Spoiler-free - Great Idea, Inconsistent Results

Rating: 5/10 (19 August 2013)

The basic concept for this film is really strong, and could have easily been fleshed out into a knock-out comedy TV series. Like Arrested Development crossed with Breaking Bad.
Because the pretend family members don't care about or really know each other, they end up treating each other horribly and looking even more like a real family than they're pretending to be. Put this situation in Mexico, throw in a drug-deal and some tense border crossing scenes, and its sit-com gold.
Unfortunately the edgy, un-PC, laugh-out-loud humour quickly fades once this set-up resolves, about a third of the way in. Then it seems to ramble on forward, finding more excuses to fulfil a feature-length running time. The humour moves from modern/edgy, to 80's family/sentimental, which pulls down the overall vibes of the film.
If it had spent more time in Mexico and with the drugs plot, kept the humour witty and more over-the-top, it could have been an absolute comedy classic.
Its like it lost faith itself - which is a real shame, because the first third is great. I really don't think that the kind of people who enjoy the first third are going to care about the sentimental, corny character developments, and vice-versa.