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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The Campaign

Political Asylum

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Rated: R  Brief nudity, language and crude sexual content.
Release Date: August 10, 2012
Runtime:  1 hour 25 minutes

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Director: Jay Roach
Writers: Chris Hemchy, Shawn Harwell
Cast:  Will Ferrell, Zach Galifianakis, Jason Sudeikis, Sarah Baker, Dylan McDermott, Katherine LaNasa, Brian Cox, John Lithgow, Dan Aykroyd

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SYNOPSIS: In order to gain political clout in their North Carolina district, two CEOs try to oust the long-standing unopposed congressman Cam Brady by backing naive local Tourism Center director Marty Huggins on the ballet.

REVIEW: Austin Powers, Meet the Parents, and Dinner for Schmucks director Jay Roach returns for another batch of comedy - this time of the political nature. Writer Chris Henchy, a man familiar with Will Ferrell films since he wrote Land of the Lost and The Other Guys, joins forces with Eastbound and Down scribe Shawn Harwell to take advantage of Ferrell's vast experience as a both a political candidate and the President of the United States. Of course, George Bush didn't have to deal with the likes of Zach Galifianakis.

North Carolina District 11 Congressman Cam Brady (Will Ferrell, Casa de mi Padre) has enjoyed five consectutive terms in Washington, D.C.. serving his home town. When his numbers drop due to a publicized martial infidelity, two corporate CEOs Glen (John Lithgow, The Rise of the Planet of the Apes) and Wade Motch (Dan Ackroyd, Ghostbusters) lose faith that Brady will be able to support their greedy plans to build factories to be filled with cheap foreign labor and decide to pull their support from Brady in favor of naive local Tourist Center director Marty Huggins (Zach Galifianakis, The Hangover II). Desperate to change his howntown for the better and make his father Raymond Mitch (The Rise of the Planet of the Apes) proud, Marty accepts and soon learns that politics is not for the timid.

Rebounding from his silly and awkward Casa de mi Padre, Will Ferrell tackles a topic that he is more familiar with. Spending years honing his impression of George Bush during his stint on Saturday Night Live which turned into a limited run one-man Broadway show, Ferrell knows the ups and downs of political live from the perspective of a supposed dim-witted president. Taking on the mantle of congressman Cam Brady, Ferrell takes all his political clout and adds a dash of Talladega Nights Ricky Bobby and creates a classic V8 political machine that used to run on all cylinders but now seems to be misfiring in the wake of his own shaken belief of infallibility and sudden corporate backed competition in the pudgy form of Marty Huggins. Galifaniakis’ Huggins character is a strange, timid effeminate, high-pitched, lisp voiced man who loves his wife, boys, two pugs, and the town he grew up in. As the local Tourist Center director, Marty takes pride in the work he does and the happiness he tries to spread to other residents. The only thing he does lack is the respect from his father Mitch that, coupled with his love for the prosperity of his North Carolina district, prompts him to accept the Motch’s respect for Marty to become Brady’s competition.

The Campaign is all about… the campaign. Cam Brady, unaccustomed to having any opposition, relies on his campaign manager Mitch (Jason Sudeikis, Horrible Bosses) to turns his political sexual misdeeds into something positive. Sudeikis adds a cool southern drawl to a more understated performance to make his character different from past films efforts. On the other side of the ticket, the Motch brothers employ the dark suited professional spin-doctoring campaign manager Tim Wattley (Dylan McDermott, American Horror Story) to turn Marty from the quiet Travelocity gnome of a man into a fierce political animal. McDermott is sultry cool, of course, as the high-powered, high-paid campaign manager who is more black-clad assassin than political maven. Rounding out the main cast are the wives Mitzi Huggins (Sarah Baker, Modern Family) and Rose Brady (Katherine LaNasa, Valentine's Day), one a devoted partner to a wonderful man, and the other a trophy wife more concerned about image and power than marriage.

The comedy bits, excluding but not limited to the baby-punching incident at the candidates’ first debate, are silly and sometimes shocking, always able to elicit a laugh or a smile. Marty’s mannerisms, similar to his character in Due Date, are enough to make you both sympathize and pity him. The lengths that the opponents and their campaign camps go to in order to out-do the other are hilarious. A simple wardrobe malfunction even manages to go seemingly unnoticed by the candidates while glaringly obvious to the rest of the cast and audience.

The comedy works on a lot of levels. The political angle is both funny and poignant to the recent past and current climate. The problem comes in with the rest of the story. Focusing on eight weeks on the campaign trail brings with it the highs of humors and the lows of plodding political storyline. Of course, this is not an episode of The West Wing nor does it claim to be, but maybe the context of the story does not is not as stimulating as the worlds of Ron Burgundy or Ricky Bobby.

Punching babies aside, The Campaign works on the merits of its cast and the strengths of its one-two punch of political comedy and parody. The story is okay but you will laugh quite a bit, no matter your political party preferences.

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WORTH: Rental

Horrible Bosses

Working-Class Comedy

Director: Seth Gordon

Writers: Michael Markowitz, John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein

Stars: Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis, Jennifer Aniston, Kevin Spacey, Colin Farrell, Jamie Foxx

SYNOPSIS: Three friends conspire to murder each other's horrible bosses.

REVIEW: Seth Gordon, director of such television hits as Modern Family, The Office and Community, brings to life the trials and tribulations of three friends with different jobs and a singular problem - they work for horrible bosses. Jason Bateman stars as Nick Hendricks who works for Dave Harken (Kevin Spacey) with the false promise of advancement to a key position if Nick works endless hours. Charlie Day from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia plays Dale Arbus, a dental technician with a checkered past and an inappropriate aggressive black-mailing man-eater Dr. Juila Harris, D.D.S. (Jennifer Aniston) as a boss. Finally, Jason Sudeikis plays Kurt Buckman whose happy career at a chemical plant for a great boss (Donald Sutherland) goes south when the boss' son Bobby (Colin Farrell) takes over and wants to run the business into the ground with all the employees in it. The three friends, realizing that they can't just quit due to the recession, their pasts or their skill set, set out to hire a hit man to off their respective bosses. Enter Dean "M.F." Jones (Jamie Foxx) who will not kill the bosses for the trio, but who will provide "murder consultant services" for them so they can do the wet works themselves.

Bateman brings his Arrested Development defeatist angst to the gig. Sudeikis travels straight from Hall Pass with the same kookiness and disregard for the boundaries between the sexes. Charlie Day is equal parts brilliance and stupidity in his role. Spacey is a boss that I would be afraid of crossing. Aniston as a comical sexual predator (is there such a thing?) is gorgeous and devious, with piercing eyes and a rockin' body. And Colin Farrell, with his hair combed over his bald spot and his coked-up disregard for his fellow man (or pregnant woman), steals every scene he enters - similar to Tom Cruise in Tropic Thunder.

Horrible Bosses is funny, although many of the best bits are in the commercials and trailers. Farrell, Day and Foxx provide the best laughs not previously seen. The situations the boys get themselves in are comedy all by themselves. Imagine the boys' surprise upon meeting a Wet Works specialist (Ioan Gruffudd) who supposedly will carry out the job for all three people for $200, or the amateur surveillance Nick, Kurt and Dale attempt in their bosses homes.

Not as memorable as The Hangover or Wedding Crashers as the ads may want you to believe, Horrible Bosses manages to capture the feelings that many have in their workplaces, but can not rate against all-time workplace struggle films like Office Space or 9 to 5. Even so, Horrible Bosses has enough in its story and characters to get a few laughs out of you if you ever get a day off.

WORTH: Matinee or Netflix

Hall Pass

Horny Older Men

[Owen Wilson, Jenna Fischer, Jason Sudeikis, Christina Applegate, Nicky Whelan]

image from Collider.com

RANT: The second film of this weekend brings me back to top form, recovering from the single movie weekend of the weekend prior. Sometimes, real-life gets in the way of cinema. But that's okay, because sometimes real-life saves you some cash!

SYNOPSIS: Two married men, caught with the wandering eye, are given a week off from their marriages to pursue other women.

The Farrelly Brothers, directors of Stuck on You, Shallow Hal and There's Something About Mary, return with Owen Wilson and Jason Sudeikis in the new raunchy comedy Hall Pass. Written by Peter and Bobby Farrelly, Pete Jones and Kevin Barnett, Hall Pass follows Rich (Owen Wilson), a faithful husband with a wandering eye for other ladies. Finally having taken enough, Rick's wife Maggie (Jenna Fischer) decides to give Rick a hall pass where he has a week off from their marriage in order to pursue other women - or at least try to. Rick's pal, Fred (Jason Sudeikis) gets his wife, Maggie (Christina Applegate), to give him a hall pass, too.

Hall Pass is funny, but not much funnier than the commercials you had already seen in preparation for seeing the film. It's difficult to see Owen Wilson moving into the 40-something husband and father role, his roguish charms better suited for his roles in Drillbit Taylor or John Beckwith from Wedding Crashers. Saturday Night Live's Jason Sudeikis, though, brings lots of laughs as the horny best friend desperate to earn a hall pass, even though he is married to Christina Applegate. There are a couple of funny moments not in the trailers - one involving Fred and a prospective lady-friend who does not seem to be able to make herself throw up, and another with an homage to television's Law & Order.

The hall pass given by Maggie and Grace lets Rick and Fred set out on their conquests, but also allows the ladies to be the object of other men's affections as well. Will any of them remain strong or will they surrender to the notion that the hall pass really is a week off of marriage?

Farrelly Brothers films appeal to a certain audience. It is an odd, sometimes, uncomfortable comedy that makes us laugh and think. Unfortunately, Hall Pass does not pierce the barrier of the raunchy comedy that we know that Peter and Bobby have delivered in the past. If you must see every Farrelly film, then feel free to venture out. Otherwise, watch this when it appears on a shiny disk.

Worth: Netflix

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