By james art “Family Pack” is a slick, goofy, hot mess of fantasy comedy, a French Jumanji based on a French board game.
A French family – including an elderly, forgetful grandfather (the great Jean Reno) — tempts fate by playing an old, carved game of “Kill ze Werevolves” and finds himself transported to the late 15th century, after Columbus visited the Caribbean, but before superstition gave way to logic and law.
This setup is good for a few laughs and a few words per line like music teacher dad (Frank Dubosc), legal aid lawyer Mother (Suzanne Cleman), his teenage influencer daughter (Lisa Do Couto Texeira) from his first marriage, her son (Raphael Ramond) of her and their always “STARving!” baby girl (Alizee Coney) fight werewolves and a sheriff who cuts off their heads/asks questions later (Gregory Fitousi).
No, it’s not a “Renaissance Fair.”
Launching the carved board game and casually putting it away is what lands them in 1497, in a medieval version of Grandpa’s house. They eventually figure out that they are each “characters” in the game—a shape-shifting “thief,” “muscle” (grandpa), a witch, an invisible woman, and so on.
Dad is the quick thinker who tries to pass them off as “traveling singers” to the suspicious locals, grabs a lute and gets the family to sing along. No, he doesn’t know the “hits” of the day – “Good King Charles VIII”, “Burgundy Slaughter”.
They often use their “powers” to sniff out werewolves in town, kill them, and collect game pieces.
Joking during a beheading, grimacing when the crown officer admits that “we made a mistake” about that beheading, they too must guard against becoming werewolves.
At least grandpa is strong again and a lot less forgetful. Reno gets the best line in the movie about the offspring avoiding their elderly parents.
“It’s very difficult to watch people disappear.”
If you watch it, let the kids practice their French comprehension and let Renault speak in his real French voice, with subtitles. The English dubbing spoils some of the (limited) fun.
The effects are passable and the cast is game, but there isn’t much to it, and the stupid is never stupid enough to take it over and give it the status of a full-fledged farce. There is too much airing of the flaws of this era through the gay Italian artist and inventor Piero (Bruno Guerri), offering “inventions” (an electric guitar excites the Renaissance Faire crowd to French heavy metal).
But “Family Pack” is far from the worst time killer on Netflix right now.
Rating: TV-MA, violence, some profanity
Starring: Franck Dubosc, Suzanne Clément, Lisa Do Couto Texeira, Rafael Roman, Bruno Guerri, Alize Coney, Gregory Fitussi and Jean Reno.
Credits: Directed by Francois Ouzan, screenplay by Francois Ouzan and Celeste Balin, based on a French board game. Netflix release.
Duration: 1:34
