We're the Millers review

It’s the narcotic-based comedy that America seems to be loving at the moment, it’s grossed $69.7M in the US so far and it’s only been out two weeks. I’m interested to see how it fares over here because although it’s got a big name in the lovely form of Jennifer Aniston, her co-star Jason Sudeikis isn’t so well known over in the UK because his stints in SNL aren’t broadcasted as much. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t a fan of Horrible Bosses, I thought it was overhyped and lame so hopes weren’t high for the next collaboration between Jen and Jase. Dave is a drug dealer who makes a deal with his boss (my personal favourite, Ed Helms) to smuggle a “smidge of marijuana” over the Mexican/US border. It’s obviously not a smidge by the way. I know Dave agrees to the plan under duress but he deserves to get screwed if he trusts this dodgy guy whose idea of a goldfish is an Orca whale.

Aaaanyhoo, he has to figure out how to get across the border without attracting attention because Dave is unkempt, unshaven, wears hoodies. That’s the universal drug dealer uniform, right? Cue his neighbour Rose, desperate for money, suddenly boyfriendless and working at a strip joint which has not-so-admirable aspirations of turning into a brothel. Kenny is a boy, inexplicably abandoned by his mother and in dire need of both a friend and a girlfriend. Carey is some girl. From the streets. Who may or may not be homeless. Who even cares, the point is that they agree to be Dave’s surrogate family and during their little road trip, all manner of mishaps occur. Obvs.

We're The Millers Trailer

My main highlights were pretty much any scenes with Will Poulter as Kenny in – Kenny singing along to TLC’s Waterfalls, Kenny getting bitten by an exotic tarantula and the memorable although not comfortable moment when Kenny was taught to kiss by his fake mother and sister. BLEUGH. Check my interview with Willhere. Jokes that could have been funny if they weren’t dragged out, like Rose pretending to have a baby made of dope, took the place of genuinely funny scenes, like the inappropriate family Pictionary game (a skateboard is quite phallic if you squint). Plus, having Jennifer Aniston as a stripper was maybe funny for about 3 minutes and then the skits became old and the comments were just downright misogynistic. And Dave didn’t need to be an arse, his job already implied that. He needed to win us over so that we thought he deserved a happy ending. Instead, I left the film wondering why the film makers thought it would be a good idea to have a character who whined and moaned for 90 minutes as a central protagonist. Directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber (whooooooooooo? The director of Dodgeball), this should have been a hilarious comedy. It certainly had its moments and was daring in places but the cheap, repetitive gags made it feel a little flat.

3*