Summary
The Family Plan doesn’t reinvent the wheel but delivers with a balance of comedy and action. It makes for the perfect date night or family movie.
Anybody who loves action movies has watched Mark Wahlberg save people’s lives in everything from Lone Survivor to 2 Guns to Four Brothers. His latest film, the Apple TV+ original movie The Family Plan, sees Wahlberg reach in his bag of tricks once again as a former government assassin.
It’s nothing you haven’t seen before, obviously, but provides a balanced enough experience for an enjoyable family movie night, if nothing more than that.
The Family Plan review and plot summary
The Family Plan follows the story of Dan Morgan (Wahlberg), who lives as a husband and father of three. However, as the world faces its biggest threat, Dan has to dig deep into his past as a government assassin to save the world.
We meet Dan as he talks a man into buying a brand-new car. After closing the deal, Dan heads inside to find out that he has again won salesman of the month at Planet Car Deal. When it comes time for him to get his photo taken for it, he spurns his boss, saying he has to make it home to his family.
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It’s Dan and his wife’s anniversary, and he comes home to hectic teenagers fighting over who will be the one to watch their brother while Mom and Dad head out for date night. During date night, a kid takes a picture of Dan, which is uploaded to social media. This leads people from Dan’s past to hunt him down at a grocery store. He fights off the man but returns home to set the stage for him and the family to get out of town.
Once the family hits the road, director Simon Cellan Jones directs one of the coolest chase sequences of the year. With the family asleep in the car, Dan has to weave in and out of traffic to take out some oncoming men on motorcycles. Jones’s ability to capture the adrenaline was great, but the editing here to weave in and out using the baby’s reactions to help Dan battle the men is killer.
Mark Wahlberg is the perfect action dad.
Wahlberg has played the perfect dad in films like Instant Family and Daddy’s Home, so it’s not much of a surprise he knocked the balance of Dad and kick-ass government assassin out of the park. He handles the action perfectly with some great hand-to-hand combat while also comforting his daughter after she finds out her boyfriend is cheating on her. It’s the type of role that suits Wahlberg, especially in the back half of his career.
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Most films struggle to get the family dynamic in the modern age, but writer David Coggeshall highlights the balance with authenticity. The attention to detail with Dan and Jessica’s kids, Nina and Kyle, and their teenage selves struggling with friends, boyfriends, and parents is why this movie will connect with the demographic.
Overall, The Family Plan is a solid little streaming action comedy that the whole family could enjoy. Mark Wahlberg delivers in a role he is familiar with as dad turned kick-ass action star, while Michelle Monaghan is the perfect opposite for him. Come for the adventure, stay for the rollercoaster of a ride that Simon Cellan Jones takes us on.
What did you think of The Family Plan? Comment below.
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