Yes, No, Maybe So? "Malavita"... Which is Now "The Family"
Wednesday, June 5, 2013 at 11:07PM
NATHANIEL R in Dianna Agron, Luc Besson, Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert De Niro, Tommy Lee Jones, Yes No Maybe So, comedy
It's not every month, hell, it's not every year when we get the trailer to a new Michelle Pfeiffer movie so naturally we have to talk about Malavita again. Or, I guess, The Family as it's been rechristened before release. It's always a pity when a movie ditches a really specific title for one that could work for thousands of movies and thus stakes no claim on personality whatsoever.
Perhaps the trailer itself has personality. Let's watch and discuss.
[watches]
Okay. Only watch that if you're the kind of person who doesn't care about spoilers. IF you are this kind of person i envy you because the movie studios don't care about them either - they love shovin' them into trailers. I get the sense you're basically seeing the whole movie here. But we gotta break it down anyway as we do because...
LA PFEIFFER IS BACK
YES
Michelle Pfeiffer saying "merci"
This might be funny. It's kinda tough to tell in the trailer because so much of comedy depends on good editing and trailers never have a sense of that since they're cutting entirely different scenes and dialogue together for their specific 2 minute effect
The return of Michelle Pfeiffer's Married to the Mob accent "we're not in Brooklyn anymore"
Michelle Pfeiffer driving that car with those sunglasses
Tommy Lee Jones has been on a real roll lately. Does this end the party or continue it?
and Michelle Pfeiffer as fire starter. Bring it bitch.
NO
After Silver Linings Playbook, I'd like to believe that Robert DeNiro is back to acting rather than cashing in but a mob comedy is probably not the place to believe that.
Whenever trailers show this much of the wink-wink laughs and action, I worry about "those are all the best parts" and there's a lot of ways in which this might be super offensive (xenophobia, "hurting people is hilarious!" immaturity and so on) rather than funny.
MAYBE SO
Luc Besson, in the director's seat, isn't totally reliable.
The casting of the kids looks great visually but Dianna Agron coasts a lot on her looks and when you're playing Pfeiffer's daughter... well, she better take it up a notch. Pfeiffer never did that and good lord she could have coasted for decades with the ones she got.
Also: Can you believe my restraint that I only used one photo of Pfeiffer to illustrate this?
Here's the trailer if you don't mind spoilers.
Are you a Yes, No or Maybe So?
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