This is NOT a family comedy

Rating: 9/10 (22 August 2013)

This is one of those 'different' movies that actually restore my faith in American comedy, though much of the comedy in moves like this tend to be what one would term as 'gutter' humour, or 'toilet' humour. I had seem a similar movie earlier this year, 'This is the End' and while this film is not on same level as the other movie that I saw, I did feel that there were some similarities in style, and maybe that has to do with the fact that it is about drugs and that the comedy tends to focus on the fact that the main characters in this film are not your ordinary characters.
In a way this film is about family, but it is also about how the idea of the 'perfect' family tends to hide a lot of dysfunction. In fact many of these perfect families are probably very dysfunctional in nature, but you never actually see the dysfunction because they tend to be covered up with a mask. Mind you, much of our society, and in fact all societies throughout history, were all about wearing masks. Take what Jesus said to the Pharasies for instance, namely that they appeared to be noble and upstanding citizens on the outside, but greedy and self-centered individuals on the inside.
Basically David Clark is a small time drug dealer, though he is very good at what he does, but ends up getting into trouble because he is mugged and all of his money, and his drugs, are stolen. I guess this is the major risks of being a drug dealer, and since it is not exactly a legal profession, there tends to be no legal recourse against such a thing occurring. Further, the lower down the chain you are the less clout you have to deal with it. However, David's supplier offers him a way out, and that is to travel to Mexico to bring back what he calls a 'smidge' or more precisely, 'a smidge and a half' of marijuana. However, that is easier said than done.
That is when David hits upon this wonderful idea, after seeing one of those perfect families drive through a seedy part of Denver and being assisted by the local police officer, and that is to create a fake family of his own. Therefore, he finds himself a 'wife' (who happens to be a stripper, and actually hates David, though after quitting her job because the policy has changed – she has to now have sex with the customers – sees this as an opportunity to get a bit of money to tie her over) a 'son' who happens to be the local nerd, and a 'daughter' who happens to be a street kid, though she continually denies the fact that she lives on the streets (namely because she sleeps on friends couches, and has a number of other places lined up when she begins to overstay her welcome).
One might suggest that this is a family comedy, but it is not, rather it is a comedy about a dysfunctional family, and one that is more likely to appeal to young adults (probably because teenagers would not be allowed into the cinema to watch it, though one cannot stop them from downloading it off the internet). I have noticed that things a changing more now as well because I am starting to see more penis shots in movies (there is one in this film) which is something that, ten years ago, you would have never seen, and twenty years before that you would have rarely seen naked breasts either, so I wonder what we will be seeing ten years from now.