Review of The Family (2013) by Brian B — 16 Dec 2013

The first time I saw a trailer for this I literally rolled my eyes and said "this looks like crap". Turns out it's not as crappy as I thought. It's actually a lot of fun. Robert DiNiro stars as a Fred, a mafia boss who takes his family into the witness protection program and hide out in France from the mob.

There they try to live normal lives, but being a Mafia family nothing is normal. The kids begin to "run" the school, the mom(Michelle Pfeiffer) blows up a grocery store, and Fred beats up a plumber.

Then, the men who are after them find out their location and come after them. I have to admit, I thought it was pretty funny and enjoyed it much more than I thought. This could have been a lot more "slap-sticky" then what it was, and I'm glad it wasn't.

It was kind of a straight comedy, where this family wasn't caricatures so much as just characters. A scene where DeNiro watches "Goodfellas" is pretty great. I'm sure a lot of people will think it's dumb and not good, and I can see why.

But late on a Friday night, it's exactly what you want, a mindless entertaining comedy. Good for a watch or two.