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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Wanderlust

Sudden Freedoms

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Rated: R Sexual content, graphic nudity, language and drug use.
Release Date: February 24, 2012
Runtime: 1 hr 38 mins

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Director:  David Wain

Writers: David Wain, Ken Marino
Cast:  Paul Rudd, Jennifer Aniston, Justin Theroux, Alan Alda, Malin Akerman, Ken Marino

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SYNOPSIS:  When George finds himself out of a job, he and his wife Linda must vacate their life in New York City to etch out a life under his brother's roof and employment in Atlanta. A simple twist of fate brings them to a voluntary community where they feel they can start fresh.

REVIEW: David Wain, director of Role Models and Wet Hot American Summer, returns to the big screen with a screenplay he wrote with Role Models co-writer and actor Ken Marino. Re-teaming with Paul Rudd, Wain and Marino bring forth a raunchy and fun romp based on repression and shedding of inhibitions.

New Yorkers George (Paul Rudd, Dinner for Schmucks) and Linda (Jennifer Aniston, Horrible Bosses) try to make a living in the Big Apple, buying a small piece of real estate nearly beyond their employment means. When Linda's documentary is not picked up by HBO and George's job suddenly disappears due to an FBI investigation, they are forced to leave New York City altogether and head down to Atlanta to live with and work for George's brother Rick (Ken Marino, Role Models) and his wife Marissa (Michaela Watkins, Enlightened). On the way down to Atlanta, George and Linda unsuspectingly come across Elysium, a bed and breakfast that is actually a commune. They stay the night and have a wonderful time before packing up and making the final push to Atlanta. When George is pushed to the breaking point by his brother's sarcasm and success, he tells Linda to pack up again to head back to the voluntary community where they seems to find happiness for the first time in some time. But as they settle into the 'what's mine is your', free love community, George and Linda both have revelations about each of their lives and their relationship together.

Wanderlust is a raunchy romp in the spirit of films you come to expect from Rudd, Wain and Marino projects. Filled with full frontal nudity and references to what is on display 'down there', Wanderlust still has plenty of laughs and nervous interactions between Rudd's George, Aniston's Linda, and a menagerie of characters that truly flesh out the silliness of the story. Self proclaimed non-hippie Seth (Justin Theroux, Your Highness) leads the pack with his quasi-mystical ways, enamoring Linda and off-putting George. Carvin (Alan Alda, Tower Heist) owns the Elysium but can't find the deed to the place. Sexy and free-loving Eva (Malin Akerman, The Proposal) enjoys life and hopes to share some of her free-loving with George. Rounding out the cast is Kathy (Kerri Kenney, Reno: 911!) as the hippie-dippy matriarch, ex-porn actress and current earthy hempstress Karen (Kathryn Hahn, Our Idiot Brother), pregnant Almond (Lauren Ambrose, Where the Wild Things Are) and her super laid back partner Rodney (Jordan Peele, Little Fockers), and nudist wine-maker aspiring writer Wayne (Joe Lo Truglio, Paul).

Not taking itself too seriously Wain brings plenty of hilarious bits to the screen, including a acoustic guitar Spin Doctors showdown between George and Seth, and a pep talk between George, a mirror and the topic of 'doing it'. Rudd has great comic timing as the frustrated straight-man. Alda still has his Hawkeye Pierce M*A*S*H chops as he moves around in a Rascal. And Aniston, with years of Friends under her belt, brings radiance, beauty and her own sweetness to the mix.

Through all of the silliness, there is a more serious undertone trying to harsh the hazy buzz. George and Linda struggle with the repressed issues of their relationship. Attorneys for a casino look to break ground on the commune property and scatter the residents to the four winds. Seth looks to assert his alpha maleness over Linda, with or without George's permission. And George and Linda deal with how they can create a productive and positive experience at the voluntary community.

Wanderlust takes advantage of the creative juices that most of the cast bring to set. Some scenes make the entire film worthwhile, making you giggle long after the scene in over. The story is light, but also suffers from a lack of closure on a couple of subplots, especially between Rick and Marissa, and between George and Rick.

Funny and silly, and filled with quirky characters and strange happenings that make outsiders like George and Linda wonder why they continue to make the decisions they do, Wanderlust entertains. Keep in mind that the full frontal nudity may shock more sensitive viewers, but barring extra appendages in one's face, you will surely get a rise out of this comedy.

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WORTH: Matinee or 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

Just Go With It

Obvious, But Funny

[Adam Sandler, Jennifer Aniston, Brooklyn Decker, Nick Swardson]

image from onlinemovieshut.com

RANT: Another wonderful display of poor theater etiquette today. A group of older women were chatting before the presentation. Once the last commercials faded to black and the theater ran its concession and "Please be quiet" reels, the previews started. Of course, the ladies still blathered on about the cost of a scarf and whether one of the woman had read the novel, Water for Elephants. The guy sitting next to me finally told them to shush and shut up already! Well played, sir... well played!

SYNOPSIS: A man who has used the lie of being in a bad marriage to have harmless one night stands, finds himself having to use his assistant to fake his divorce in order to convince his younger girlfriend that he is faithful and available.

Adam Sandler and Happy Madison Productions comes back to the screen with his new romantic comedy, Just Go With It. Directed by Dennis Dugan, a collaborator of Sandler's with Grown Ups, You Don't Mess with the Zohan and I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, Just Go With It brings Adam back to a romantic comedy on par with 50 First Dates.

The film follows plastic surgeon Danny (Adam Sandler) who walked away from his first wedding and realized that night, while drowning away his sorrows, that he got plenty of sympathy and companionship from beautiful women if he claimed to be in a loveless or abusive marriage. After years of this practice Danny meets Palmer (Brooklyn Decker), a woman he discovers a connection with - that is until she finds his fake wedding ring in his pocket. Enter Danny's assistant Katherine (Jennifer Aniston) who puts herself and her kids in the middle of Danny's life and lies in order to convince Palmer that Danny and Katherine - now Devlin - are just finishing their divorce.

As with any Sandler movie, there are plenty of pratfalls and juvenile humor. But in Just Go With It, the casting of Aniston provides a little maturity and a lot of heart. Add to that the crazy performance of Nick Swardson as Danny's cousin Eddie, the loveliness of Brooklyn Decker, and the scene-stealing of Bailee Madison and Griffin Gluck as Katherine's children, Maggie and Michael, and you got yourself a comedy romantic riot! Shot in California and in the picturesque Kaua'i and Maui, Hawaii, one gets beautiful locales. Put Decker and Aniston in bikinis, one gets the bonus of beautiful bodies.

The story is charming and funny, although far-fetched and obvious. But the hook of the tale is not in the plot set-up, but in the chemistry between Sandler and Aniston. And to not ruin the surprise, there are a couple great characters that run paths with Danny and Katherine while on the islands, and a great scene with hula dancing and a coconut. If you are a fan of Sandler and 50 First Dates, just go with it!

Worth: Matinee or DVD

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