August 11, 2013
 
We’re the Millers has rounded out my top three favorite comedies this summer. And the best thing? All the funny parts weren’t given away in the previews. And men, Jennifer Aniston’s strip scene in the garage makes it worth the trip to the theater with your ladies.
 
The plot is real simple, David Clark (Jason Sudeikis) is a small-town drug dealer in Denver (must have been made before it was legal). In an attempt to stop his dorky neighbor Kenny (Will Poulter) from getting his ass kicked, Clark is robbed of not only his entire stash, but all of his cash and his boss’ cash. His boss, Brad Gurdlinger (Ed Helms) says Clark’s slate will be wiped clean if he heads down to Mexico and picks up a ‘smidge and a half’ of marijuana for him. Clark reluctantly agrees.
 
While brainstorming with his dumb neighbor Kenny, Clark comes up with the perfect plan not to get caught smuggling drugs across the border, get a fake family in an RV. He enlists Kenny as his fake son, Casey (Emma Roberts), the homeless girl who Kenny has a crush on, as his daughter and his stripper neighbor Rose (Aniston), as his wife. Rose, who at first turns his offer down, agrees to go when she’s kicked out of her apartment.
 
After a funny scene on the flight, the Miller family is off in their RV to pick up the drugs. When they get to compound, they find that it’s actually two tons of pot. They are stopped briefly by a cop and then at the border, but manage to make it across and back to the U.S. However, their RV breaks down on their way back to Denver. They are ‘rescued’ by another family in an RV, the Fitzgeralds, Don (Nick Offerman), Edie (Kathryn Hahn) and Melissa (Molly Quinn). On the ride over to the garage, the Millers learn that Don is actually a DEA agent. Wonderful! They have to bunk the night with the Fitzgeralds while their RV gets fixed. And of course, this leads to the hilarious tent scene where Don ‘ear f*cks’ Clark.
 
Just as they are about to pick up their RV, they learn that the stash of pot wasn’t actually for Gurdlinger, but rather another drug lord, Pablo Chacon (Tomer Sisley). Chacon is waiting for the Millers at the garage and as a distraction Rose performs a striptease. They manage to get away, but Kenny is bit by a tarantula along the way. They are side-tracked yet again as they wait for Kenny’s drugs to kick in at the hospital. While waiting, Gurdlinger renegotiates his payment with Clark to get the stash, which prompts Clark to eventually get in a fight with his fake family just as they are about to get on the road. Pretty soon Chacon has found them again, but the Fitzgeralds return too and essentially ‘save the day.’
 
I really liked that the story had the potential to get really dark, but the director chose not to take it there. There were a lot of funny scenes and Sudeikis held his own as one of his first leading roles. Aniston was amazing, as always, as the sharp-witted hot mommy stripper. And Poulter and Roberts really round out the cast. All four played really well off each other, and you actually start to believe they are a real family, which is what the characters start to believe themselves too. And we can’t forget the ever funny Offerman and Hahn who are always funny in whatever they star in.
 
I know some people don’t like comedies in the theater, but this one is worth it. And because it’s rated R, you know it has to be good!