Review: We're The Millers

This film is pants. It really really is. I won't use the phrase "this is what is wrong with the entire industry today" because it tars some very good films with the same brush. Don't get me wrong, I like a good summer blockbuster. Emphasis on the 'good'. What I don't like is a film spending it's entire budget on two actors and then going "Look! Look! LOOK! LOOK WHO'S IN OUR FILM!! ISN'T IT GREAT??" Jason Sudeikis is a good comedy actor. Jennifer Aniston is a very good comedy female actor. In this they are both dire, but the fault is not their own.

The script itself is unerringly childish and overly simplified. There are painfully obvious gags and oh, wait, hang on, Jennifer Aniston plays a stripper?! She will have to take her clothes off then, most likely in order to somehow escape the bad guys? Ding ding, ring the cliché alarm. Germaine Greer, continue to look away now.

The movie also does the rare thing of making the viewer actually hope that the main characters fail. At no stage do you feel any sympathy for the Millers or actually want them to succeed in their weird drug smuggling mission. You just want the authorities to seize the contraband and for the movie to end after half an hour.

I will say something for this movie - I actually think Will Poulter's performance as the babyfaced kid led astray is pretty good. Personally this is the first thing I've seen him in since Son of Rambow and I think the switch to an American sounding Will works. He plays this character down the middle and while not overdoing it, does solicit a few genuine laughs along the way. I look forward to seeing his career continue and flourish, hopefully on both sides of the pond.

In conclusion, I won't say don't go and see this film, because I think there probably is a place for it for those with painfully low expectations in life (perhaps this is why my girlfriend came with me). But I would urge you wholeheartedly to see something else instead. Incidentally, THAT scene with Jennifer Aniston isn't even that great. And if you're going to the cinema just to see naked ladies then shame on you. That's what the internet is for.

Any excuse to put a link to this song...