The Family Plan - A Fun to Watch Action Comedy Movie

I was not aware about this movie until I noticed it in the website of newly released film/shows in various streaming platform. As the premise really looked interesting for me, I watched it as soon as I got the chance on Saturday, a day after it was released on AppleTV+. Let's get on with it then.

Brief Story Line

On the outside, Dan Morgan (Mark Wahlberg - Me Time, All the Money in the World etc) seemed like a normal suburban man working as car salesman and living with his wife Jessica (Michelle Monaghan - Echoes mini series, Eagle Eye etc), their teenage children Nina (Zoe Colletti - Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark etc), Kyle (Van Crosby - Splitting Up Together TV series etc) and baby Max. However, apparently Dan used to work for a dangerous person named McCaffrey (Ciarán Hinds - Treason mini series, First Man etc). 

So when his whereabouts was found out, Dan had to avoid being killed by escaping to Las Vegas and cover it as a family road trip, while trying to hide the secret from them.

So how would the story conclude? You could find out in this movie.

End of Brief Story Line

As I said, the premise of the movie was what made me interested. Although it looked simple and probably did not have the most original plot, but I really enjoyed myself when I watched this film. I thought the family dynamic was nice and their chemistry was a joy to see which made me glad that I decided to give this a try.

For an action comedy, the action itself was pretty good. I like Mark Wahlberg's fighting style and he still looked more than capable of doing those scenes despite already in his early 50s. He also served as one of the producers in this film, so I guess he liked the story a lot that he decided to produce it. Michelle Monaghan seemed pretty convincing too as the mother of three children and having difficult relationship with her teenage daughter. Btw, the children were also nice and not the totally annoying type that did not make us sympathize with them. And obviously the baby was a welcome addition as he looked cute and adorable. Btw, aside from those names, there was another well known cast of Maggie Q (Fear the Night, Live Free or Die Hard etc) whose character was a predictable one but still gave a bit of color. 

The film was written by David Coggeshall (Orphan: First Kill, Prey etc) and directed by Simon Cellan Jones which might not be a household name for major blockbuster movies, though he did receive few BAFTA nominations for his work in several British TV series and films. I was actually quite surprised when I found out that the film was trashed by critics as I thought it was quite enjoyable. OK the plot might be thin and some things might be too much over the top or absurd, but as an action comedy movie, I thought it managed to deliver and was pretty entertaining. For almost 2 hours, the movie never felt dull and few times I chuckled a bit on the situation they were in, plus I also admired how Dan managed to keep his secret through most of the movie. Before I forgot, there were quite funny mid end credit scenes in here.

Overall to me this was an action comedy that was slightly better than the ones released in the cinemas or streaming service in the past few years. At least this was still fun to watch and exciting as well. Be warned that there were some violent scenes (but not the truly brutal and gore type) and few curses. It was after all rated PG-13. So if you are looking for a rather entertaining action comedy film with simple plot and plenty of good enough action scenes and fun moments, then I think you would enjoy this like I did.

Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars