rob it. He wasn't a very nice guy, but it was a superior dark comedy. We're The Millers isn't in their league. It is safe, unchallenging, and wants to be loved, even though the material begs for it to push the boundaries at least a little bit. The best we get is a peek at Jennifer's g-string.
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