Movie Review: Family Pack (2024)
Synopsis: While caring for his father, Gilbert, who is suffering from Alzheimer's, Jerome re-discovers a werewolf board game he had played as a child and attempts to convince his wife and their kids to play. They refuse and as he is putting the game away, it begins to glow and the house starts shaking, resulting in them fleeing to the basement. When they emerge, they discover they have been transported into the game itself and the only way to get home is to live in 15th-century France and kill the four werewolves. There's one complication, one of the werewolves is the youngest daughter, Louise.
Who's in it? The movie stars Franck Dubosc, Jean Reno, Suzanne Clément, Lisa Do Couto Teixeira and Alizée Caugnies.
Review: My wife looked for a movie to watch while I was making dinner last night and by the time I was done cooking, had picked out Family Pack on Netflix. Neither of us had heard of this French film (dubbed in English) before but the premise reminded us of Jumanji, so we gave it a try. In the end, it turned out to be pretty good.
I am going to start out by saying, despite the "family movie" and "wholesome comedy" descriptions on Netflix, this isn't a film that is going to be suitable for everyone. There's nothing in it that would be considered raunchy. However, there are some adult conversations and some of the scenes are a little violent. In other words, it's not suitable for young children.
That said, the film did turn out to be a fun movie to watch. There were quite a few fish out of water jokes regarding a family from 2024 trying to adapt to the 15th century in addition to new powers the game gave them. This was especially true of the wife, Marie (Clément) who wasn't afraid to voice her opinion about how women were treated, even if it meant being accused of being a witch. Oh, and some of the supporting cast members were pretty funny as well. I won't go into a lot of detail to avoid spoilers, but the arrow scene was making us laugh a lot louder than expected.
I also liked how the movie made escaping the game a lot more difficult than just tracking down four random strangers/werewolves and killing them. Louise (Caugnies) was a cutey, even as a werewolf, and their daughter. That made the ending a lot harder to predict.
My only real complaint about the film is there is a confusing blurred line between what is from the game (the werewolves, their powers) and which people were real. Basically, they were playing a game but also were able to interact with ancestors and change the future. It also doesn't give any real closure about who created the game or why, it just mentions a guy in wolf skins.
Also, while realistic, I am going to say the ending was a bit sadder than I normally would prefer. The film attempts to lighten things up with a joke at the very end, but it still felt a bit somber for what was otherwise a fun and funny movie.
Final Opinion: We were correct in assuming it ripped off Jumanji. However. other than the board game, the film offers a unique story and quite a few laughs. We enjoyed it and would recommend it.
My Grade: A
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Here are some reviews of other movies with werewolves:
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