MOVIE REVIEWS: THE FAMILY

With The Family, critics are once again asking why an actor with the stature and accomplishments of Robert De Niro would appear in movies with such lousy scripts. “Remember when Robert De Niro was an interesting actor?” Kyle Smith asks in the New York Post. “These days his talent, like his character in The Family, is in the witness protection program, never to be seen again.” Several critics compare his performance in this movie to his performance in Goodfellas. But Joe Neumaier writes in the New York Daily News, “The Family is to Goodfellas — or any other good mobster flick — as egg noodles and ketchup are to spaghetti and marinara sauce.” But clearly Mark Olsen in the Los Angeles Times has mixed feelings about the movie, writing that director Luc “Besson serves up red meat action with the sweet feel of a confectionary, making his fun, forgettable The Family both better than might be expected and still not much of anything at all.”