BY MICHAEL GOODPASTER
There haven’t been a whole lot of good family road trip comedies on an R-Rated level of content in a LONG time. In fact, I can’t really think of many family road trip movies outside of the iconic National Lampoon Vacation movies. I’ve seen a few decent PG ones and kind hearted comedies, but the line rarely ever gets crossed. Like Chevy Chase feeding his family piss soaked sandwiches, the new “We’re The Millers” serves up a healthy dose of icky hilarity. We’re The Millers stars Jason Sudeikis as a low rent drug dealer who gets in over his head. The result is him having to get together a make-shift family in order to get a big stash of drugs across the border. He enlists Jennifer Aniston as the mom, who in reality is a stripper. Then for his kids he snatches a young foul mouth homeless girl and a dopey do-gooder with a sleazy side. It all works out. The family dynamic is there, but with an interesting “secret identity” twist. It all seems like a story that would be done over and over, but in reality it takes common elements and puts a really original slant on it. After all the cool slants though, it’s still a family road trip movie at heart. The characters bond, they learn lessons about themselves, and there is a variety of isolated hijinks. If you watch the trailer, you get to see enough of the hijinks as it is. I don’t want to spoil too much. I will say there are some really funny moments, some creative writing, good lines, funny references, and pretty much everything you’d want in a comedy these days. It doesn’t ride too hard on up-to-date pop culture references and the sound track isn’t full of super current Top 40 hits so I think it’ll be easy to watch and enjoy five years from now. That’s a big deal to me. A lot of good R-Rated comedies cram in so much in-the-moment pop culture that you watch them a year or two later and the references and music feel really outdated. This movie feels timeless. It has modern contraptions for sure, but it’s not forced at us. It just works. It’s easily one of the best comedies I’ve seen in 2013 and one I can’t wait to watch again. A-
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