Apple TV has a large library of outstanding original shows, but the same can’t be said for its library of movies. The Family Plan, which was released back in 2023, was briefly the most-watched film on Apple TV before being surpassed by Wolfs later in 2024. Despite holding that title, Plan was an action comedy movie which took the generic trope of a family man hiding a past life, having to return to it while still playing pretend with the family. This is a trope that, while generic, is quite enjoyable, and just this year alone, Netflix and Universal Pictures both released Back in Action and Nobody 2, respectively, that follow this exact trope.
The difference between those two films and The Family Plan is that they’re at least fun and creative and have a decently written script alongside it. Two years late,r and we’ve now got a sequel that nobody wanted to a film that likely almost everyone forgot existed. While The Family Plan had its weird obsession and clear advertisement with Valorant and HyperX, which also involved the inclusion of streamer Valkyrae, it’s unfortunate to say that The Family Plan 2 doesn’t have anything as memorable or hilariously misplaced that’s worth talking about.
Director Simon Cellan Jones and writer David Coggeshall return for the sequel, which follows the Morgan family as they decide to take a holiday to London for Christmas to visit Nina (Zoe Colletti), who’s spending the holiday abroad studying. Expecting the perfect Christmas holiday, it all begins to crumble when Dan’s (Mark Wahlberg) past begins to haunt him.
This film starts by letting us know that Dan’s father has recently passed away. This is a plot point that will set up the rest of the film, with people from Dan’s past coming back to get revenge for feeling abandoned by his family. Despite it being what keeps the film moving, it never sits on how Dan feels about the loss of his father. Liam McCaffrey (Ciarán Hinds) was a major part of the last film, acting as the antagonist and revealingthe history between him and Dan. For The Family Plan 2 to not really acknowledge how his death is affecting him feels like lazy writing, and that’s exactly what this movie is from start to end.
The Family Plan ended with the Morgan family going on a cross-country road trip to take Nina to Stanford. The university was spoken about throughout that film, but all of a sudden, in The Family Plan 2, Nina is studying abroad in London, and it’s never brought up what happened between the two films. Why has she moved abroad to study all of a sudden? Why is she no longer studying at Stanford? Did she ever even study at Stanford? If the writer can’t take good care of remembering what they previously wrote, how can they expect their audience to ever feel engaged with the movie?
As we travel to London, which allows the film to feel slightly relatable, with it taking place in a location that I know the ins and outs of, seeing the drastic difference between London and Buffalo, USA, from its streets to the music. It was a welcome change of pace, allowing it to still keep the formula of the original movie while keeping it fresh and taking it global. The Family Plan 2 actually doesn’t spend too much time in London despite what the poster and the synopsis might insinuate, but it goes Spider-Man: Far From Home on us and takes us to another location in Europe where we continue with Dan and his family on the run and coming up with a way to stop their adversary.
Their adversary is none other than Aiden Clarke (Kit Harington), who goes by another name in the movie, but we’ll keep that reveal a secret so at least you have something to look forward to. You tend to forget when watching The Family Plan that there’s an antagonist that Dan seems to be running away from, but with The Family Plan 2, Aiden’s connection to Dan gives his character a little bit of depth, despite there not being any stakes throughout the film, and Aiden still eventually becomes a rather boring and generic antagonist.
The second film is a slight improvement over its predecessor, but for everything it gets right, it gets several things wrong. The script still features dialogue that doesn’t sound like it’s being written for real humans having conversations. There are odd story decisions that come around the third act that only exist to remind the audience of a previous plot point in the film that once again had no real consequences, with last-minute reveals feeling unsatisfying.
The cherry on top is that there are noticeable ADR issues that pull you out of the film and its action, which the movie lacks, and even when there are action sequences, they end up being lacklustre and poorly edited, like its predecessor. Unexpectedly, the saving grace of this sequel is Nina and Kyle (Van Crosby) Morgan, who both feel like they’ve grown and changed since the last film. The Family Plan 2 is branded as a Christmas movie, and despite it being set during that time, this is a film that shouldn’t be added to your Christmas watchlist this year.
★★ 1/2
Streaming on Apple TV from November 21st / Mark Wahlberg, Michelle Monaghan, Kit Harington, Zoe Colletti, Van Crosby / Director: Simon Cellan Jones / 12
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