2013 - THE FAMILY, mix of action/comedy, make that black comedy

 Robert DeNiro and Michele Pfeiffer are a husband and wife who along with their two children are on the run from mobsters and hiding out in France as part of the witness protection program.  The ever scowling Tommy Lee Jones is the FBI agent in charge of watching over them.  The humor comes from the fact that DeNiro, Pfeiffer and their children are basically a bunch of hoodlums who have to integrate themselves into the gentile lives of a small French village.

The director is Luc Besson, you can find fault with a lot of the films he has directed, but you have to admit he is a good technician very good at staging action scenes.  However this film is all over the place.  There is some comedy, some black comedy and a very violent action finale.  It doesn't appear that Bresson ever found the right balance for this story.

The acting is decent,  DeNiro and Pfeiffer are professionals after all.  Tommy Lee Jones plays his usual grumpy guy character but he does play it fairly well.  There is a silly Goodfellas joke obviously stuck in the film because DeNiro was in that film.  Martin Scorcese of all people has an executive producer credit on the film, since this is basically a gangster movie and he's an expert on gangsters in the movies.  The Family is a well made but kind of hollow and silly film for the most part but an okay time killer.

 

The film was written by Luc Besson and Michael Caleo, the running time is 111 minutes.