The Family
Relativity Media | Release Date: September 13, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
42
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 32 Critic Reviews
Positive:
8
Mixed:
14
Negative:
10
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
Los Angeles TimesMark OlsenSep 12, 2013
A messy brew that is a bit too slack to get all the way to actually being good. Read full review
60
The New York TimesStephen HoldenSep 12, 2013
The movie has holes galore. It has abrupt tonal shifts, an incoherent back story and abandoned subplots. It doesn’t even try for basic credibility. But buoyed by hot performances, it sustains a zapping electrical energy. Read full review
60
Village VoiceSherrie LiSep 12, 2013
You can be chuckling one minute then cowering and cringing the next, which tinges the humor with apprehension and taints the brutality with absurdity. That isn't to say that the combo doesn't work at all. Read full review
51
Film.comMatt PatchesSep 12, 2013
It’s a sadistic comedy, both in bloodshed and groan-worthy gags. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterStephen FarberSep 12, 2013
Their inside jape is unfortunately not as much fun for the audience as it may have been for the filmmakers, though it does have its piquant moments. But it’s not consistently entertaining enough either as a spoof or as a thriller. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter TraversSep 12, 2013
Robert De Niro – wait for it – in the role of a mobster. Now there's an original idea. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia PuigSep 12, 2013
The Family is a fish-out-of-water/buddy comedy/Mob flick. But most of all, it's a missed opportunity. Read full review
50
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreSep 12, 2013
Besson aims his movie at anyone who’s ever held a grudge at an ill-mannered French waiter or clerk (haughty, and by the way, they’d NEVER condescend to speak to you in English). If that includes you, The Family has serves up a little wish-fulfillment payback, with a baseball bat. Read full review
40
Total FilmNeil SmithNov 21, 2013
Though it’s good to see Michelle Pfeiffer married to the mob again, she alone can’t redeem a lumbering farce that takes an unpleasantly sadistic glee in violence, murder and intimidation. Read full review
40
EmpireNick de SemlyenNov 19, 2013
Another to airbrush out of the De Niro back catalogue. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinSep 15, 2013
But Besson — by no means a bad filmmaker — has gotten rich off that kind of violence that upsets no one, least of all jaded international action audiences. He tries to have it both ways and fails some of cinema’s most precious resources. Read full review
40
VarietyAndrew BarkerSep 12, 2013
Curiously airless, weightless and tonally uncertain, the picture mixes mass murder, dismemberment and rape threats with sappy sentimentality, fish-out-of-water gags and groan-worthy meta-humor, yet very little of it manages to leave any impression. Read full review
40
Arizona RepublicKerry LengelSep 12, 2013
Yes, The Family has skills. They’re like “The Incredibles” — except they’re heroes for sadists and sociopaths only. Read full review
40
The DissolveNathan RabinSep 12, 2013
The film is curiously joyless and inert. Read full review
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