The Family Plan 2 (2025)

There were two main reasons for me watching The Family Plan 2 last month. First of all, I had recently watched The Family Plan. Second, it seemed to have some Christmas trimmings, which meant I could possibly include it alongside many other seasonal choices. It turns out that, like the film itself, neither of these reasons are good enough.

Director Simon Cellan Jones and writer David Coggeshall return to their main roles here, and they have most of the main cast members back with them. The main family members are Mark Wahlberg, Michelle Monaghan, Zoe Colletti, and Van Crosby, with the youngest one now portrayed by Peter and Theodore Lindsey. It's coming up to Christmas, and Dan (Wahlberg) wants the family to spend some quality time together, which is why he takes them over to London to reunite with Nina (Colletti). Nina is surprised by their arrival, especially as her boyfriend (Omar, played by Reda Elazouar) is using her shower at the time. Things don't look as if they'll be happy and idyllic, particularly when Dan is targeted by an individual (Kit Harington) with a very personal and powerful motive for revenge.

This is nonsense, and not in the same way that the first film was nonsense. That was silly, but it was entertaining enough to make the silliness feel like an acceptable enough price to pay for the plotting and action beats. This is just ridiculous, especially as viewers find out more and more unbelievable details about the backstory of our main character. And while the whole family are once again along for the ride, it feels like they're constantly being nudged to the side in order to keep the focus on Wahlberg and Harington, who are arguably the two least entertaining performers onscreen.

Okay, there are some decent sequences that make use of a couple of great locations (one being London, the other Paris), but nothing else about the film feels worth your time. The small twists are blindingly obvious, the action is dull and somehow a bit dated (they showcase some parkour as if it's the latest cool thing to crash into the action movie scene), and there's no kind of development of the family bond that we had last time around.

Wahlberg can do this kind of thing on auto-pilot, and that's what he seems to be doing for the majority of the runtime. Harington never really feels like a major threat, although he does better when his character isn't trying to be a super-villain. Monaghan, Colletti, and Crosby try to enjoy the scraps thrown their way, Elazouar is a decent addition to the main group, and I was pleasantly surprised to see Sanjeev Bhaskar in a small role. 

Feel free to pick this if you can't think of any other way to spend 106 minutes, but don't pick it just because you enjoyed the first movie. And certainly don't pick it if you want an action film that might also give you some Christmassy warmth and colour. Jones ands Coggeshall have worked together here to deliver the bare minimum in all regards. And I'm annoyed that I will inevitably watch a third instalment if one is made. 

4/10

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The Family Plan (2023)

It is frustrating for me that my dislike of Mark Wahlberg appears to be in inverse proportion to how often I watch his features. Whatever you think of him, or of his acting skills, he often ends up in entertainment that appeals to those after some silly and fun distraction.

The Family Plan is interchangeable with a whole heap of other movies we have seen in recent years about family men forced to confront a past in which they were super-skilled and deadly. Wahlberg is that man, of course, and he has a whole family unit (his wife, Michelle Monaghan, two teens, Zoe Colletti and Van Crosby, and a baby) completely unaware of his dangerous history. Can Wahlberg keep his family in the dark as various people start trying to kill them while they head off on an unexpected road trip?

Writer David Coggeshall knows what he needs to do here, and he does it. This is a take action comedy, but it’s equally a star vehicle for Wahlberg. If you think that Wahlberg isn’t going to emerge victorious then you haven’t seen any other Wahlberg movies recently. While there aren’t any truly memorable exchanges, nor any surprises in the plotting, the screenplay sets everything up and moves along quickly enough to stop viewers from asking too many questions.

Director Simon Cellan Jones has, as of today, made his most recent three films with Wahlberg in the lead role, which would make him appear to have been favoured by the one-time head of the Funky Bunch. He shows an affinity for the decidedly average, ensuring that everything here will be forgotten mere days after you have watched it. And I speak from experience, having already watched the sequel (stay tuned, review pending) while constantly confusing this with Back In Action.

Wahlberg is as Wahlberg is. I am not sure anyone would consider themselves a big fan of the star nowadays, aside from maybe his immediate family, but he at least feels like a decent casting choice here. Monaghan is unsurprisingly left with a bit less to do, but she is still able to have fun in a few scenes that allow her to actively participate. Colletti and Crosby are both okay, Maggie Q plays a character unable to surprise viewers due to the fact that she is played by Maggie Q, and Ciaran Hinds is effectively heavy-handed and gruffly menacing as the villain with a very strong motivation for getting his best employee back.

I can’t deny that I had some fun with this, and a couple of the action beats were more fun than any of the attempts at comedy. I won’t ever rewatch it though, and it is just one more piece of Mark Wahlberg “streaming content” to put in the big pile that already includes the likes of Spenser Confidential, Arthur The King, and Play Dirty, to name just the first lot that sprung to mind.

6/10

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Netflix And Chill: The Deliverance (2024)

I have been aware of director Lee Daniels for years now, but not actually gone out of my way to watch any of his movies. The one exception to that is The Paperboy, a wonderfully odd and trashy murder mystery. But, when I saw people sharing screenshot of Glenn Close uttering THAT line in this movie, I knew that I had to see The Deliverance as soon as possible. I'm glad that I did. It's a well-made horror movie that doesn't feel the need to be witty, snotty, or constantly winking at horror genre fans, and I'd say that it's a better exorcist movie than at least four movies in that franchise. It's certainly miles better than the dire Exorcist: Believer.

The plot is standard stuff. Ebony (Andra Day) is struggling to maintain a healthy household that includes her own mother, Alberta (Glenn Close), and her three children. There's the eldest boy, Nate (Caleb McLaughlin), a daughter named Shante (Demi Singleton), and a pre-teen boy named Andre (Anthony B. Jenkins). Ebony has a history of alcohol abuse, which has fuelled incidents of violence, and therefore has the added pressure of being visited by Cynthia (Mo'Nique), a caseworker representing Child Protective Services. When things start to get strange, and dangerous, in their home, Ebony has to try to keep her family safe while convincing others that she isn't the root cause of everything. 

Clocking in at just under two hours, The Deliverance is deliberately paced to give some time to the main characters, and to show how many difficulties they have in their lives even before something evil starts to play havoc with them. Daniels has been quoted as being slightly unhappy with having to placate Netflix in the final structuring of the film, but it seems as if the two have worked together well to achieve something impressive. This is grounded horror that also has the time to explore some non-supernatural issues that many of us have experienced, and it keeps increasing the stakes incrementally on the way to a climax that features someone battling for a soul that you actually really hope to see saved.

Writers David Coggeshall and Elijah Bynum may not be the first people you would think of when it comes to something both so effective and weighty, but they do a very good job of showing a loving family working hard to repair the cracks in their relationships as some external force tries to keep them apart as it makes use of their bodies to commit some horrible acts. There are a number of expected moments, hard to avoid with this sub-genre of horror, but also one or two moments that still manage to surprise and impress.

The cast also play a major part in making this a success though, handling the material with a straightforward and serious approach that allows it all to feel creepier and more dangerous for everyone involved. Day has one or two moments in which she has to act drunk, or almost cripplingly overwhelmed by the urge to drink, and those aren't her best scenes, but she's otherwise excellent and completely believable as the mother who has to dig in and find more reserves of strength when she is starting to suspect that she has nothing more left in her. Close enjoys playing a very unrestrained and bawdy character, and she gets to deliver the most memorable piece of dialogue, and Mo'Nique does well in portraying someone who gets to become more than just a potential villain by the time the end credits roll. Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor is also very good, playing the typical character who knows what is going on ahead of everyone else. The younger cast members may not always match their adult co-stars, but Jenkins, McLaughlin, and Singleton certainly don't let anyone down, and Jenkins is used particularly well for that youthful innocence that demonic forces are so often more eager to corrupt.

I'm sure that some (many?) will watch this and consider it a bit unsatisfying. I think the natural drama and the supernatural elements are blended together really well, but I can imagine some people being impatient with it. Stick with it though, be patient, and I hope you will feel rewarded by the time it ends. And if this does well, who knows, maybe we could get more horror movies like this, ones that don't feel as if they have to focus on teens or the latest trends and technology. I might sound like an old fart here, but it's oddly refreshing to watch something now that doesn't seem to be trying hard to hold the attention of viewers who shouldn't be the target demographic for it anyway. The parameters of the sub-genre still work against it, but Daniels and his entire cast and crew work hard to keep pushing right up against them.

7/10

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Orphan: First Kill (2022)

Although this may seem like a sequel that has come along too late, and wasn’t anything that people were asking for, it must be said that the fanbase for Orphan has just grown and grown over the years. It is such a perfect mix of the camp and the twisted, despite also being completely unbelievable. I wasn’t sure if this second film, a prequel (as the title implies), would be able to sit alongside the first film, but I am happy to say that it does.

It all starts at the institute where Leena (Isabelle Fuhrman) is being kept. She is very violent, smart, and dangerous. And it doesn’t take her long to figure out an escape plan. Out in the wide world, Leena decides to take on the identity of a missing girl named Esther, which allows her to get from Estonia to America, to then be “reunited” with her family. Can she keep up the facade for long though, and will she be tripped up by the fact that her potential mother (played by Julia Stiles) seems to suspect that something isn’t quite right.

Directed this time around by William Brent Bell (a man who has delivered numerous films that don’t exactly set the world alight, but who also seemed to pleasantly surprise many viewers with The Boy before spoiling things with Brahms: The Boy II), Orphan: First Kill isn’t the most inventive film, nor is it visually stunning (although there are some lovely shots here and there), but that doesn’t matter really, because the big selling point is the entertainingly deadly main character. It is a film saved by a middle section that absolutely understands how best to rework that central character.. There are a couple of fun twists, and everything is set up in a way that starts a clock running. Viewers know that Esther will need to act quickly, and they also know what she is capable of. 

The script, worked on by David Coggeshall developing the story and ideas of David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick and Alex Mace, has to tie in to the first movie, which is where it is weakest, but allows for some fun trickery with the details of a backstory that viewers will assume they already know. The notes are the same, but this is a very different tune being played.

Fuhrman, needing to be digitally de-aged this time around, is just as much fun in the role as she was last time. In fact, she’s arguably even more enjoyable to watch here, having less scenes that require her to hide her true nature. Stiles is equally enjoyable, pitching her performance perfectly at the level best suiting the tone of the material. Rossif Sutherland and Matthew Finlan (as “daddy” and “big brother”, respectively) aren’t quite as good, although the latter works very well in his scenes alongside Stiles, and it is a shame that the writers didn’t think to push things further. Have a bigger selection of characters to cause problems, have more troubling secrets hidden away under a civil and well-to-do exterior.

If you enjoyed the first movie then you should find enough to enjoy here. Although it ultimately fails to match the highs and surprises of Orphan, this makes an admirable attempt to give people what they want while trying to add one or two sudden turns. I don’t think a third film is possible, considering the timeline already covered, but if it is . . . I will check it out.

6/10

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