After becoming known as the director of classics like The Professional and The 5th Element, Luc Besson has had a sort of second life as the producer of… about a million different things. Now Besson’s back in the director’s chair for The Family, starring Robert DeNiro, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Tommy Lee Jones, a film about Robert Deniro’s family of ex-gangsters in the witness protection program who move to France, but can’t stop doing crime. Because you can take the Brooklyn out of Brooklyn, but you can’t Brooklyn something something. Like everything Besson does these days, it looks like a schlocky genre picture with a tone that seems to fall just short of tongue in cheek. It basically looks like Analyze This meets Mr. and Mrs. Smith Have Kids. (Luc Besson really can’t get enough little girls beating people up). Sadly, I don’t think this one’s going to improve anyone’s opinion of Deniro’s recent output. I haven’t seen anyone crap on their own legacy so thoroughly since OJ.
