There aren’t many films where the blooper-reel is funnier than the final product. ‘We’re the Millers’ directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber, of ‘Dodgeball’ fame, is a swing and a miss comedy that tries to blend all the raunchiness of ‘The Hangover’ with traditional family sitcom style comedy.

Low level marijuana drug dealer David Clark (Jason Sudeikis) is robbed of his money and stash, some of which he owes to his supplier. His boss, wealthy drug lord Brad Gurdlinger (Ed Helms) forces David to smuggle marijuana from Mexico in order to clear his debt. Realizing that one man attempting to get through customs is too suspicious, he hires a stripper named Rose (Jennifer Aniston), a runaway teenage girl named Casey (Emma Roberts), and his virgin 18 year-old neighbour Kenny (Will Poulter) to pose as a bogus family called the “Millers”.

The entirety of ‘We’re the Millers’ is a mixture of jokes that were either poorly executed of just a bit past their sell-by-date. Want to watch Will Poulter get bitten on the testicles by a Tarantula? By all means, watch this film. But just keep in mind that despite this set piece not being that funny or original – it’s as good as it gets.

Aniston’s career has had better days and she looks very uncomfortable in her stripper scenes. Especially one where she does a strip-tease in a scene that went on for far too long and had no real impact towards the narrative. There were four writers on this film and they all thought it would be fun to watch Rachel from’ Friends’ get her kit off.

Young Will Poulter is the real star here, playing a role that would have been over wise contrived and a bit sickly; he brings some real charm and gawky-innocence that makes him fun to watch. On the other hand, Emma Roberts, his on-screen fake Sister is entirely outmatched by the rest of the cast. As an edgy, homeless teen she is extremely bland and fails to raise a laugh for the most part.

Jason Sudeikis does a great job in making us care about David. He brings a level of cool-headedness to the role as he tries to keep the insanity around him together. Throughout it all, his struggle is easily to sympathise with as he constantly looks as if he is at the point of breakdown. Overall, Sudeikis makes David – the drug dealer – an easy character to get behind.

What let’s this film down the most is the tired and contrived gags and the strong focus on crude sexual humour.  As mentioned, it tries to strike a balance between crude and lewd humour and American style family sitcoms. This balance never really works and nothing seems to congeal. In the end it seemed a bit of a mess and a real let down from such a promising trailer.