THE FAMILY PLAN (2023)

THE FAMILY PLAN (2023)

Tagline: Mark Your Calendar, Plan Your Getaway. 

(Action, Comedy, Stop…Collaborate And Listen) [PG-13]

What is ice, ice, baby?

In this one, Dan Morgan is just trying to raise his family with his wife Jessica. Then on their anniversary, someone takes a picture of him that ends up on social media and now his former boss knows where he is. Now Dan must take his family on a technology-free road trip from Buffalo to Las Vegas to pick up new identities, but Dan has forgotten one thing, he hasn’t told his family he’s a former assassin. 

First off, this movie is not without its flaws. In one scene the bad guys are tracking Dan and his family with a tracking device which makes sense, but after that is ditched, they still find ways to know exactly where he is going? It doesn’t make a ton of sense, but this is a comedy that carefully hides any plot issues with really fun antics and some heartwarming moments. 

I am not the biggest Mark Wahlberg (UNCHARTED) fan and I know I have said that in other reviews, but in this role he’s actually perfect at balancing the funny and serious sides of his character Dan, which I really enjoyed. I am however a huge fan of Michelle Monaghan (MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: III) who plays Jessica in this. I thought she did a great job of portraying a mother and having the instincts you would expect in a real-life situation if the events of this movie were to really happen. This is my first time seeing Zoe Margaret Colletti (SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK) in a role and she does a solid job as Nina in this. I love the fact that they kind of spell out how twisted your viewpoint can get when you are dating someone who is basically all messed up. It also kind of takes a dig at the dark side of social justice extremism in Universities, but does it in a way that most people are probably just going to miss. Ciarán Hinds (JOHN CARTER) is good in this as McCaffery but might have hit the screen a bit too late in the game. I also kind of disliked who his character was, but it did make sense in a way. This is a decent outing for Van Crosby who plays Kyle. I liked the chemistry that Kyle and Dan had as father and son. There is a bit of irony concerning Van in the film to look out for. Maggie Q (THE PROTÉGÉ) also makes an appearance in this as Gwen and is awesome. The only downside was that the setup for her character was super obvious from the first time we see her, so there wasn’t much guessing that needed to be done there.

The pacing does seem kind of slow at times, even for an action flick but I actually enjoyed getting to know the characters a little and getting some taste of what each was going through. I was never bored. Because of the extended character development, we do get an hour and 58 minute run time here, but it’s still 23 minutes shorter than TRUE LIES which this movie sort of patterns itself after. 

I liked the soundtrack in this one quite a bit and it definitely seemed more geared towards 90s kids than anything else, but overall this one is quite a blast. I was kind of caught off guard as to how fun it was. This movie was released on the Apple + streaming service, but it’s actually a SKY DANCE MEDIA production. This is the studio that produced most or all of the MISSION IMPOSSIBLE films as well as HEART OF STONE and GHOSTED. 

Overall this movie is probably going to anger people who don’t like nuclear families, guns, principled parenting, or fathers who don’t look like total idiots. For me, it was an easy 5 out of 7. I wish we had more pro-family films like this. 

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF SKYDANCE MEDIA AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.