We’re the Millers (R)

“We’re the Millers” begins with selections from various infamous Youtube videos. That was my first issue with the film. Right off the bat it feels like the movie is trying to piggy-back on the success of double rainbows and tickling kittens. This is honestly kind of a pity, because this movie has a game cast that would be very entertaining with slightly better material.

The film follows David (Jason Sudeikis), a low level pot dealer who, after getting robbed, is forced by his boss (Ed Helms) to go to Mexico to smuggle in a large shipment of weed. In order to dowse potential suspicion, David enlists the help of his stripper neighbor (Jennifer Aniston), a runaway teen (Emma Roberts), and the dorky kid who lives in his complex (Will Poulter) to pose as the all-American nuclear family to sneak across the border with their hefty payload. With the premise, some crude humor is expected, even desired, but for good portions of the film they leaned too heavily on the crude and not enough on the humor.

For instance, there are scenes that involve swinging couples, incest jokes, a “weed baby,” and someone getting bit somewhere sensitive by a poisonous spider. Many of these scenes are played off like they are supposed to be funny, but often fall flat and are more unsavory and ultimately unnecessary to the overall story. In fact, in one of those scenes, Jason Sudeikis LITERALLY looks directly into the camera, as if to say,”Hey, this is weird, right?” There is a blooper reel right before the final credits with more of that (and a very hysterical prank they pulled on Jennifer Aniston), but within the context of the film it derails the story and makes you feel like the movie is being far too smug for its own good. However, one scene that does work is a scene involving a gay Mexican cop played by Luis Guzman.

Most of the performances are pretty good. There are many talented comedians who show up in cameos. Scott Adsit (“30 Rock”) and Ken Marino (“Children’s Hospital”) pop up in small, mostly straight roles, but the best cameo other than Guzman would have to be Thomas Lennon (“Reno 911”) as an old college buddy of David’s, not because of his role, specifically, but one of my favorite one-liners I’m sure he improvised.

Of the core cast, Sudeikis is a likeable leading man, and though I generally like his performances, his character is a bit inconsistent. He fluctuates between intense likability and intense dis-likability almost in every other scene. But Sudeikis himself is a funny guy, so he makes the inconsistency bearable. Jennifer Aniston, however people may view her from her string of blah romantic comedies, is very funny and talented, and suited for this sort of movie. In fact, I wouldn’t be opposed to seeing her pop up in more different genres, like dramas, or action. I think she would be just as capable of anything Sandra Bullock could do.

Emma Roberts is fine, although I feel like her role is a little underwritten. Katherine Hahn and Nick Offerman show up as that other couple in the RV that are always in these RV movies (like that Robin Williams movie “RV,” of which this could almost be called an R-rated remake) and as always, they are fantastic, because Hahn is a master improviser and Offerman is hysterical. But I think best in show goes to the most earnest in the cast, Will Poulter. He tends to be the butt of a lot of jokes, but Poulter’s Kenny is basically the heart of the movie. Also, the guy is British. That was surprising.

This film had been in development since 2006, and previously had director Peter Cataneo (“The Full Monty”) and actors Steve Buscemi and Will Arnett attached. I don’t know how different that version would have been from the one we got today, but it would have been fun to see Buscemi play the pot dealer, mainly because Buscemi is awesome. On the whole, this isn’t the worst film of the summer (that would probably go to “After Earth”), but you could probably skip it in theaters and Redbox it sometime.

– by Stephen “Sparky” Parker