We're the Millers Quick Review (1 Viewer)

[mattCR]

This isn't a comedy where you say: it breaks new ground, it's exceptional, it's different. But while it doesn't take big risks, and it isn't exceptional, it still made me laugh far more often then I expected to. There are some decent belly laughs, a few groans, and Anniston/Sudeikis have a pretty solid comic timing between the two.

All I can really ask of a film like this is to make me laugh, and this summer has not had many films that really "worked" in the comedy department. Heat was "OK", but the laughs were pretty sparse. And outside of that, I'm struggling to think of any other comedy that just worked.
If you were a fan of "Horrible Bosses", realize this film isn't as good as that film, but there are still some solid laughs.

B-

 

[Colin Jacobson]

I thought "The Heat" was much better than this one! "Heat" had some very good laughs and was generally entertaining, while "Millers" never went anywhere.

I wanted to like "Millers". I expected to like "Millers". I was bored by "Millers".

It seemed curiously pedestrian, like some the Scripto 5000 Automaton wrote it. Gags felt like they should score but they didn't. I sensed no chemistry between Sudeikis and Aniston - or among any of the others, either.
Everything felt canned and contrived, as I suspect the writers - or even the Scripto 5000 - knew that they provided an unsupportable premise. The movie had to work so damned hard to force "the Millers" to stay together that none of it worked. The characters grow to love each other because the screenplay says so, not because of any clear sense of bonding or affection. The actors all feel like they just met each other that morning - each scene plays like it's among performers who just said "hello" for the first time.

Sometimes you laugh at movies because you really, really want them to be funny - you find amusement where none actually exists because you wish it to be so. That trait carried me through the first 30 minutes or so of "Millers", as I wished and hoped and prayed it'd be a riot.
Eventually, I figured out those laughs I so desired would never come. Instead, I was stuck with a slow, tedious, unfunny, illogical, contrived and predictable comedic vehicle with precious little redeeming value.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Whoops - double post!

 

[Patrick Sun]

The film had a decent setup, but man, oh man, did the rest of the film just go nowhere fast. Not sure if Jason Sudekis is leading funny man material just yet. And Jennifer Aniston hasn't picked a good script in years.

There are a few laughs, but there's not much else in the script for the viewer to invest into these characters's plights.

I give it 2 stars or a grade of C.

 

[Michael Elliott]

Matt is right that this film didn't take any big risks and that's pretty much what kept it from being a real winner. As it is, the jokes are pretty limited but the ones that work are strong enough to where I'd recommend the film to people. The "kissing" sequence was certainly the highlight of the picture.