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We’re The Millers begins with David (Jason Sudeikis) continuing to live like an eternal student, dealing weed while watching daytime TV. Living in the same apartment block is Rose (Jennifer Aniston), a stripper, with La Aniston still looking smokin’ hot.
David learns the hard way that when you work for a big drug boss and someone steals everything you have, you’ll be paying an extraordinarily high price to the piper when the tune comes calling. The man at the top, Brad Gurdlinger (Ed Helms), wants him to travel down to Mexico, pick up some of his marijuana and bring it back across the border to him. The catch? There’s absolutely tons of it. And the only way to transport it without suspicion is to do so in an RV with a family. Hence, Rose is the mum, Kenny (Will Poulter) – another resident of David’s apartment block – is the son, while the daughter of the clan is played by Casey (Emma Roberts), a homeless girl who also makes an early entrance in the proceedings.
So, it’s a simple premise. All it needs is the laughs, which are on strong foundations and any eventual – and unavoidable in an American comedy – schmaltz is kept to a minimum. There’s a lot of great set-pieces here, none of which I’ll spoil here as they’re fun to discover, and they’re all concluded as well as they can be, even if some scenes do get a bit daft.
Emma Roberts is the stroppy teenager with a penchant for the wrong guys who, apart from an amusing kissing scene, doesn’t have a great deal to do in this film other than play the ‘straight man’ to everyone else, while Will Poulter has a couple of scene-stealing moments such as an encounter with a tarantula and a special rendition of TLC’s Waterfalls.
Sudeikis is on top form as the head of the ‘family’, wisecracking aplenty and, as is shown in the extras, brings in the majority of the off-the-cuff improvisation, while Aniston certainly holds her own as well as taking them off during her strip scene.
One thing I did notice is that since Emma Roberts is 5’2″ and Will Poulter is 6’2″, there’s a marked difference in their height when they’re all standing next to each other… except for a late scene in the carnival when they’re much closer in height. With Aniston also in the same scenes, clearly two of these people are standing on boxes.
I watched the extended version without having seen the regular one before, but the extra bits include:
Go to page 2 for the presentation and the extras.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.