Rated R

We're the Millers is a new comedy starring two big name talents, Jennifer Aniston and Jason Sudeikis. Unfortunately, the film is disappointing as it's not particularly funny and tries too hard to be rowdy and raunchy without any good substance behind it. Directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber (Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story and The Mysteries of Pittsburgh), We're the Millers rambles on for close to two hours as a pretend family ventures to Mexico and back to the U.S. in order to smuggle in drugs, erase a debt, and score some cash.

When local pot dealer David (Jason Sudeikis of Horrible Bosses and Hall Pass) is robbed of all of his cash and drugs by three punks whom he encounters in an alleyway one night, his supplier boss, Brad Gurdlinger (Ed Helms of The Hangover and TV's The Office), demands that he repay him. Since there is no possible way for David to get together enough cash to repay Gurdlinger, they strike a different kind of deal. If David can successfully become a drug mule and bring what Gurdlinger calls a "smidge or smidge-and-a-half" of pot back to Colorado from Mexico, Gurdlinger will forgive David his debt and even pay him thousands extra. David, naturally, assumes there is no way for him to bring the drugs into America without being detected at the border. Eventually, however, he creates a plan to rent an RV and hire a fake family so that he seems like an ordinary family guy simply taking a trip instead of a drug mule. He recruits three of his neighbors to travel with him and pretend to be his family. Rose (Jennifer Aniston of Along Came Polly and The Good Girl) reluctantly agrees to be David's fake wife in order to make enough money out of the deal to avoid being evicted from her apartment after recently quitting her job as a stripper. Eighteen-year-old Kenny (Will Poulter of The Chronicles of Narnia and Wild Bill) excitedly agrees to pretend to be David's son for no charge since he has little else happening in his life as he's largely a social outcast. Finally, a homeless runaway named Casey (Emma Roberts of Aquamarine and It's Kind of a Funny Story) agrees to pose as David's teenaged daughter as long as he agrees to give her $1,000.

Once David, Rose, Kenny, and Casey arrive at the compound in Mexico where they're supposed to pick up the drugs, the fake family realizes that they're there to pick up much more than just a "smidge or smidge-and-a-half" of marijuana. The men at the compound pack huge bags of pot into every available space in the RV. Everyone is panicky and afraid of being caught and thrown into a Mexican prison as they cross the border back into the U.S., but they luckily get through when the border crossing agents are distracted by a group of men attempting to illegally enter the country. Eventually, just as things seem to be going well for the fake family, their RV breaks down and they have to wait overnight to get it repaired, which forces them to camp out with another RV-traveling family they meet on the road. A number of predictable and not-so-funny shenanigans ensue from there, but do little to add any real humor to the film.

Unfortunately for We're the Millers, the actors seem as awkward in their roles as their characters in the film are in portraying a pretend family. Their star statuses do little to help the film, as its script and plot are too predictable and not all that humorous. Viewers are supposed to buy into the idea that the four main characters can end up bonding like a real family, but it's hard when no one cares about the characters by the time the supposed bonding ends up happening. Overall, We're the Millers is a banal film posing as a comedy.

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