We're the Millers (2013)

We expected to like it some but laughed a lot all the way through at this farce about four losers pretending to be a clean-cut family to score a big payday importing marijuana from Mexico. Jason Sudeikis (last blogged in The Campaign) leads the pack as the small-time weed dealer, then he recruits his neighbor who happens to be a stripper, played by Jennifer Aniston (last in Wanderlust), then a local runaway played by Emma Roberts (last in The Art of Getting By), and lastly a naive teenager whose parents are away, played by Will Poulter who is now 20 years old. When he was ten he was wonderful in Son of Rambow (he's on the left in this photo), and, by the way, he's 100% British but his character Kenny in We're the Millers is 100% American. Kenny, being the sweet boy he is, doesn't get a makeover like the others do. More laughs are provided by supporting cast members Nick Offerman (last in Smashed), Kathryn Hahn (also in Wanderlust), and Ed Helms (last in Jeff, Who Lives at Home).

We were pleasantly surprised that a script with four writers (it was begun by the writing team of Bob Fisher & Steve Faber (Wedding Crashers (2005)) and then continued by Sean Anders & John Morris (Hot Tub Time Machine)) could turn out as well as this one. That's a credit to the cast and to director Rawson Marshall Thurber (I didn't see Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004) nor The Mysteries of Pittsburgh (2008)). He's no relation to humorist James Thurber--I checked with sources who know.

There are two collaborators on the soundtrack--Ludwig Göransson (most recently blogged for composing Fruitvale Station) and Theodore Shapiro (last for The Campaign)--plus the usual long list of songs.

Critics are not as enthusiastic as we are, averaging 47% on rottentomatoes to audiences' 76, but the studio must be happy that it was fourth at the box office last weekend in its fifth week of release.

There isn't exactly a bonus but a blooper reel at the end credits is pretty funny and includes a musical gag. This is R-rated (for sexual innuendo, language, drug material, and brief nudity played for laughs) lightweight entertainment, with almost no violence (though some is threatened) and a satisfying ending.