High concept comedy (emphasis on high) with fish-out-of-water tendencies

Rating: 8/10 (7 August 2013)

WE'RE THE MILLERS (2013) *** Jason Sudeikis, Jennifer Aniston, Will Poulter, Emma Roberts, Ed Helms, Nick Offerman, Kathryn Hahn, Molly C. Quinn, Tomer Sisley, Matthew Willig, Luis Guzman, Thomas Lennon, Mark L. Young, Ken Marino. High concept comedy (emphasis on high) with fish-out-of-water tendencies with Sudeikis as a small-time drug dealer who is enlisted by his profiteer Helms to make a South of the Border run for some marijuana by posing as a square family man in an RV. Along for the preposterous (and at times hilarious) ride are Aniston as a stripper, Roberts as a teen-on-the-streets and scene-stealer Poulter as arguably the dorkiest kid ever depicted in cinema. While the screenplay by committee of four scribes cobbles together some good clean raunchy naughty fun the direction by Rawson Marshall Thurber is at best Farrelly Brothers (i.e. flat and plain yet fun and heartfelt). Could've been darker and even nastier but it has moments here and there largely thanks to the riotous couple played by MVPs Hahn and Offerman as a straight-laced foil for the defacto family of errors.