The Family
The Mob Family of Giovanni Manzoni (Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, John D’Leo and Dianna Agron) become Fred Blake, Maggie Blake, Warren Blake and Belle Blake under the Witness Protection Program and end up in a small town in Normandy—not since the landing has there been more gunfighting.
This could have been and should have been funny, but it wasn’t—it was mostly slow with the only real action taking place during the last 10 minutes of the show.
Of the six people in the theatre on Sunday afternoon, no one laughed even once during the couple of hours.
Lines like: “Why did you beat him to a pulp? He’s the only plumber in 20 miles,” isn’t exactly worth even a chuckle.
De Niro seems uncomfortable in this one. The only time he seems to come alive is during the scenes when he’s talking about the “Goodfellas.”
Pfeiffer sometimes has a Brooklyn accent, but the young Blakes perform well.
In addition, Tommy Lee Jones as FBI Agent, Robert Stanfield, could have been playing a Men in Black role—the dialogue was almost the same.
So, The Family made $14.5 million this weekend. It had a $30-million budget (likely used to pay off the ‘wise guys’).
The big box office winner was Insidious Chapter 2, which was made with a $5 million budget and brought in over $41 million.
This was the first time that De Niro and Pfeiffer have teamed up since Stardust and it’s too bad they didn’t reunite with a hit.
This isn’t worth your time or your money, but better shows are coming, I promise.
I give The Family one and a half reels.
