The Best Thing About Mark Wahlberg's 'The Family Plan' Is That It's Not a TV Series

By Dustin Rowles | Film | December 15, 2023 |

By Dustin Rowles | Film | December 15, 2023 |

True Lies is making a weird comeback this year. CBS launched (and then canceled) a TV series based on the Arnold Schwarzenegger film, then Arnold Schwarzenegger starred in a Netflix rip-off of True Lies called FUBAR, and now there’s The Family Plan, which is True Lies but with the entire family. And like Jennifer Garner’s The Family Switch on Netflix, which is 13 Going on 30 but with the entire family, it’s a pale imitation of the original.

The premise is all too familiar: Dan Morgan (Mark Wahlberg) is a boring used car salesman living a boring suburban life with his average suburban wife, Jessica (Michelle Monaghan), who feels increasingly trapped in their boring marriage with their three kids. Dan’s family, however, has no idea that before he settled down as a family man, he was a covert assassin. Eighteen years after leaving the business, his cover is blown, and his former boss is trying to kill him.

Dan packs up the kids and takes them to Las Vegas, promising his wife the spontaneity she craves. He spends the film’s first half on a road trip dodging assassins while trying to keep his family in the dark about his double life. Once they get to Vegas, however, the truth comes out, bullets fly, and the villains — played by Ciarán Hinds and Maggie Q — chew the scenery and kick some ass. That’s when the family has to come together and help Dad kill the baddies.

Save for a single twist, The Family Plan unfurls precisely as anyone who has seen the trailer might predict. It’s algorithm chum, which is surprising because Apple TV+ has stayed mainly above that. Granted, The Family Plan is markedly better than The Family Switch, and as formulaic True Lies rip-offs go, this one can at least boast impressive action sequences, a few decent jokes, and Michelle Monaghan and Maggie Q, each of whom steals most of the movie away from Wahlberg, the only actor who doesn’t seem to be having much fun. I’m a little embarrassed by how much I enjoyed Monaghan in this, who impressively pulls off the Jamie Lee Curtis role. Monaghan so often plays the long-suffering female lead opposite an A-list actor that it’s nice to occasionally see her having fun and delivering a decent action-movie zinger opposite an A-list actor.

But the best thing about The Family Plan is that it’s not a television series. If we’re going to watch a True Lies rip-off, it’s nice to see one that’s two hours instead of eight. It’s a formulaic action flick, but at least it’s efficiently formulaic and not stuffed with cliffhangers at the end of every hour. It’s not a bad movie to watch with the family; better yet, you can do it in one night instead of over a week.