The first thing that caught my eye was the mass amount of famous television and movie stars that were all present in the movie: Jennifer Aniston, Emma Roberts, Ed Helms, Nick Offerman, etc. For the most part, the roles that these stars played portrayed their personality well and matched many of their previous roles. For example, Jennifer Aniston is probably best known for playing the role of Rachel in the television series "Friends." In "Friends," Jennifer plays a 20-30 year old women who lives an ordinary life in New York City with a bunch of her best friends. She is portrayed as a nice and genuine girl who basically gets every guys she wants. In We're the Millers, Aniston plays a 40 year old stripper who is just scraping by with her money situation. She is a tough-lover who is bossy but understands and cares for her "family." Like in "Friends," she is able to get most of the men to like her because, well, she's a stripper. In addition, Nick Offerman stars as Ron Swanson in "Parks and Recreation" as a tough-love kind of guy that likes to do everything himself. He fights for what he believes and seems like he doesn't care, but he actually cares deeply about the ones he loves, as shown in both We're the Millers and in "Parks and Recreation." He also has that bushy mustache in both the movie and the show. Ed Helms is another guy who shows up in many movies and television shows, one of them being "The Office" in which he plays a similar role of being the jokester or the funny guy of the office/movie. All in all, the stars were a near perfect match for the roles that they played in the movie.One of my favorite scenes from the movie has to be the scene where Kenny, played by Will Poulter, kisses his "sister", Emma Roberts, and "mom", Jennifer Aniston, in order to practice so that he doesn't screw up when he tries to actually kiss a girl. The entire scene is made up of medium shots and close-ups that alternate to either show the kisses and facial expressions, or to show the action between the people. The scene starts off with Casey Miller, the sister, offering to teach Kenny how to kiss. (I thought the dialogue during this scene was perfect and hilarious; it portrayed what I would think a conversation between people teaching each other how to kiss would be.) She makes comments on the kiss so that he knows what he is doing right and wrong. The very first kiss was a medium shot in which Casey said it was good but needed more tongue. The second one was a close-up which helped to show the fact that Kenny was trying too hard and used too much tongue, making Casey wince. Eventually the parents walked in on them and instantly knew that Casey was trying to help. The mom, named Rose played by Jennifer Aniston, sits down and asks to see how well Kenny kisses since they found out that he's never kissed anyone before. On another close-up shot, it shows Rose showing Kenny a trick that will make his kissing even better. This trick made Kenny's eyes bulge out out of pleasure, of course. As he alternates between his mom and sister, the girl he was trying to impress, Melissa, walks in on them and screams. The close-up of her face and his face turning red shows their changing emotions, something you couldn't see as well in a medium or long shot.
If I were to base the movie solely on its cinematic effects, I think that We're the Millers would not earn too high of a rating. Most of the movie contained many of the same shots:close-up, medium shot, and long shots. Close-ups were mostly used to show emotions that the characters were having or they helped add some comedic effect as to what the characters said. Medium shots were primarily for any small actions that took place such as when the other mom fondled Rose's breasts or with any fighting scenes between the bad guys and the family. Finally, long shots and extreme long shots were used to show the setting of the scene and whenever the RV would be on screen driving down the road. Different lighting techniques and color techniques were another plus in the movie. During any violent scenes or of scenes in Mexico when they were getting the drugs, the screen would be all dark and solemn. The clothes they wore would usually be a dark color and the background was usually a grey, brown, or army green color. However, whenever there was a scene when the entire family was together, the colors were very bright and colorful, which fit in with the emotion. When they were together they would usually be happy or scared, but the most important part is that they were together and they enjoyed each others' company. Although there was a good variety of lighting and shots throughout the movie, angles was an aspect that the movie lacked. The entire movie was mostly straight on shots of the characters with no variety at all.
By looking at the movie as a whole, We're the Millers met my standards. The movie had a lot of humor as well as dry humor, which made me actually laugh out loud multiple times. I would give this movie a 4.1/5 stars because it was classic comedy, but it was very predictable.
