We’re the Millers-A Fun If Slight Comedy

We're the Millers is a fun, if slight, comedy. Its central concept is clever, twisting a family road trip comedy by centering it around a cast of unrelated characters pretending to be a family, and it does lead to some laugh-out-loud scenarios. The cast all provide fairly entertaining comedic performances, with the standout being Will Poulter, who plays up his character's foolish naivety in a way that feels so hilariously natural and less over-the-top.

At its core, though, the film is a 2010s comedy with many issues prominent in American comedies of this Era. The pacing isn't always the greatest, as the film feels 30 minutes too long at two hours. Many of the gags go on for too long, and much of the story has our characters sitting and waiting for things to happen, especially in the third act, which made much of the runtime feel overly inflated.

The filmmaking is serviceable, if flat, with standard shot-reverse-shot compositions and editing. Very few of the gags feel elevated by the filmmaking, with the writing and performances doing all the heavy lifting for most of the standout moments and gags. As a 2010s comedy, there is a good assortment of gags that haven't aged well, with many gags having slightly racist or homophobic undertones.

Though the film hasn't aged the greatest in terms of some of its jokes and filmmaking, there are enough standout jokes and performances that made We're the Millers a decent enough time. For better or worse, I see the film as a decent time capsule of what American comedies used to be like, featuring the same flat filmmaking of many comedies of this Era but also all the standout comedic talent and much of the music synonymous with the 2010s.

Avaible to Rent and Buy on Google TV, Prime Video, Apple TV, and more in the U.S.