42
Metascore
32 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 75Miami HeraldRene RodriguezMiami HeraldRene RodriguezThe Family is the rare breed of pitch-black comedy that effectively uses violence for laughs or gasps, depending on the situation.
- 60Village VoiceVillage VoiceYou 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.
- 60The New York TimesStephen HoldenThe New York TimesStephen HoldenThe 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.
- 50McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreMcClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreBesson 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.
- 50USA TodayClaudia PuigUSA TodayClaudia PuigThe Family is a fish-out-of-water/buddy comedy/Mob flick. But most of all, it's a missed opportunity.
- 50Rolling StonePeter TraversRolling StonePeter TraversRobert De Niro – wait for it – in the role of a mobster. Now there's an original idea.
- 40The DissolveNathan RabinThe DissolveNathan RabinThe film is curiously joyless and inert.
- 25Slant MagazineJesse CataldoSlant MagazineJesse CataldoA film whose only distinguishing characteristic is how big a mess it makes of its already meager ambitions.
- 20New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierNew York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierIt’s too bad we can’t take a hit out on The Family. This unexciting, unfunny would-be action satire is filled with Italian-American stereotypes, decades-old TV-style Mafia cliches, bits of business that never amount to anything and actors so much better than the hoary, one-joke material.