"We’re the Millers" delivers both laughs, and a heartwarming moral (Really, Hollywood?)
It took me a while to get to the big screen to see this film, frankly because I didn’t see it being incredibly noteworthy, but that may not have been the film’s fault. Don’t get me wrong, I felt like I got my money’s worth and I did want to see it, but it wasn’t on the top of my “To-do list” this summer, what with Pacific Rim, The Conjuring, and other, far mor interesting movies coming out. Still, “We’re the Millers” holds its own and is definitely recommended to anyone who likes to laugh.
“We’re the Millers” is about a drug dealer, David (Jason Sudeikis, Horrible Bosses), who finds himself in a sticky situation with his supplier after his entire inventory of marijuana is stolen. To get out of this bind, he has to smuggle a “smidge” of pot across the border from Mexico, and do to this he enlists the help of a stripper named Rose (Jennifer Aniston, Friends), a runaway (Emma Roberts, Scream 4) and a kid from his apartment complex (Will Poulter, The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader). Together, the four of them rent an RV and pose as an all-American family vacationing south of the border. Along the way they run into countless problems varying from a dangerous kingpin to a poisonous spider bite, and an odd family on a similar vacation they can’t stop running into.
This film delivers a lot of laughs, but the reason it didn’t deserve all six stars was simply because the laughs didn’t keep coming. There were strange lulls in humor where the jokes simply stopped being funny for ten minutes, then they’d get back on track and all would be well. That, in my opinion, is because of the writing. Sudeikis and Aniston never disappoint in comedies, and their dynamic together basically carried the show, although Poulter did have several moments where he really shined as the awkward virgin. Roberts, unfortunately, was the odd woman out. She didn’t have anything incredibly memorable that sticks out in my mind, but I often find that she rarely does. I want to like her as an actress, probably because she’s attractive, but I find her acting to usually be sub-par, even in films like “Scream 4” that I like, and “Aquamarine” (which I don’t particularly like) way back when she stayed within the comfortable confines of her type casting. But Emma Roberts aside, the other actors are able to carry the movie well enough to get over any hangups anyone might have about both her and the writing.
The big issue I did have with the movie was the moral at the end. A few weeks ago I was watching a movie with a friend who happened to ask why all comedies HAVE to have a moral at the end where everything somehow works out. Ever since then that’s all I can notice, like when someone has spinach in their teeth and you can’t stop looking at it. They’re not only everywhere, but they’re incredibly predictable and unnecessary. If this were a movie angled toward families, then yes, by all means have a moral, but an R-rated comedy about drug smuggling doesn’t need a moral! And just watching the trailer you can probably figure that the moral is going to be something along the lines of “you can still be a family, even though you may not be related.” I’m all for leaving a movie feeling good, but I don’t want propaganda about family or friendship or whatnot thrown in my face if I’m going to see an adult comedy. Just make us laugh, Hollywood, that’s all we ever wanted.
What do you think? Should morals be included in R-rated comedies like “We’re the Millers”? Leave your comments below!
“We’re the Millers” is rated R for: sexual content (several scenes in which strippers are involved and stripping is shown, however no nudity in these scenes, a lot of sexual jokes are made, a woman gropes another woman’s breasts, and other such material), pervasive language (many uses of the F-word, and sexual dialogue including crude terms and gestures), drug material (there’s a LOT of pot shown in this film) and brief graphic nudity (a man’s injured, swollen genitalia is shown).