Sunday, August 11, 2013

Review: We're the Millers=Horrible Bosses?

As the movie finally comes to an end, the credits start playing. Except wait, there are bloopers first. Okay, a few bloopers. Some other possible lines. A few alternate scenes. Oh, here's something. The "Chasing Waterfalls" scene. Wait a minute... is that the Friends theme song? Oh man, look at Jennifer Aniston's face. She can't believe these guys! That was funny. I enjoyed this.
These were my thoughts at the end of We're the Millers, the latest comedy from Dodgeball director Rawson Thurber and Wedding Crashers writer Bob Fisher. This movie was... really good. It had a great comedic setup, well-developed characters, some genuinely heartfelt moments, and Jason Sudeikis. The only problem I had with the movie: the lack of focus. There were a few subplots that felt really irrelevant to the main plot, i.e. the fake family being chased by a drug kingpin because they thought he was a different drug kingpin and that drug kingpin is trying to get away with everything and not pay Jason Sudeikis and not get killed by the other kingpin and not get caught by the DEA... you know what? That's another problem. The main plot is too confusing. I also don't like the ending that's kind of like "And they all live happily ever after unless you want a sequel which we can totally do if you guys want."
You know what all this reminds me of? Horrible Bosses. Seriously. Everything I just said about this movie applies almost perfectly to Horrible Bosses. Right down to the Jason Sudeikis and Jennifer Aniston. Even the humor of the movie is a lot like Horrible Bosses. Yup. It's Horrible Bosses.
Here's the thing, though. At first glance, this movie doesn't really look like Horrible Bosses. It looks like The Hangover Part Thr3e meets Vacation. But when you really look at the facts, this movie is a lot like Horrible Bosses. It's dark, but not Cable Guy dark. It's got a lot of cameos here and there, but it doesn't reach Anchorman levels. It has a lot of different kinds of jokes, to the point where it's hard to tell what kind of movie it's trying to be. Is it bad? No. Is it good? Yes. Is it one of the best movies of the past five years? Maybe in the top 20 or something, but not really.
In fact, this movie is so much like Horrible Bosses, I'm giving it the same grade as Horrible Bosses: a B. See it if you're in to that sort of thing. I may have a Planes review out later in the week, but not necessarily. I will definitely have a Kick-Ass 2 review out on Friday, my birthday. Jobs review next week, and we'll have to wait and see from there. I'll also be putting a mystery article out this week. Stay tuned.
End transmission.

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