Rent We're the Millers (2013)

OVERLONG & ONLY INTERMITTENTLY-FUNNY COMEDY - We're the Millers review by Frank Talker™

The characters in "We're the Millers" are not like real people with real emotions - they merely exist to spout mildly-comic, pseudo-experienced life-coach dialogue. Unlike, say, the fake (also assumed to be incestuous) family in "The Joneses" (2009), one never feels any true affinity for any of the characters on display here since the actors have very little characterisation to work with from the feeble screenwriters.

This lack of psychological verisimilitude betrays a film-maker's dearth of genuine insight into the worsening predicament into which his characters place themselves; namely, their pretending to be something that they are not and never could be - a loving, natural & healthy nuclear-family. They are animated zombies in dead-end jobs going nowhere fast; albeit infesting a non-zombie movie.

There is also an odd, wish-fulfillment aspect to this serio-comic escapade which tries to suggest that entirely-incompatible people can learn to emotionally bond. But this violates the rule of human nature that "birds of a feather flock together". And all comedy has to be deeply-rooted in objective-reality otherwise there is no real basis for the humour. The idea that people form close relationships through shared adversity only ever really makes sense if the aftermath of the adversity is equally-positive for all concerned. And it isn't here.

The only good thing about this unconvincing fake-family saga is Jennifer Aniston - whom is as funny as anyone could be with the weak material she is given to play.

A humours road trip with a bit of an edge - We're the Millers review by Martin J from Portsmouth

"We are the Miller's" has some good funny moments that shows an interesting flip of characters from different sides of life who find a pathway to liberation through a drug deal gone wrong. The other road trip family turns out to be the influence that they needed having seemed to be too different to comprehend. Some traditional comedy on a controversial subject.