We’re the Oscars

We're the MillersIt’s Oscars night, so I’m here to talk about a movie that completely surprised and delighted me over the weekend: We’re the Millers.

I recently reactivated Netflix because for some reason all shows decided not to air new episodes in February due to some people ice dancing in Russia. So I started receiving DVDs in the mail that I had added to my queue months ago for reasons I can’t remember.

When We’re the Millers arrived in my mailbox, I was pretty ambivalent about watching it. All I knew was that it starred the guy from SNL and that Jennifer Aniston played a very tan stripper. I had very low expectations.

I shouldn’t have, because the movie was awesome. Way, way better than I expected. I laughed a ton, I actually cared for the characters, which is highly unusual for a comedy, and watching Jennifer Aniston transform from a stripper to a soccer mom then back to a stripper at the right moment was awesome.

Also, Ron Swanson’s in it.

I’ll close with this: Back when I was working on a screenplay, I read a lot about how to write a good screenplay. One of the pieces of advice I read is that a great screenplay/movie has a number of “set pieces–scenes that really stand out thanks to humor, action, etc. Usually a great movie has about 3 such scenes.

We’re the Millers has at least 5 great set pieces. At least.

I would recommend this movie to anyone, even my parents (as long as I don’t watch with them…I learned my lesson from watching Wedding Crashers with them. It’s just too awkward).

What’s the last great comedy you watched?

4 thoughts on “We’re the Oscars”

      • Yes, but I think my standard for great is pretty high. I thought about the last 10 years, and I’d only include 7 great comedies. I misspoke earlier, however, as the last one would have been The Hangover in 09.

        Reply

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