User Reviews

**Spoiler**

The dog was the best actor in the film. Had all the best lines but never hogged the scenes. He delivered his lines with style, feeling and perfect diction. His role demanded a harmonious interaction with the other actors.

Everybody else? You've got to be kidding. Their lines came right off a cereal box, their characters were despicable. Setting a family of illiterate gangsters in rural France where all the French people speak near-perfect English -- even in school -- was insulting. The audience is supposed to buy into this bull?

I've come to the conclusion that certain 'actors' are rotated thru on a cycle, repeating their signature performances for audiences more interested in killing time than in being entertained. The audiences are as typecast as the actors.

The dog was good.

Every now and again, a film comes along that contains a scene so memorable that , the moment you see it, you immediately know that you will still be remembering it long after the rest of the film is lost to history. This is one of those films. Overall, it is yet another "drama-dy" of the type that de Niro has been losing himself in, at this later stage of his spectacular career. It is one of those films which, as the professional critics say, was doomed to fail, since the premise is so weak that, even if it were to fire on all cylinders (which it does not) you would still not get much of a bang.

But in the first 20 mins of this film, viewers get a treat. Transplanted to France as part of some not very credible WPP (witness protection program) de Niro's daughter Belle, well played by Dianna Agron, gets "offered a lift home" by a quartet of local punks looking to see that the girl's first day at school is memorable. She accepts. They drive to a secluded spot and she protests. Punk #1 basically ignores her and meaningfully brushes some of her clothing aside. She excuses herself, goes to the car, picks up a tennis racket (iconic, of course, in American gangster fiction) and promptly beats the %^$% out of the guy while his friends watch. She then effectively steals the car and drives herself home. While beating him senseless, this is the art in the scene, she lectures him as if he were a small child. She concludes her monologue with the epic line, "WOMEN ARE YOUR FUTURE" and then one more smack upside the head with the bat to drive the point home. I do believe this scene is right up there with the best talking points in Thelma and Louise, and maybe one or two other feminist classics also. But that folks is where the wonderment ends. The rest of the film is not much to write home about, except perhaps for the annotation that, in her late 50s, Pfeiffer is still one of the most beautiful women in the world.

The Manzoni family is in Witness Protection in Normandy, France because Giovanni Manzoni (Robert DeNiro), who is now Fred Blake, ratted out the Luchese mob family. Don Luchese (Stan Carp), the old Don, now in jail, needs to find Giovanni to whack him.

This isn't exactly a comedy, not so much a drama, not really a thriller and I would say it's light drama with comedic overtones, although I didn't experience many chuckles. It's watchable and kind of enjoyable until we get 16-yr old daughter Belle (Dianna Agron) viscously beating up on a classmate with a tennis racket. Later Fred Blake takes a baseball bat to a local plumber. And, still later Fred beats up on the manager of a water distribution facility. The viciousness of the beatings were too extreme for this movie and went too far in my opinion. It was like watching someone beating a dead horse. Not good.

Fred's wife, Maggie (Michelle Pfeiffer), blows things up when she gets upset. I guess old habits are hard to die when one is attached to a mob family.

On a less violent side, the son, 13-year old Warren Blake (John D'Leo) gets involved at school with black market cigarettes and prescription pills. See, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Then we have FBI Agent Stansfield (Tommy Lee Jones) whose job it is to protect the family. Later he learns that Fred is writing the story of his life and if that ever got out well………………

The acting by all is fine, but you somehow get the idea that all is not as serious as it really is. In other words the door is left open for somewhat comedic comments.

The interactions among the family are good, supportive and genuine. They have each other's backs and that will be needed when Don Luchese's men find the family. You didn't forget about them, did you? (5/10)

Violence: Yes. Sex: Yes, Belle and her tutor teacher against a door. Nudity: No. Language: Yes, the kids too.

I saw "The Family", starring Robert De Niro-Silver Linings Playbook, Machete; Michelle Pfeiffer-Dark Shadows-2012, Batman Returns; Tommy Lee Jones-The Men in Black movies, Batman Forever and Dianna Agron-Glee-t.v., I Am Number Four.

This is an action/comedy directed by Luc Besson, best known for his action movies-La Femme Nikita, The Transporter & Taken-and not so much for his comedic ones. He does pretty good for his first attempt. Robert plays a mob boss on the run from the Mafia, after he ratted on them. There is a $20 million bounty put on his whole family, causing lots of eager hunters looking for them, so they are put into witness protection. Tommy plays the F.B.I. agent that is in charge of his family's safety, Michelle is his wife and Dianna plays his daughter. Old habits are hard to break, being from the mob life and doing things like beating people up or even killing them instead of reasoning with them does tend to make Tommy relocate the family a lot. Their latest place of residence is in France, not one of the most friendly of places, especially to Americans. There is humor in the way the whole family-even the kids are Mafioso savy-handle themselves but near the end of the movie, it does take a dramatic turn towards the violent side, not that I minded, but I'm just saying, don't think that it is a straight comedy, because it's not. It's rated "R" for violence, language and sexuality-no nudity-and has a running time of 1 hour & 50 minutes. I enjoyed it enough that I would buy it on DVD.

If you know Robert De Niro is playing a mobster, then why would you not see the movie? Add on Dianna Agron, who seemingly is the only one to really breakaway from Glee successfully, and then Michelle Pfeiffer, Tommy Lee Jones and a mob story which doesn't take itself too seriously, and really what is there to question, eh? Well, that is what I thought walking into this movie.

Robert De Niro plays the lead, Giovanni, and his acting in the film leads you to think he is playing a character from his filmography in an unofficial sequel. His role is a former mobster who has snitched and went into witness protection, but kept his old ways when it comes to socializing with people. Alongside him is his wife Maggie Blake (played by Michelle Pfeiffer) who doesn't rise above your usual mob wife, outside of her bombing a supermarket once or twice, and then their children Belle (played by Dianna Agron) and Warren Blake (played by John D'Leo). Belle is a like a Disney princess, with the ability to switch into mob mentality. As for Warren, he pretty much is his father in the making, but with his upbringing not being as harsh, he is a bit softer than his dad was at his age. As for Tommy Lee Jones' character, it's pretty much as dry as most of the roles he is known for.

Story wise, the now christened "Blake" family has just left a part of southern France for Normandy, a quiet village. Well, that is until the Blakes arrive and begin to startup what they usually do. The dad makes up a job position and ends up getting involved in local politics and issues, the mom deals with living in a foreign country which doesn't have much love for Americans, the son uses his keen observation skills, and cunning, to quickly find means of manipulating aspects of his school environment, and poor Belle tries to deal with these genes which make her capable of being as violent as her father, while essentially being just a girl looking for love, stability and an escape from the madness of her family. Altogether, this seems like a rather normal family, well until the mob is seen throughout trying to find them and kill every last one.

Now, one of the main appeals of this film is the fact it isn't trying to be over the top a la Rush Hour. Instead, it does really try to make sure the foundation of family is established before it starts throwing violent or intense action scenes and having more naturalistic comedy. And by naturalistic, I mean that it isn't the type of comedy that is setup to be a joke, it is more so the comedy which we are used to from De Niro, or dialog which feels very natural for the other characters to say. Also, something I liked, this is one of the few productions when the kids don't feel like a waste of screen time. For while Agron and D'Leo certainly don't steal the movie from the more veteran actors, they at least are given enough of a story of their own to hold their ground, and they work well enough with De Niro and Pfeiffer to make us see a legit family chemistry. Lastly, I must note how much I admired them for developing most of the characters who represent the family. For while I felt Pfeiffer's character was a bit thin, everyone else seemed to have some type of past which lead to a understandable present, and we could foresee what future they could have and what they think they will have.

But, as all films, there were some issues. To begin, let's talk about Pfeiffer's character Maggie. The main issue with Maggie is that we have hardly learn a thing about her besides that she is Giovanni's wife, and the mother of Belle and Warren. I'll even throw in there she knows how to cook. Outside of that, we don't learn a thing. We don't learn how she learned to make a bomb, she expresses her displeasure for bouncing around in witness protection, but Agron's character more exhibits the displeasure of this than her, and outside of doing her wifely duties, she doesn't do much more than hang around the FBI guys gossiping. Add onto that issue, while De Niro and her have some chemistry, there is only just enough chemistry for us to believe they are a married couple. Then, going back to the topic of Agron's character, her character feels out of place sometimes. She, as mentioned, presents the angle which Pfeiffer's character only hints at: The need for normalcy. With this, as much as she pursues normalcy by trying to find love, she also brings the dramatics by almost killing herself, and the mobster violence by beating the hell out of someone with a racket, and handling a gun quite well. This makes it so you feel like they tried to give Agron a real meaty role showing the duality of the trauma which comes from being in the family to how capable she is in following in her dad's footsteps but, in the end, it makes her character not properly mesh well with the film and makes you think there was some indecision on how her character's development and story should have been handled.

Overall: Worth Seeing

With easy going comedy, and the type of mobster violence that is done just right, this film mostly feels like a breeze. Mind you, during the nearly two hour movie, there are some scenes with De Niro which seem unnecessary, but overall he brings a nice comical nature to the story and, outside of Pfeiffer, each family members presents something to the table as reason to watch the film. So, I would definitely say it is an opening weekend type movie, or worth renting on DVD.

Was surprised by The Family it turned out to be a throughly entertaining film,had many hilarious moments.A very enjoyable,good film.Acting wise its all about Robert De Niro, he stands out in the film and gives a great performance, its vintage De Niro!!! The films a mobster who snitches on the Mafia, and is placed in the witness protection program, so he and family is safe. The only problem is his family and him don't stick in any place longer than a couple of months.Overall the family is a good watch, and can be enjoyed by everyone who enjoys action comedies. But if you are De Niro fan its a must watch because in this film he has got his ZING BACK!!!

"The Family" is a film that tries to be a laugh out loud gangster flick with a deep story and lots of character development. It only succeeds in a few of these areas, but it is in those areas that "The Family" works very well.

Luc Besson of "Léon: The Professional" and "La Femme Nikita" fame takes the lead role of director, and along with the help of the legendary Martin Scorsese, we have "The Family". This is the story of Fred Blake (Robert De Niro), or Giovanni Manzoni, or whatever his name is this week. He is forced to change his name and where he lives pretty constantly because his family is in the witness protection program. This week in the lives of the "Blake" family, they find themselves in Normandy, France. What exactly Giovanni did to upset his mob ties is never explicitly said, and we work under the assumption that he ratted out some of the higher-ups in the mob hierarchy. This is all good and well, but some audience members might feel left out never knowing exactly why the Manzoni family lives in a never-changing state of flux.

Giovanni shows murderous traits throughout "The Family" and we firmly believe he is capable of a lot of bad stuff. While his family likely didn't participate in mob activities back in the day, they all seem to have learned violent tendencies. Giovanni's wife, Maggie (Michelle Pfeiffer) has interest in traveling and sight-seeing to get her mind off of her unpredictable lifestyle, and despite her attempts to return to the Catholic church (the only familiar thing that she sees can bring her family to safety), has a short temper that can burn down a grocery store within a few moments; a fun joke, unfortunately ruined by the movie's trailer. Giovanni's daughter Belle (Dianna Agron) is a righteous fox, searching for her future soul mate. She is the kind of girl you have to worry about getting hit on by the wrong crowd, but she is also the kind of girl you don't have to worry about the safety of. In other words: she can take care of herself. Finally, John D'Leo plays Gio's son. Imagine a snarky, too intelligent for his age 16-year-old drug kingpin who recognizes, and then runs a high school's black market within the period of a week, and you have Warren Blake. This is the "Blake" family, and we feel like we know them pretty well by the end of "The Family".

Robert Stansfield (Tommy Lee Jones) is Giovanni's parole officer of sorts and tries to keep him out of trouble. They bicker back and forth and never did you think you would see two greats like Jones and De Niro get so old and complain about one another with such comedic contempt. It's really quite funny, and I might add that you would never expect the "F" bomb to have so many uses and become such a versatile word in the mouth of De Niro.

Of course the family tries to adjust to life in France, and while it's all good fun, "The Family" is haunted by an emotional roller coaster that the audience may never have even bought tickets for. In one moment, a character is head over heels for a french boy who breaks her heart, and the next moment Giovanni is breaking a wooden bat over the kneecap of a greedy plumber, and then deeply contemplating a future career in writing. Again, with comedy, "The Family" delivers. With keeping us engaged, and following and tracking with the characters, perhaps not so much. One might argue that these extreme moments are used only to push the comedy along, and I would tend to agree with that viewpoint.

The original score here feels a bit forced, and overall, pretty cheesy. It maybe doesn't work so well. You can tell Besson worked under Scorsese's tutelage to some extent when exploring popular music themes throughout "The Family". The Rolling Stones have a way of making music that never seems to perform poorly in film.

I saw "The Family" with two girls, who haven't been introduced to great gangster classics like "Goodfellas" or "The Godfather". Despite the black comedy, and sometimes randomly violent bits of "The Family", I realized that this movie actually could work quite well as an introduction to crime films for those who haven't seen them. We see some of the violence, and we hear the lingo and accents, and while it's sometimes over the top, it never feels like too much. "The Family" is almost a more family friendly "The Untouchables" in some very strange way. Eh, but don't have a family screening of "The Godfather" with your five-year-olds after reading this review.

"The Family" is a good watch for some crime-based black comedy laughs, but may be more widely accessible once it hits DVD and Blu-Ray.

*SPOILER* In closing, I might add that De Niro's character ends up sharing his life story at a film critique of "Goodfellas" in France. It hits you the hardest when the opening notes of Tony Bennet's "Rags to Riches" sounds out loud on-screen, and it's possibly one of the biggest laugh out loud moments I've seen in quite a while. I never really thought about pop culture inside of pop culture… Pop-cultureception, if you will. *SPOILER*