US 2013
Starts August 29, 2013
Directed by: Rawson Marshall Thurber
Writing credits: Bob Fisher, Steve Faber
Cast: Jason Sudeikis, Jennifer Aniston, Emma Roberts, Will Poulter
Length: 110 minutes
Meet drug dealer David, stripper Rose, street-girl Casey, and nerdy teenager Kenny, whose interests vary from watching “Surprised Kitty” on YouTube to slithering up a pole. How can such diverse personalities come together to become a picture-book American family? It’s easy. Just rent a fancy trailer and hit the road for Mexico. Anyone can do it.
David is a small-town drug dealer whose money is stolen. In order to repay his debt to his endlessly preening, rich boss Brad, he must drive to Mexico and pick up a huge order of drugs. As a cover, in order to detract attention from border control, he organizes a family of misfits who pretend to be his wife and two teenaged kids. They fly from Denver to Tucson, pick up the trailer and take off to turn this into a road movie. Their adventures are predictable as they meet up with gangsters, a nerdy family with a beautiful daughter Melissa, DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration), a motor breakdown, etc. However, the predictability does no harm to the overall impression of a good film; in fact we are happy to ascertain that we knew what was coming up next. Still, I never would have predicted the solution to eliminating the “baby.” We can all live with the unsurprising, but satisfactory, ending.
Naturally, it takes super actors to realize the potential. All are wonderful in their roles, but I’d especially like to point out Will Poulter as Kenny, the teenaged boy, who was a surprise. Jennifer Aniston never looked so beautiful. All the actors are able to spout hilarious one-liners, non-stop, for almost two hours with never a dull moment. Practically the whole script is full of sexual innuendos and references to body parts, but performed in such as way as to be very funny and not offending – at least not in the year 2013. How times have changed. However, one German colleague did ask me if this was the first US film to show male genitals. Perhaps it’s the first one to show definitely fake male genitals. And then there is Scottie P. (Mark L. Young) with “You know what I’m saying?” Check it out simply for the pleasure of these talented actors, hopefully in English because I can hardly imagine that this could be translated effectively into German. ()