We're the Millers

ACTION/ADVENTURE, COMEDY

Faux Family

8.0 out of 10 | MOVIE OR DVD

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Rated: R Crude sexual content, pervasive language, drug material and brief graphic nudity
Release Date: August 7, 2013
Runtime: 1 hour 50 minutes

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Director: Rawson Marshall Thurber
Writers: Bob Fisher, Steve Faber, Sean Anders, John Morris
Cast: Jennifer Aniston, Jason Sudeikis, Will Poulter, Emma Roberts, Ed Helms, Nick Offerman, Kathryn Hahn, Molly C. Quinn, Tomer Sisley, Mathew Willig, Lus Guzman, Mark L. Young, Ken Marino

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SYNOPSIS: A veteran pot dealer creates a fake family as part of his plan to move a huge shipment of weed into the U.S. from Mexico.

REVIEW: Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story director Rawson Marshall Thurber takes a road trip with a drug dealer, a stripper, a virgin, and a runaway who band together to smuggle drugs across the border from Mexico. Wedding Crashers writers Bob Fisher and Steve Faber, and She's Out of my League writers Sean Anders and John Morris, collaborate to take a group of complete misfits and pull them together for the greater good.

David (Jason Sudeikis, Horrible Bosses) is a small town marijuana drug dealer in the fine city of Denver. He answers and nobody and lives a carefree life. When his dorky neighbor Kenny (Will Poutler, Son of Rambow) rushes to the aid of a gutter punk girl named Casey (Emma Roberts, Scream 4), Kenny's spills the beans to the attackers that Dave is not a cop but a drug dealer. When the thugs take all of his weed and all his money, David is kidnapped and brought before his boss Bruce Gurdlinger (Ed Helms, The Hangover Part 3) looking for retribution. Bruce gives David the choice – not really choice – to pick up weed from a Mexican facility and bringing it back to him. He promises to pay David $100,000 to square off his debt to him. David comes up with the idea to use Kenny, Casey, and a stripper named Rose (Jennifer Aniston, Horrible Bosses) who in his apartment to pose as a family of four on vacation and use a recreational vehicle to get across the border with all the marijuana. When the plan goes awry, David and his faux family have to contend with pursuing drug dealers, as well as a perky and overly friendly RV family who keep interrupting their plans.

We're the Millers is a silly, semi vulgar flick that works perfectly for Sudeikis and Aniston. Nestled right in with road trip comedies and chase flicks, We're the Millers could be akin to Road Trip, Eurotrip, Robin Williams' RV, and Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. Trying to get a couple ton of weed across the Mexican border seems tame versus all that the fake Miller family has to deal with - no pun intended - once they roll onto United States soil again.

Sudeikis is very funny as the sedate small time Denver drug dealer. He lives a life if leisure with no pesky family and no real responsibilities. Aniston, with years of comedy and dramatic experience, rocks her stripper and wholesome mom persona with equal vigor. Will Poulter, who plays Kenny, seems so nerdy and out of place that every stare or facial expression is hilarious. Emma Roberts' Casey, a transient gutter punk turned angst-ridden teenage girl, plays the straight girl in this story, using typical adolescent behavior to get laughs by the reactions of her 'parents'.

Other enjoyable cast members include Kathryn Hahn (Wanderlust) and Nick Offerman (21 Jump Street) as the intrusive but overly friendly RV couple who continue to cross paths with the Millers throughout the story. Both are kooky, but reserved enough, to add plenty of smiles. One notable performance is Monkey Maze carny kid Scotty P (Mark L. Young, Sex Drive) who has a 'thang' for Casey, 'you know what I'm saying?'.

We're the Millers is an unlikely contender as one of the best comedies this summer. It's fast paced, funny, and fun. The cast is great, and the story has a certain charm. With a drug dealer turned international drug smuggler, a stripper turned fake mom, and two kids who never experienced a real family environment, We're the Millers is the perfect film to reflect what the new nuclear family deal with in this millennium.

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Jeff, Who Lives At Home

Looking for Kevin

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Rated: R  Language, some drug use and sexual references
Release Date: March 16, 2012
Runtime: 1 hr 23 mins

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Director:  Jay Duplass, Mark Duplass

Writers: Jay Duplass, Mark Duplass
Cast:  Jason Segel, Ed Helms, Susan Sarandon, Judy Greer, Rae Dawn Chong, Steve Zissis

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SYNOPSIS: When 30-year-old Jeff is told to got out of the house to buy wood glue for a broken pantry door shutter, he ventures out of the basement letting the universe guide his path throughout the day.

REVIEW: Jay and Mark Duplass, writers and directors of the 2005 Sundance breakout hit The Puffy Chair, as well as Baghead and Cyrus, combine their collective writing and vision again for another off-beat semi-comedic drama Jeff, Who Lives at Home. Don't let the title fool you, hardly any of the film takes place inside the Jeff's home.

30-year-old slacker pothead Jeff (Jason Segel, The Muppets) resides in his widowed mother Sharon (Susan Sarandon, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps) basement. Letting the cosmos guide his life, Jeff sits and waits for his destiny to reveal itself. On his mother's birthday, Jeff's mother calls to demand that Jeff get out of the house, onto a bus, and to the local Home Depot to pick up wood glue for a broken pantry door shutter before she comes home from work. When a mis-dialed call asking for Kevin comes in, Jeff sees the call as a sign that guides him throughout the day. What starts as a bus ride, soon becomes stalking as Jeff follows a ball player with the name Kevin stitched on the back of his jersey. Enter Jeff's brother Pat (Ed Helms, The Hangover Part II) who starts the day revealing to his wife Linda (Judy Greer, The Descendants) he has bought a Porsche and ends up running into the cosmically guided Jeff who assists Pat in following Linda when it appears that his wife may be cheating on him. Meanwhile, Sharon becomes the focus of a secret admirer who sends her a picture of a flower and converses with her through the office's instant chat interface. As Sharon tries to uncover the man who is either interested in her or playing a practical joke on her, she confides her findings with close coworker Carol (Rae Dawn Chong, Cyrus).

What seems to be a series of random, unrelated events (as written above) is actually a closely wound story. Jeff's way of thinking about his life and the purpose of his life is akin to how he views M. Night Shyamalan's film Signs. When he is confronted by the first Kevin (Evan Ross, Pride) of the day, he tries to impress upon the young basketball player that the reason why he was following the young man was because life is like the movie. Even at the beginning of the film, Jeff actually dictates into a recording device how important and decisive the elements of Signs is in terms of how he sees the world.

Although a family, Jeff, his brother Pat and his wife Linda, and their mother Sharon are a broken family even though living in the same town. Pat doesn't understand why Jeff is the way he is. Sharon wonders why her wonderful cute sons have grown up to be so different than what she remembers them as they were growing up. Pat and Linda live with blinders on and are so passive aggressive in their relationship with each other, the bonds of their marriage are disintegrating even as they sit together at the kitchen table.

As Jeff's day is shaped by signs comprised primarily with references to people and things designated with the name Kevin, Jeff finds himself joining up with his brother at points, then forced to abandon Pat as another 'Kevin' sign comes into view. The journey that starts off as an earnest effort to get to the supply store for wood glue becomes a funny and touching adventure.

Jason Segel brings his brand of Knocked Up stoner sensibility and open faith to the role of Jeff. Ed Helms dials down his Andy Bernard (The Office) stamina without losing the kinetic nervousness that Pat has sitting just under the surface. Sarandon and Dawn Chong, both still beautiful, prove that talent and grace will shape actresses throughout entire careers.

Jeff, Who Lives at Home is a surprisingly touching and real look at life with a bit of light humor thrown in. The situations that Jeff gets into or that Pat gets Jeff into offer a down to earth story that draws the audience in for a fine movie going experience. Jeff, Who Lives at Home will never be considered George Clooney's The Descendants, but it covers similar ground in an off-beat Louisiana sort of way.

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WORTH: Matinee or Rental

Dr. Seuss' The Lorax: An IMAX 3D Experience

Tree Huggers

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Rated: PG Brief mild language.
Release Date: March 2, 2012
Runtime: 1 hr 26 mins

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Director:  Chris Renaud, Kyle Balda

Writers: Ken Daurio, Coinco Paiul, based on the book by Dr. Seuss
Cast:  Danny DeVito, Ed Helms, Zac Efron, Taylor Swift, Betty White, Rob Riggle

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SYNOPSIS: For Ted to win the affection of the girl he likes, he must find a tree outside the metropolis of Thneedville. In order to do so, he must hunt down a hermit industrialist to tell him the tale of The Lorax, The Guardian of the Forest in a world where natural foliage no longer exists.

REVIEW: Chris Renaud, the director of Despicable Me and its upcoming sequel, takes on the colorful task of bringing another tale of the good Dr. Seuss to life on the big screen. Although The Lorax was brought to animated life as a short television cartoon by Dr Seuss and Eddie Albert in 1972, screenwriters Ken Daurio and Cinco Paul (Hop, Despicable Me, Horton Hears a Who!) develop a longer version for the big screen of theaters and the bigger screens of an IMAX 3D Experience.

In Thneedville, young 12-year-old Ted (Zac Efron, New Year's Eve) pines away for the affection of neighbor Audrey (Taylor Swift, Valentine's Day). One day, while coming up with an excuse to see her, she invites him in to show him her mural on the back of her house covered with strange designs - trees! Realizing that Audrey would appreciate him more if he gave her a tree, Ted asks his mother (Jenny Slate, This Means War) and Grammy Norma (Betty White, The Proposal) about where he should start his search. Grammy tells Ted the myth that a man named the Once-Ler (Ed Helms, The Hangover: Part 2) that could lead him to a tress. Once Ted leaves the confines of the walled Thneedville, he enters a wasteland of smog, spoiled rivers, and tree stumps that leads to a dilapidated building with a disgruntled and regretful Once-Ler. Once there, the Once-Ler, with only his green gloved hands and shadowed face, slowly regals Ted with the tale of his arrival to a plush forested, animal filled valley and the events that lead to the arrival of the Lorax (Danny DeVito, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia) and the destruction of all of the trees of the forest.

The Lorax, from the original book to the short television cartoon to this Spring's big screen version, is a statement of environmentalism and mindless capitalism. The Lorax is the ultimate tree hugger as the spirits of the earth summon him after the Once-Ler chops down his first tree for the leaves he needs to create his Thneed, the 'thing that everyone needs'. Emerging from the felled tree's stump, the Lorax communes with the other forest animals and warns the Once-Ler that if he continues to decimate the forest with his ax he will be cursed to the end of his days. But in these days of short attention spans and desensitization, simple deforestation for the advance of the almighty dollar is not enough. In The Lorax, Ted and all the citizens of Thneedville face another challenge. Because of the lack of trees and foliage, smog and poor air quality has led to the success of the bottled and in-home air market in the form of O'Hare Air, the brainchild of man-child Mr. O'Hare (Rob Riggle, Big Miracle). When his multiple Big Brother cameras find Ted repeatedly stealing out of town to hear the Once-Ler's story, Mr O'Hare worries that the boy will ruin his plans for continued wealth by finding one remaining tree that could provide air for free.

Dreamworks, the studio that created Hop and Despicable Me, does a beautiful job at recrafting the world of Dr. Seuss.  The Humming fish are spot-on, the teddy bearlike Bar-ba-Loots furry and fluffy, the birds lanky and feathered. Even the woolly, swirly striped Truffala trees look like they sprung directly from the page to a colorful 3D artwork.  Like Horton Hears a Who! before it, The Lorax is a vibrant, colorful, faithful representation of what Seuss originally penned to paper as words and illustrations.

One of the major differences between Horton Hears a Who! and The Lorax is the music. In The Lorax, the story opens with a musical number outlining the type of town Thneedville is - with concrete, towering structures, blow-up bushes and battery-powered trees with light globes instead of leaves. Ed Helms lends his specific musical style, a la The Office and The Hangover, to the young Once-ler with his electric guitar strapped to his back and a doop-de-do on his lips. Other than the end credit song and the hard rappy 'How bad Can I Be?', the soundtrack songs fall a little flat for anyone older than a 4-year child.

The Lorax was a doom and gloom environmentalist's tale released as a children's book years before tree hugging became vogue. Industrialized society and selfish corporate materialistic greed run rampant in the film, a plot that is a little heavy-handed for a film supposedly geared to children. Even Ewan MacGregor's Robots turned their adult message into something more farcical for the children's enjoyment. Crisp and detailed, The Lorax is faithful to Seuss' source material. Unfortunately, that faithfulness, and the addition of equally heavy subject matter, works against the success of the film.

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WORTH: Rental

The Hangover Part II

Another Raunchy Blackout!

Director: Todd Phillips

Writers: Craig Mazin, Scot Armstrong, Todd Phillips

Stars: Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis, Ed Helms, Justin Bartha, Ken Jeong, Mason Lee

SYNOPSIS: Phil, Doug and Alan fly to Thailand to attend Stu's wedding. Innocent beers around a beach bonfire lead to another blackout involving fires, tattoos, prostitutes, monks, a monkey and a missing brother of the bride-to-be.

Director Todd Phillips returns to helm another raunchy blackout adventure with his favorite wolf pack members. Upping the game with a wedding taking place in an exotic locale, Stu, Phil and Alan take the same constructs from the wildly successful original and twist them right round, baby! It's like how John McClane managed to get embroiled in another terrorist conspiracy just by showing up somewhere around Christmas! The story doesn't seem like it would work again, but Phillips and crew bring all the filthy and hardcore goodness home again.

Replace a missing tooth with a freshly drawn tattoo, a missing Doug with a missing Teddy, and Mr. Chow with Mr. Chow, then throw in a smoking monkey in a Rolling Stones emblazoned denim vest and you have a comedy sequel that will leave you laughing so hard you will cry. And if you thought that you saw everything the first time around, surprises are definitely in store.

What makes The Hangover Part II so unique is its dirty phallic Memento style that keeps the audience equally engrossed and grossed out. Part II also adds in adrenaline with guns, chases, gangsters that make Mr. Chow a tame criminal imitator, bitches! Even the references to the first film are funny. When Phil calls Doug's wife to tell her "it's happened again", you can't help but laugh at the absurdity of it all.

Bradley Cooper's Phil tries desperately to keep calm and collected in the face of chaos, his piercing eyes blazing when not hidden behind amber sunglasses. Zach Galifianakis' Alan is more a child then ever this time out, clued in and clueless in equal parts. Ed Helms' Stu really takes center stage this time in Thailand, though, fighting against all of the warning signs that lead to a repeat of a certain previous Las Vegas bachelor party that was immortalized on a digital camera. Mr. Chow (Ken Jeong) is given a wider role, manic and unpredictable as ever.

The Hangover Part II throws caution to the wind this time around, knowing that to top the original one needed to instill the best components of the first and amp up everything else. And although Las Vegas does not make an appearance in the sequel, its Lady Luck follows the wolf pack in spades.

WORTH: Friday Night Opening and DVD