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.

2017 - VALERIAN AND THE CITY OF A THOUSAND PLANETS, a large scale science fiction film

A very expensive science fiction film from the writer/director Luc Besson.  The film did not really find favor with the critcs and audiences stayed away basically bankrupting Besson's production company.

I don't really understand why the film flopped.  It seems better to me that the recent Star Wars films and the action scenes and special effects are very good.  I think the problem may have been in the casting with the two leads Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne who don't seem to have any type of chemistry between them, their love scenes are very stilted.

 

The film certainly has an eccentric cast, Rihanna, Ethan Hawke, the voice of John Goodman and Herbie Hancock.  

 

I enjoyed the film, I liked the world building, enjoyed the story line and was impressed with the visuals.

Running time, 137 minutes.

2014 - LUCY, science fiction action thriller from Luc Besson

In this highly ridiculous but highly entertaining science fiction thriller from Luc Besson.  Scarlett Johansson is forced to consume large quantities of some weird drug by an evil Korean gangster.  This drug expands the powers of her brain while draining her of her emotions and humanity.  She becomes sort of a "Mr. Spock" crossed with "Carrie" combination.

The emotionless character Lucy is the perfect part for the monotone none acting of Scarlett Johansson in this film, she's actually a fairly talented performer.  Throw in "anything for a paycheck" actor Morgan Freeman, a bunch of nasty Koreans and some French guys and you have the perfect bizarre cast to keep you watching.

At times Lucy seems like it's trying to say something about evolution and the human condition.  But just when things are getting a little pretentious, Besson throws in a gunfight between the bad Koreans and the French police guys  This is all highly entertaining if violent nonsense put together in an enjoyable and skillful manner.

Luc Besson may have made a ridiculous film but he was smart enough to keep the running time down to less than 90 minutes.  A very tall tale like this film doesn't bare a whole lot of scrutiny if any scrutiny at all.

89 minutes, written by Luc Besson.

2010 - THE EXTRAORDINRY ADVENTURES OF ADELE BLANC-SEC or Adele: Rise of the Mummy

Finally an adventure film featuring a female lead that actually gets it right.  After sitting through the terrible Lara Croft films this piece of whimsy from Luc Besson a director not exactly known for his light touch i.e. The Transporter series.

This film is based on a comic book series and mixes two plots.  One involves a pterosaur on the loose in Paris during the early 1900's and a bunch of Egyptian mummies brought back to life.

The heroine Adle Blanc-Sec manages to interact with all this craziness without running around in extremely tight or cleavage enhancing outfits.  She also doesn't perform ridiculously over the top action stunts that would seriously injure or pretty much kill anyone else.  However she does have a brain in her which she actually uses.  

Probably one of the better adventure films I have seen in a long time.

107 minutes, written by Luc Besson.