It’s easier to forgive a comedy for being lazy because, unless it’s so god-awful it never even deserved to be made, it probably had a least a laugh or two. WE’RE THE MILLERS has lots more than that, but the writers are not on their A-game. The single biggest reason to see this is for the scene-after-scene stealing performance from Will Poulter. He’s “Kenny”, the waif-y naïf who becomes the phony “Miller son” — and who pretty much walks away with the movie. It’s not all that much to walk away from, mostly because it has no surprises. It plays out just the way you see coming and goes soft the same way, although there’s a sweetness to that that goes down easily. Again, Will Poulter’s awkwardness around girls is the sugar plum center of that sweetness and here he is as touching as he is hysterically geeky elsewhere. Jason Sudeikis has a terrific way of underplaying a line that punches it home — I’m thinking of his first conversation with the “daughter’s” new boyfriend, and speaking of that boyfriend, he’s the other standout laugh-getter. Here, Mark L. Young is an older version of the longhair he played in the short-lived MTV American remake of “The Inbetweeners”. Funny kid. — Jeff Schultz
Stormy Curry