The Family Plan 2 Review: Mark Wahlberg’s Apple+ Sequel Is Mind-Numbingly Boring and Unfunny.

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Okay, so I watched The Family Plan sequel, and honestly, it’s rough. The first movie wasn’t great, critics really didn’t like it, but it did well on Apple TV+, so here we are. The plot? Dan (Mark Wahlberg) is still trying to keep his past as a secret assassin hidden from his family, and now Jessica (Michelle Monaghan) gets a job offer out of state. The biggest upgrade is honestly the scenery – they filmed in Paris, which is pretty, but clearly a perk of how much money the first movie made from iPhone sales. It’s just…bad. Like, painfully unfunny and boring. It felt less like a movie and more like a two-hour ad for Apple. Seriously, watching it made me question my life choices.

The Family Plan 2 is a Staid, Humorless Affair

Following the events of The Family Plan, Dan (formerly Sean McCaffery) has traded selling used cars for a career in high-tech security. Things seem relatively calm for the family, though their eldest daughter, Nina, is refusing to fly home for Christmas from her study abroad program in England – and it’s easy to see why, given her father’s overbearing nature. Mark Wahlberg’s public image as a devoted family man is very strong throughout the series, and the actor frequently delivers lines filled with anxious, over-the-top expressions of concern for his children. It’s a bit much, and frankly, repetitive.

David Coggeshall wrote the script for the sequel, but the first act is overly complicated. It struggles to convincingly explain why the family needs to go on vacation to see their daughter. The reason for the trip should be simple, but instead, Dan manufactures an excuse involving a business opportunity from a London bank that conveniently contacts his firm while he’s already worried about family time. It’s strange that this supposedly skilled spy can’t see through such a transparent plot – perhaps life in the suburbs has dulled his instincts.

When the family arrives in England, they meet Nina’s very muscular boyfriend, Omar (Reda Elazouar), who is kind and friendly. However, Dan immediately dislikes him without any clear reason. The film offers no explanation, leading viewers to suspect Dan, or perhaps the filmmakers, are prejudiced, as Omar is one of only two people of color in the entire movie and the frequent target of jokes. The other person of color, Vikram (Sanjeev Bhaskar), is a mostly silent butler. The only other character with an accent, a Russian spy and Dan’s ex-girlfriend, is made the subject of lowbrow humor revolving around her eccentric singing about borscht. The film’s humor frequently relies on superficial details, like Monaghan being overly impressed by his daughter’s boyfriend’s physique.

One evening, while Dan is at the bank for a meeting, Jessica secretly rehearses telling him she has a job offer in Ohio, as if she’s confessing something terrible. At the bank, Dan meets Aidan, who asks him to test the security system by breaking into the vault. Dan does so, only to discover Aidan isn’t a bank manager at all, but a criminal exploiting Dan’s skills. Dan claims he knew Aidan was a fake from the start, which raises the question of why he agreed to help him rob the bank. Now, this family man is facing a serious problem: he’s wanted internationally for robbery.

Aidan is revealed to be Dan’s brother, abandoned by their father years ago, and he’s now seeking revenge. Dan’s surprising strategy to stop him isn’t fighting, but appealing to their family connection. He tries to convince Aidan to stop his criminal activity, offering the possibility of a real family if he does.

Everyone in this movie behaves strangely, and despite constantly being chased by both danger and the authorities – fleeing across borders with false documents and stolen funds – it never feels truly urgent. The characters spend a lot of time repeating the same phrases about family and staying united, which becomes annoying. Nina does confront her father about repeatedly putting his children in life-threatening situations, disrupting their lives, and manipulating them, but after a brief argument, everyone quickly accepts it and carries on as if nothing happened.

This movie is terrible throughout. It feels unfinished, full of loose ends, like a rough first draft. For example, Aidan hires five assassins to eliminate Dan, but we never see or hear from them again—except for one female assassin who gets a fight scene with Jessica, seemingly just because the filmmakers felt a woman had to fight another woman. Even the music is bland and doesn’t fit the action. At two hours long, it feels much, much longer. If they make another Family Plan movie, let’s hope they actually put some thought and effort into it, instead of releasing something so forgettable.

The Family Plan 2 streams on Apple + on November 21st.

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2025-11-21 04:58