The Family (2013)

Director: Luc Besson

Starring: Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Tommy Lee Jones, Dianna Agron, John D’Leo

Relocating must be a bitch. I wouldn’t know… I’ve never had to relocate to a new town, never had to get adjusted to a totally different way of life in a new country. But then I’ve also never been on the wrong side of the law, never had cause to be placed in the Witness Protection Program.  How frustrating it would be to have to change my name, move away from everyone I’ve ever known, and live under 24-hour surveillance on the outside chance that someone figures out where I’ve gone. The idea there is that you don’t want to draw attention to yourself, but the Manzoni family just can’t help themselves.

Giovanni Manzoni (Robert De Niro) had to pack up the family and move from Brooklyn, New York to Normandy, France after snitching on some fellow mafiosos and having a $20 million bounty placed on his head. Now, all he wants to do is tell his story in memoir form, even if he’ll be the only one who ever reads it. FBI agent Robert Stansfield (Tommy Lee Jones) isn’t too thrilled with Giovanni’s idea, as he believes (and rightly so) that a testimonial will only serve to alert Giovanni’s enemies as to his whereabouts. Giovanni is prideful and impulsive. He’ll break a man’s leg in several places, with two separate blunt instruments, just to prove a point and earn respect. Only then will he drive the injured to a hospital. Others aren’t so lucky, especially those who won’t help him in his quest to have clear tap water.

Truth be told, the only truly level-headed person in the Manzoni clan is the family dog. Giovanni’s wife Maggie (Michelle Pfeiffer) doesn’t care for being disrespected either, and a lot of supermarkets in her path tend to explode. Their son, Warren (John D’Leo), might get beat up on the first day of school, but he’s a natural at picking up on the social cliques and their symbiotic relationships to one another. In no time at all, he’s the king of the school’s drug business.

Coming into “The Family,” I expected that the weak link in the cast would be Dianna Agron, due to my prejudice against the TV series “Glee.” Shame on me because Agron, as Manzoni’s daughter Belle, is one of the movie’s strongpoints and the source of its biggest laugh-out-loud moment. If you were unfamiliar with her family background, as would be the case of any of the residents of Normandy, you would take Belle’s deceptively sweet appearance at face value. Especially if you’re a horny teenage boy looking for some action. When a few of the locals try to put the moves on her, Belle shows them just how deeply disturbed she is, beating one of the boys to a bloody pulp with a tennis racket (the business end of which winds up broken clean in half) and then stealing his car.

The adults are less impressive, but that’s because they’re playing all-too familiar roles. Tommy Lee Jones excels at playing easily annoyed enforcers of the law. Robert De Niro has played his role so many times, in both comedies and serious dramas, that he could be sleepwalking and you’d never know the difference. A truly surreal moment comes when Giovanni is asked to partake in a film debate. The intended film was to have been “Some Came Running,” starring Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, but is changed at the last minute. “Some Came Running” is relatable enough for Giovanni, himself being a novelist with a dark background, but it’s when the replacement film turns out to be “Goodfellas” that things get really interesting. Aside from the fact that this gives Giovanni a forum to openly talk about his history in the mob, the vision of a Robert De Niro character watching another Robert De Niro movie is just brilliant.

Where “The Family” goes wrong is in its imperfect balance of comedy and violence. The climax focuses so much on the exchange of gunfire that it seems comedy stepped out for a smoke break and forgot to return. I expected a little more from the director of “Léon: The Professional” and “The Fifth Element,” as well as the writer of “District 13” and the “Taken” movies. Perhaps Luc Besson will have better luck with his next movie, the soon-to-be released “Lucy” starring Scarlett Johansson and Morgan Freeman… or perhaps it will be burdened by an imbalance of its own, this time because of a reliance on special effects. One area in which Besson has remained consistent is his ability to make his movies look interesting, whether because of the subject matter, the casting, or a mixture of both. “The Family,” while not a modern classic like some of Besson’s other works, is entertaining enough that it is easy to have fun with it. Fun, dare I say it, for the whole family.

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

Director: Joe Johnston

Starring: Chris Evans, Tommy Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving, Hayley Atwell, Sebastian Stan, Dominic Cooper, Neal McDonough, Derek Luke, Stanley Tucci

Even if I were not someone who would be classified as 4-F, or medically unfit for military service, it’s still not something I could ever do. Inevitably, because I cling to logic and reason, I would be incapable of following all orders without ever once questioning them. So, no, I would not be a suitable candidate in the slightest. This does not mean that I cannot appreciate the sacrifice of those who do enlist, do follow their orders to the letter, and give life and limb for their country. That takes courage of an exceptional quality.

It’s 1942, and America has become involved in World War II. Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is a patriotic kid from Brooklyn, New York, who just wants to serve his country. His problem is a long list of medical hardships, including asthma, and the fact that he’s far too short and skinny. He signs up five times, each in a different city, which is illegal. Rather than get into trouble, this actually earns him the ticket he’s been looking for, though not quite in the way he’d imagined. Dr. Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci) believes Rogers to be the perfect candidate for the United States Army’s Super Soldier program. Col. Chester Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones) balks at the idea of this 90-pound kid being the face of the future for the military, but is soon impressed by Rogers’ bravery. While this is going on, Nazi officer Johann Schmidt, aka the Red Skull (Hugo Weaving), is leading an incursion into Norway to acquire the Tesseract, an artifact of unlimited power that was accidentally left behind by the Asgardians in the 10th Century (as documented in “Thor”).

Revealing that Steve Rogers takes part in the Super Soldier program, that it works, and that he becomes Captain America is no real spoiler. It would also not be a spoiler to say that the movie ends with him frozen in ice, to be thawed out 70 years later, as this is revealed by the movie’s opening scene. Much of the charm of “Captain America” comes from the fact that it takes place in a time long past. Everything you see is evocative of the period. Even the colors of the film are faded (aside from Cap’s red, white & blue uniform and the crimson of Schmidt’s disfigured cranium) to give it an aged look.

As with all the recent Marvel Comics superhero films, “Captain America” boasts a cast of incredible talent. Tommy Lee Jones is as cool as he usually is in movies where he’s not trying too hard to be over-the-top. Sebastian Shaw as Rogers’ best friend, ‘Bucky’ Barnes, probably does the best job of the supporting cast in demonstrating how the changes in Rogers have changed how he is perceived. Before, when Rogers was a weakling, Bucky was the ladies man who would secure an extra date for his buddy out of sympathy. Now, the tables have turned, and Bucky can’t believe he’s now the one who feels invisible to the girls. That’s not jealousy, or at least Bucky is too good a friend to admit it is. With British agent Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell), Rogers is finally able to break through his insecurities and talk to a woman, though he’s still got a lot to learn about the opposite sex, and she’s not afraid to tell him so.

Among the characters requiring only a brief amount of screen time, there are many familiar faces, especially for fans of the fantasy genre. David Bradley (“Harry Potter,” “Game of Thrones”) plays the Norwegian keeper of the Tesseract, Natalie Dormer (“The Tudors,” “Game of Thrones”) plays the American officer who steals a kiss from Steve Rogers, and Richard Armitage (“The Hobbit” trilogy) plays the Nazi saboteur sent to put a halt to the Americans’ Super Soldier program.

“Captain America: The First Avenger” is among the very best of Marvel’s superhero movies, and the experience of those involved in its creation is a clear factor. Chris Evans had come in having already played a superhero before, in the admittedly poor quality “Fantastic Four” movies. Meanwhile, the film’s director, Joe Johnston, has been here before as well. 1991’s “The Rocketeer,” starring Billy Campbell, Jennifer Connelly, Alan Arkin and Timothy Dalton, was itself a superhero comic set in the WWII era. “Captain America” is a much better movie than its star’s and director’s previous entries in the genre, and is a wonderful choice for something to pop into your DVD/Blu Ray player on some of America’s more patriotic holidays.