It’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?
The last great comedy? I’d have to go with Superbad in ’07.
’07?! That’s so long ago!
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.