Review of We're the Millers (2013) by Dawn M — 29 May 2014

Comedy has evolved over time within it's context of what is funny. Back in the early years of film, comedy was a difficult but rewarding art choice. It had witty dialogue and relied on characters and timing. Comedy was clean spoken with no foul language, innocent laughs, and dim witted people being dim witted. Here we are in 2013 and the film We're The Millers is the new raunchy comedy from director Rawson Marshall Thurber. Who has also written and directed Dodgeball: The True Underdog Story.

We're The Millers seemed like it was going to possibly be the single worst comedy experience in theaters I have ever seen. We're The Millers is about David (Jason Sudeikis) who is a drug dealer that gets robbed and has no more drugs and money left. His boss Brad (Ed Helms) has a job to have David go to Mexico and get marijuana and is going to pay him 100,000 dollars. David needs a plan to get in there to look unsuspicious crossing the borders. He decides to get a stripper Rose (Jennifer Aniston), a runaway Casey (Emma Roberts), and a "virgin" (quoted plenty of times through the film and made very clear about) Kenny (Will Poulter) to be a fake family to smuggle drugs across the Mexican border. Simple plot and sounds pathetically dull. But with much shock and awe, the film was surprisingly funny. But the film isn't perfect.

The first three minutes are just horrible. We already don't care about our main character David and there was nothing funny being said and the dialogue is just so bad. It's odd because a side character said one really funny line that made me laugh. Then the film rip roars swiftly into a sharp witty and hilarious spree of dirty humor. The first hour of the movie is just nothing but good laughs. It's so well written and really a belly full of great comedy. The humor is all low brow, and I'm not too big a fan of low brow because it feels cheap and makes the audience feel like idiots laughing at fart jokes and sex jokes. But not this movie. They take low brow humor and writes it so well with great timing and great enthusiasm from the actors. But sadly the movie then takes a toll at about and hour and fifteen minute mark it begins to slow down and lose the edge it had. Laughs become light chuckles and I found myself just watching the movie more with the occasional good laugh. The plot begins to really get bogged down at the end and it was losing it's way horribly. The writing took a big turn and wasn't as funny as the first half.

The biggest problem the movie has is there is not enough comedic potential. The movie tries to keep the story and characters going, but without the charm it had in the first half. The movie begins to drag and feels like it's going on way too long than expected. It flops a bit by the end but it still had some comedic parts that made me laugh. Even though this isn't particularly the best comedy I have seen, I still say I enjoyed it. I can give pass to the end of the movie even if it was off balance to the beginning of the film.

I went into the film with such low expectations with a good friend and we walked out shocked we even laughed watching it. This is a film to watch with the guys to get a good dumb laugh. I'll recommend it to anybody who loves raunchy humor and the younger generation. It is not preferred to people who hate dumb comedy. It's a simple plot with simple characters and nothing more. It's not deep or insightful and it has no real message it has really nothing to offer. It's just entertainment to make you simply laugh nothing more and nothing less. If you can't enjoy that, then there is no reason to see it. I recommend it to a young audience because this is truly a film more younger people will enjoy more than someone older. It's better than I expected, and I did have fun. I highly suggest to see with friends and just hangout and watch something silly and get a good laugh.