Now that the beloved comedy Ted Lasso is over, fans are trying to get their Jason Sudeikis fix by watching We’re the Millers on Netflix. Basically Breaking Bad meets National Lampoon’s Vacation, this 2013 flick follows an irresponsible marijuana dealer who forms a fake family with his down-on-their-luck neighbors so he can smuggle a load of drugs across the Mexican border and pay off his boss.
We’re the Millers may have divided critics back when it premiered a decade ago, but this fan-favorite film still made it all the way up to No. 3 on Netflix’s top 10 movies list for the week. It just goes to show that any film can become a hit with audiences. So while the movie is still popular on Netflix, here are the reasons why We’re the Millers is one of the most underrated comedies to come out in the last decade.
Why is We’re the Millers so popular? The short answer: it has a talented cast
Along with Sudeikis, this all-star film features the comedic skills of Jennifer Aniston (Friends, The Morning Show), Emma Roberts (American Horror Story, Scream Queens), Will Poulter (Midsommar, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3), Kathryn Hahn (WandaVision, Step Brothers), Nick Offerman (Parks and Recreation, The Last of Us), Luiz Guzmán (Wednesday, Narcos), Molly Quinn (Castle, Doctor Sleep), and Ed Helms (The Office, The Hangover). Every one of them has the chance to deliver some pretty hysterical moments in this film. However, Poulter very much steals the show in his breakout role as the naïve and awkward Kenny (his singing the bridge of TLC’s “Waterfalls” alone made him a star).
Likewise, the film takes advantage of its side characters to fire jokes on all cylinders. This is especially true with Offerman and Hahn, who play Don and Edie Fitzgerald, a pair of folksy super parents with an interest in sexual experimentation. You also can’t go wrong with Helms, who owns his role as David’s hysterically awful drug lord boss who has a pet orca.
Two words: Jason Sudeikis
Having long worked as an actor and a comedian, including a stellar ten-year run as a player on Saturday Night Live, Sudeikis had a lot of time to perfect his comic skills. He uses these chops to achieve excellent comedic timing on par with Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds, improvising some of the film’s funniest lines.
Sudeikis’s lead persona in this film is a far cry from the happy-go-lucky Ted Lasso, as he is a deceptive and self-centered drug dealer. Nevertheless, Sudeikis has always shined playing goofball jerks in front of the camera, and his character David Clark is no different.
The bawdy humor is one of a kind
We’re the Millers is so filled with quotable lines and hilarious moments that they should really be mentioned more often. Seriously, thanks to Kathryn Hahn (WandaVision), audiences will likely never say the word “tampon” the same way after watching this film. The movie is also not afraid to cross the line and surprise its audience, as shown by its many bits of shock humor.
The most glaring example of this is that NSFW scene in which a venomous spider bites Kenny in his nether regions, putting him in the hospital. The movie also takes the time to poke fun of regular oddballs, from “real-life Ned Flanders” to the “You know what I’m sayin'” guy.
The team behind the film are comedy experts
It is worth mentioning that this movie had some filmmakers working behind the camera with pretty prolific backgrounds in comedy. For instance, Rawson Marshall Thurber sat in the director’s chair after having written and directed another comedy gem, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story.
The script was also penned by the writers of the controversial comedy classic Wedding Crashers, Bob Fisher and Steve Faber, as well as Spirited writers Sean Anders and John Morris. Why does this matter? Well, it makes the audience appreciate the comedy more if they know it’s been crafted by experts. These people know how to get a good laugh or two, even if they are cheap and lowbrow.
We’re The Millers has well-written characters who are relatable
Just because it’s a funny movie doesn’t mean it can’t have a good story with well-developed characters. General audiences might not care much about the writing when it comes to watching adult comedies, but We’re the Millers does a terrific job developing its characters (including the Fitzgeralds) and actually making us care about them
David learns to take responsibility and care for others during his trip, Rose grows beyond her stripper identity to become a loving maternal figure for the group, Kenny learns how to be strong and kiss a girl, and Casey grows out of her harsh and rebellious shell to make real human connections. All in all, it shows a group of lost and lonely souls who long for something more in their lives as they find a most unusual family among themselves, making for some genuinely heartfelt moments.
Stream We’re the Millers on Netflix today.
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