No love for ‘The Family’ review, Robert De Niro is back! But before you get your hopes up, you should set your standards a little lower than expected.
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Robert De Niro is back! But before you get your hopes up, you should set your standards a little lower than expected.
De Niro plays Giovanni Manzoni who is an ex-mob boss that told the secrets of his mob in order to avoid jail time and then gets placed into witness protection with his family to keep them from being killed.
Alongside De Niro is Michelle Pfeiffer who plays his wife Maggie and their two kids Warren and Belle played by actors John D’Leon and Glee actress Dianna Agron.
After being placed into countless different countries and cities by their FBI agent Robert Stansfield played by Tommy Lee Jones, the “Blakes” finally reside in Normandy, France where they have a hard time trying to fit in.
In the beginning of the movie, you start to see that the “Blakes” are not your average American family.
They find it very difficult to adjust to the European way of life and you can start to feel as if they’re getting tired of moving around so much that it almost becomes predictable that some big event is going to take place.
Despite the fact that they have moved around for almost 10 years, they’re not afraid to make their mark known where ever they go.
What kills the mood of this movie is the fact that the way the movie was plotted was very cheesy.
The director Luc Besson makes a failed attempt to mix in comedy with the mob, but in my opinion, a more serious tone does better for a mob movie in order for it to be a box office hit.
You would expect a director such as Besson to be more creative in the action part of the film since he’s famous for his other action movies such as “Taken” and “Columbiana.”
Although the movie is corny, you can’t help but to fall in love with the brother and sister relationship that Warren and Belle share.
The closeness between them makes you reevaluate your relationship with your brother or sister (if you have one).
What was great about this movie was that it teaches you the importance of family and how your family is all that you have.
If you’re expecting action, you can expect someone to be beaten up every other scene by everyone in the family except Maggie, but you can expect her to deal with her problems in a different way.
If you’re looking for a good action film, I say stay away and wait for the film to be released on Netflix so you don’t have to pay the $12 to just walk out disappointed.
But if you’re looking for a fun date night film, you should definitely go and see it.
Just make sure to leave the little ones at home because it’s rated R.
