The Family: Blu-ray Review
The Movie:
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 CIA Agent Stansfield (Tommy Lee Jones) to keep them in line, Fred Manzoni (Robert De Niro), 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, enabling their former mafia cronies to track them down. Chaos ensues as old scores are settled in the unlikeliest of settings.
Luc Besson treads the line of action and comedy once again but this time he is directing a group of legendary actors. The story starts up pretty much immediately which is good because I can count plenty of times where the build up and introductions take too long in turn causing the movie to drag. The comedy in the film is that of your usual “fish out of water” type film where the different members of the family do their best to try to adjust but eventually fall back on their old ways. De Niro has found a spot for comedy in his acting portfolio and he does it very well. His no nonsense demeanor mixes extremely well with the awkward situations that his character gets into which makes for some entertaining moments. Pfeiffer, just like De Niro, has perfected the art of mixing acting styles. She plays the hardcore mob mom role very well but is also great in comedic situations without being overly goofy. Even after all of these years she still “Has It”. Agron and D’Leo each give great performances. Agron is able to deliver a performance that makes us think she is a sweet, young girl but she can easily flip the switch and become so physical. Those scenes were some of my favorite. It’s funny to see D’Leo do his thing. He basically comes across a lot older than what his character is supposed to be and mix that with high school and him basically being a younger version of De Niro and that made it pretty hilarious. This is a pretty fun film (even though at times it somewhat struggles to find what kind of film it wants to be) with a really good cast that you can easily get through without having to feel like the movie is moving along at a snail’s pace. This is one that you’ll enjoy as well as getting some good laughs.
Special Features:
Making The Family – A pretty basic behind the scenes feature with interview from the cast and crew.
The Many Meanings of Fu*%! – A compilation video of use of the Fu*% throughtout the film.
