A limp, uninspired comedy that wants so badly to be “outrageous” but grows progressively lamer and tamer the more it keeps going.
What Works: [crickets]…uhhh…well, if you’ve ever wondered what Jennifer Aniston might look like in a platinum stripper wig and black spandex, the first ten minutes will be decent for you to watch. Still, the second the plot really kicks in, you’d be better off going into a different movie because if you don’t like the first 15 minutes, it’s pretty much all downhill from there.
What Doesn’t Work: It’s a heartless comedy that keeps desperately trying to get you to care about these characters. The frequent detours into forced sentimentality actually cheapen (not deepen) the laughs that have come before it. By the end, the entire enterprise has devolved into such a squeaky clean, neutered mess I almost couldn’t believe it. Really, a character would sacrifice a huge payday for people he barely cares about? Another character would blurt out crucial info that could get him arrested for life just to save his chances with a girl? [spoilers] Another character would work with the police just to show us he’s really a good guy deep down? I guess characters doing things completely out of character is what passes for an arc these days. The “comedy” wants to have bastards at the center to drive the laughs but show us that—–deep down—–they’re really good folk we can root for. It destroys the harder material and actually makes the characters less likable by begging us to like them so much. Oh, and whoever decided Jennifer Aniston had a comedic bone in her body (she plays every laugh line with a quiet note of exasperation…she’s only reacting to the jokes rather than driving them) should stop thinking that.
What I Would Have Done Differently: The idea of staging a group of down and out sociopaths into a makeshift family to smuggle drugs across the border is really better material for a drama than a comedy. You could turn it into a dark allegory for the new American dream, which now has to be faked before it can be attained.