David is a small time pot dealer. After he is robbed of his entire drug stash and money, his distributor Brad, demands that he go to Mexico to pick up a “smidge” of weed and bring it back to him. In this way he can repay his debt and make amends for the amount he owes. In order to make it across the border without attracting attention, he decides to hire some acquaintances to form a fake family. A stripper that lives in his building is his wife, the nerdy neighbor boy is his son and the runaway girl that he just rescued from being mugged is his daughter.
All aboard the family road trip! The convoluted premise wants to be a variation on 1983’s Vacation with Chevy Chase, but unfortunately exhibits the laughs of RV with Robin Williams. To add insult to injury, the comedy subtracts the love of them actually liking each other and sprinkles in enough F-bombs to make Martin Scorsese blush. If this were a movie depicting organized crime, I might not notice the language, but the film’s combo of saccharine family devotion and vulgar situations is really off-putting. The tender moments the narrative tries to shoehorn in feel forced. These characters despise each other so it‘s unpleasant to be around them. You can’t have these people flipping one another off one moment, then waxing poetically about how close everyone has become by the end of them film. As if!
We’re the Millers isn’t very funny. I can’t say I chuckled while “Dad” encouraged his barely legal “Son” to administer sexual favors on a police officer to get out of a parking ticket or seeing “Son” make out with “Sister” and “Mom” while “Dad” watches. I’m using quotes to emphasize they’re not technically related, but the sleaziness of the situation is still present nonetheless. I realize this won’t matter to many. Comedy is the most subjective genre. All I can say it that this is a comedy in which I rarely laughed. I did enjoy parts though. Nick Offerman and Kathryn Hahn are a lone bright spot as a pleasant Midwestern couple. They provide the genuine mix of warmth and humor that this comedy is so obviously striving for.
28 Responses
I’m glad I didn’t see this. Great review man.
Thanks. Sometimes you are very forgiving of comedies though. You gave a positive review to The Internship when no one else did and 4 stars to The Incredible Burt Wonderstone. You just might enjoy this.
I laughed – so sue me – though I agree the sleaziness and even creepiness of that incestuous “” makeout scene was still present despite intellectually knowing that even within the story it was only fake incest…yeah…awkward…but I laughed quite a bit. Enough to recommend…
Comedy is so subjective. I won’t “sue” you. 😉
Good review Mark. I laughed as well, although not as much as others may have. However, after a terrible start, I’m glad to have gotten anywhere at all with this material.
I read your review. 7/10 is very good. You must’ve been laughing more than most. It’s down at 35% on RT.
“unfortunately exhibits the laughs of RV with Robin Williams. Except the comedy subtracts the love of them actually liking each other and sprinkles in enough F-bombs to make Martin Scorsese blush.”
LOL. (Guess the movie didn’t offer any of those though…)
I think I’ll skip this. It looked like it’d either be really good or really bad from the trailers…turns out it’s just really bad.
See the trailers looked bad to me. However the movie was doing surprisingly well at the box office and so I thought, maybe the movie is funnier than it looks. Should trust my instincts next time.
Always.
Wow we differ on this one Mark. Plug alert – as I said on your Facebook page, I loved loved loved loved this. I rarely give comedies more than 3 stars, usually i give them f bombs. Not here. The ” son ” has comic timing up to Jerry Lewis level. Aniston is cute and bubbly. Even the raunchy jokes fit. I didn’t mind the gay jokes as they, are within context.
Jennifer Aniston is perfect at playing a pretty forty-something woman from the Los Angeles area. Anything else stretches beyond her capabilities. Horrible Bosses was a high point.
I know I know. This was a dumb wanna be “Vacation”. But I kinda liked it. I knew I was in the minority at the theater, because I laughed so much and nobody was laughing with me. Complete silence. Anyway, I had fun. Leave your brain in the car, you’ll laugh too. 3 stars.
Leave your brain and sense of propriety while you’re at it. Ha ha.
Nice review. The trailer was pretty unfunny and I don’t have any interest in seeing this one, other than the chance of seeing Nick Offerman’s cameo.
It’s not worth seeing. Not unless you really need to see Jennifer Anniston prove to everyone she’s still sexy.
This looks horrible! 🙂
It was. 🙁
Fantastic review man. This really wasn’t funny at all when the premise was just so damn ripe for comedy. Very frustrating.
“To add insult to injury, the comedy subtracts the love of them actually liking each other and sprinkles in enough F-bombs to make Martin Scorsese blush.” – no kidding. Although I didn’t get put off by this, it did make it hard to believe anything at all that was going would actually be purportedly to be taken to heart. this was just a lowest-common-denominator comedy but a misfire
When you don’t have a joke, just swear. It’s the laziest form of writing.
Great review. You’re right Mark, comedy is a very subjective genre. I laughed quite a bit during the film, so I’m sad to hear you didn’t have the same experience. That being said, I understand why you were turned off. For the record, in my family we do actually flip each other off, jokingly all the time, so that kind of thing amuses me. Occasionally the picture’s vulgar laughs did flop for me and you’re right that some of the tenderness between the characters did feel shoehorned in there. Although I saw the film as more of a parody of Vacation, rather than a variation, and I think that’s why it worked for me. What I found hilarious about the movie is how everyone mocked familial stereotypes, yet at the first opportunity they fell right into them despite their lack of blood relation.
It’s hard to take bad reviews too seriously for comedies. Case in point: this got negative reviews from the press but was a hit with audiences. I guess it’s all about perspective. Every person brings their own unique mindset. Thanks for your take. You make a good case for why you enjoyed it. 🙂
Great review! Thank you so much 🙂
This really shows that comedy is subjective. I really liked it and laughed a lot.
In 2013, I’ll take This Is the End over We’re the Millers any day.
This was a REALLY awful movie but I had some fun watching it. It gets a three in my book.
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I get that. The Heat was an awful movie that I enjoyed.
I got around to this a few days ago finally. Nothing special but I believe I would have disliked more if I had seen on a big screen. I actually hated Nick Offerman and Hahn’s characters lol.
Audiences LOVED this movie. It was a Top 10 hit in the summer of 2013 although it was released late in the season. It took a few months but it ultimately grossed $150 million.
Now 7 years later and I couldn’t even remember whether I liked this film or not. I had to re-read my review. Not a good film although I still remember the “No Ragrets” scene. That made me laugh.