The Family (2013)
Average Rating: 4.8/10
Reviews Counted: 97
Fresh: 32 | Rotten: 65
Luc Besson's The Family suffers from an overly familiar setup and a number of jarring tonal shifts.
Average Rating: 5/10
Critic Reviews: 24
Fresh: 7 | Rotten: 17
Luc Besson's The Family suffers from an overly familiar setup and a number of jarring tonal shifts.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.2/5
User Ratings: 27,423
Movie Info
In the off-beat action comedy "The Family," a mafia boss and his family are relocated to a sleepy town in France under the witness protection program after snitching on the mob. Despite the best efforts of Agent Stansfield (Tommy Lee Jones) to keep them in line, Fred Manzoni (Robert DeNiro), his wife Maggie (Michelle Pfeiffer) and their children Belle (Dianna Agron) and Warren (John D'Leo) can't help but revert to old habits and blow their cover by handling their problems the "family" way,
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All Critics (97) | Top Critics (24) | Fresh (32) | Rotten (65)
This is a deliberately off-kilter, cheerfully violent, hit-and-miss effort with just enough moments of inspiration to warrant a recommendation.
Top CriticA movie with a PG brain and a NC-17 body count, unsuitable for audiences of any age.
A black comedy that doesn't begin to jell but has a sweetheart of a cast and the odd diverting moment.
The casting of Robert De Niro as an ex-Mafioso hiding in witness protection is witty in only the silliest, most superficial way. It's a joke with its own tinny, built-in laugh track.
The Family is a film at once strange and intriguing. It can't seem to settle on a tone.
The film isn't worthy of De Niro's stature, in the gangster sub-genre or otherwise.
I recommend The Family in the same way I might mint-flavored gum. It's not what you would hope for, but when choosing at random, you'd do worse a little more often than not.
Neither comedy nor drama, 'The Family' is a combination of both that sometimes works when it decides what it wants to be.
De Niro is a pleasure to watch in a role that calls on him to exercise his comedic chops with some degree of subtlety.
Well cast and sharply directed by Besson, who also co-wrote the script, "The Family" flows easily for the first half.
Writer-director Luc Besson can do much better than this.
a surprisingly flat satire
Beware of This Family
A strange mash-up of a vicious mob yarn squeezed into a foul-mouthed, movie-length sitcom.
Why does stuff like this have to happen?
Besson and Michael Caleo just never manage to hit that sweet spot between comedy and drama, much less give us a reason to care about this unrepentant family of criminals.
The film's remorseless brutality in response to relatively minor transgressions is hard to swallow, even for those with the darkest senses of humor.
The Family is filled with Besson's signature visual wit, boasting occasionally sharp satire aimed equally at both sides of the Atlantic, but he lets us down in the end through the deadly combination of broad characters and a rambling narrative.
Great chemistry from the cast and the thrilling action made it entertaining for all.
Talent abounds but the movie can't balance the comedy and drama.
Quite literally self-parody--only without the self-awareness of Analyze This.
Obviously Robert De Niro was abducted by aliens, and the fellow we've watched sleepwalk through nearly 20 years of shlock is a pod person. A pod person with a terrible agent.
Despite the excessive violence, this is an enjoyable film providing needed escapist entertainment, well directed by Besson with fine performances by all, especially Argon.
"Luc Besson has done the seemingly impossible. He's resuscitated the corpse of Robert De Niro's career."
While it qualifies as OK entertainment -- especially for early September (that dead zone between summer blockbusters and fall award contenders) -- The Family is ultimately nothing to write home about.
Facetious and amusingly amoral, it lacks cohesion and consistency - and the carnage is far from comedic.
Audience Reviews for The Family
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Discussion Forum
| Topic | Last Post | Replies |
|---|---|---|
| Tomato-meter ? | 2 hours ago | 70 |
| Usual tell | 21 days ago | 6 |
| The Family vs. Analyze This | 2 hours ago | 3 |
| The Family 2013 in Hd online | 14 days ago | 0 |
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Latest News on The Family
September 13, 2013:
10 Witness Relocation Program MoviesIn honor of this weekend's "The Family," starring Robert De Niro.
September 12, 2013:
Critics Consensus: Insidious: Chapter 2 is a So-So FrightfestThis week at the movies, we've got a bedeviled family (Insidious: Chapter 2, starring Patrick Wilson...
September 12, 2013:
Robert De Niro's Best MoviesWitness protection movies are nothing new, but this weekend's The Family has a better pedigree than...
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Foreign Titles
- The Family (DE)
- The Family (UK)
