We're the Millers - 1 smile

“We’re the Millers” is not only not funny, it’s offensive. There’s a scene in which a father is willing to pimp out his teenage son to perform sexual favors on a corrupt policeman in order to avoid arrest. He urges the boy to do it for the good of the family. Granted, the ‘father’ is a small-time drug dealer and his ‘son’ is not related to him, but a clueless neighbor kid posing as his son. Still it’s an adult pushing an unusually innocent boy to prostitute himself. Even in R-rated comedies, there’s a line that shouldn’t be crossed. In an effort to be outrageous, director Rawson Marshall Thurber mistakes cringe-worthy for edgy humor. To top it off, its stars, Jason Sudeikis and Jennifer Aniston, have no chemistry although we're supposed to believe that they fall for each other.

David (Sudeikis), a pot dealer, rushes to aid his neighbor Kenny (Will Poulter), who is being picked on by a bunch of thugs.  These same punks rob David of thousands of dollars’ worth of weed and his cash. David’s supplier Brad (Ed Helms) orders him to pay back the value of what was stolen and offers a way to erase his debt: Drive to Mexico and smuggle a shipment of marijuana over the border. David decides he should take along a ‘family’ to appear less suspicious to border authorities. So he recruits Kenny and a street-smart girl named Casey (Emma Roberts) to pose as his teen kids. It takes some work, but he persuades his neighbor Rose (Aniston), a cynical stripper, to pose as his wife. Of course, nothing goes as planned. “We’re the Millers” is distasteful and mediocre, but the outtakes are mildly amusing. 8/12/13