Why is this rated so highly?

Imo this movie was casted perfectly although you could argue they should have casted a younger woman for the jennifer anniston role(even though she still has an amazing body). The nerd kid kenny I could not imagine any other actor playing that role. I liked the guy from the hangover movies in this role playing a smary jerk more than I ever liked him in 3 hangover movies. I never felt this movie had a real slow point or lull which is rare for any comedy. Imo this is better than any comedy in the last 3 to 5 years that comes to mind. The only thing that immediately comes to mind is Ted and even that for my taste had a few scenes that were kind of lame.

Like the poster above says the movie is perfectly cast.

I think another of the reasons for its popularity is that, in very much an "adult setting", it celebrates the role of family in the scheme of things. You've got 4 dysfunctional characters who are just not succeeding individually and come from disparate backgrounds. Yet when they come together as the Millers, they create a force that ends up benefitting them all in ways that drug money can't. Similarly, their allies in the Miller's various ventures, prove to be the Fitzgeralds, another family unit.

And of course movies, especially comedies, never succeed unless they have an entertaining story, peopled with interesting characters and crackling dialogue and this one is no exception to the rule.🐭

The chemistry between Jason, Jen, Emma, and Will was outstanding. I can't remember the last movie I saw that had that kind of "click" .... They could be a real family off-screen. Unfortunately, the script wasn't so outstanding.

I'm surprised too. I only recorded it because of the decent rating here, and it was awful predictable cliched rubbish with the odd listless attempt at gross-out and sexual humour.

The actors seemed like they didn't want to be there and even the blooper reel at the end looked forced, particularly the Friends song moment.


...then whoa, differences...

I rate this movie a solid 7.

It surprised me that I enjoyed it as I did, it's better than any comedy movie Seth Rogan is in.

Maybe because it was funny as hell and this is from someone who was expecting to hate this movie. I find most modern day comedies boring as heck and didn't expect much from this either, but I was very surprised at how funny I found it. I got a headache from laughing so much.

Poorly Lived and Poorly Died, Poorly Buried and No One Cried

It does have an interesting premise (not completely original but not often seen either). It's a family road trip movie with people who aren't even family. Not very often we see a story exactly like this.

I also thought some of the jokes were very funny, and some of the delivery from Jason Sudeikis, where he's muttered an additional joke under his breath after the original punchline, made things even funnier. There's a riffing quality to the joke delivery that we'd see from Jason again in Horrible Bosses, which I also thought was hilarious for the most part.

It checks the boxes for a number of people. Hip comedian. Attractive woman. Drugs. Sexual situation (stripper). It does lack a major gay character. The girl I would not describe as hawt. So they screwed up somewhat depending on the viewer.