Review: "We're the Millers" the Funniest Movie of 2013

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 1 (of 2014) by Leroy Douresseaux

We’re the Millers (2013)
Running time:  110 minutes (1 hour, 50 minutes)
MPAA – R for crude sexual content, pervasive language, drug material and brief graphic nudity
DIRECTOR:  Rawson Marshall Thurber
WRITERS:  Bob Fisher & Steve Faber and Sean Anders & John Morris; from a story by Bob Fisher and Steve Faber
PRODUCERS:  Chris Bender, Vincent Newman, Tucker Tooley, and Happy Walters
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Barry Peterson
EDITOR:  Michael L. Sale
COMPOSERS:  Ludwig Göransson and Theodore Shapiro

COMEDY/CRIME

Starring:  Jennifer Aniston, Jason Sudeikis, Emma Roberts, Will Poulter, Ed Helms, Nick Offerman, Kathryn Hahn, Molly Quinn, Tomer Sisley, and Matthew Willig

We’re the Millers is a 2013 crime comedy from director Rawson Marshall Thurber (DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story).  We’re the Millers focuses on a veteran pot dealer and the fake family he creates as part of a plan to transport a shipment of marijuana into the United States from Mexico.  In a year when not too many comedies really thrilled me, I think We’re the Millers is not only the year’s best comedy, but it is also one of my all-time favorites, and I want to see it again.

We’re the Millers introduces low level pot dealer, David Clark (Jason Sudeikis).  An unfortunate occurrence leaves him $43,000 in debt to his supplier, drug lord Brad Gurdlinger (Ed Helms).  Brad makes David a deal:  go to Mexico and big up a small stash of weed and bring it back to him.  Realizing that one man attempting to get through customs at the Mexican border would be a bit suspicious, David comes up with the idea of creating a fake family.

David first recruits his neighbor, 18-year-old Kenny Rossmore (Will Poulter), to be his son.  Kenny recommends Casey Matthis (Emma Roberts), a 15-year-old runaway and thief, to pose as a daughter.  David’s toughest recruitment is another neighbor, Rose O’Reilly (Jennifer Aniston), a stripper, to be his wife.  Still, David manages to create a fake family, the Millers.  At first, the mission to Mexico goes well, but things turn complicated when the family runs afoul of another drug dealer and also encounters an overly-friendly family, the Fitzgeralds.

We’re the Millers’ director Rawson Marshall Thurber does his best work in allowing his cast to make gold of a screenplay filled with silliness, vulgarity, and silly vulgarity.  Jennifer Aniston and Jason Sudeikis are veteran comic actors, and they easily take this material to heights, beyond what anyone should have reasonably expected of it.  Emma Roberts and Will Poulter (who is unfamiliar to me) steal many scenes, all the better for the audience.  Nick Offerman and Kathryn Hahn are not only fun, but they also deliver some excellent character acting, which helps them do quite a bit of scene stealing.

We’re the Millers apparently got mixed reviews from critics, but there are no mixed feelings here.  I love it!  In the future, when We’re the Millers is a staple of cable television, I’ll think of each showing as “Miller time!”  Forgive me for going there.

9 of 10
A+

Thursday, January 02, 2014

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