THE FAMILY PLAN 2 (APPLE TV+) (2025)

SYNOPSIS: Dan Morgan (Mark Wahlberg) is many things: a devoted husband, a loving father, a celebrated car salesman. He’s also a former assassin. And when his past catches up to his present, he’s forced to take his unsuspecting family (Michelle Monaghan, Zoe Colletti and Van Crosby) on a road trip unlike any other.

MOVIE REVIEW:

Apple TV streaming title, The Family Plan 2 joins Hollywood’s long list of unwanted sequel as we brace ourselves for another outing from ex-operative turned security firm expert, Dan (Mark Wahlberg) and his family.

Director Simon Cellen Jones and screenwriter David Coggeshall returns as well, concocting yet another action-packed, laugh free sequel. The story has it that Dan wanted to spend Christmas with his eldest child, Nina (Zoe Colletti) who is studying in London. Thus he brought his entire family including wife, Jessica (Michelle Monaghan), his sons Kyle (Van Crosby) and Max (Theodore and Peter Lindsey) for the trip.

Once the entire brood touched down in London, Dan not only meets his daughter’s boyfriend, Omar (Reda Elazouar) but his evil half-brother, Finn (Kit Harington) who not only wants his father’s wealth but also plans to take revenge on Dan, the privileged son.

Since the kids in the original has grown a couple of inches, there’s a lot of jokes on being an adolescent liked driving lessons, being an overprotective father to his daughter’s romance partner etc. Coggeshall tries hard to milk every situation for some funny gags but failed miserably. Honestly, there’s barely anything to chuckle at. Even Dan’s supposedly ex-Russian lover fails to stir anything amusing.

But then The Family Plan 2 attempts to mimic a typical globe-trotting spy adventure so almost half of the movie is set in Paris after a half-baked brawl on top of a double-decker red bus in London. The constant action sequences appear to make things rowdy and busy but carries no weight or significance danger.

Still, Monaghan gets her chance to spar with a fellow lady baddie in a prolonged sequence while we have to endure watching a fifty-five year old Wahlberg (obviously a stand-in) parkouring across Paris’ rooftops. Harington plays a man with daddy issues, gets to fight with Dan inside Notre-Dame and probably receives a decent pay check for his effort.

For comparison purposes, the Nobody franchise who also featured an ex-operative turned family man is far more entertaining and far more believable than this. The Family Plan 2 is worse than mediocrity and seriously, there is a nagging feeling we have yet see the last of Dan and his family.

MOVIE RATING:

Review by Linus Tee