Lucy: pedal-to-the-medal summer fun

Scarlett Johansson in LUCY
Scarlett Johansson in LUCY

Supposedly we only use 10-20% of our brain capacity, and in the sci fi thriller Lucy, Scarlett Johannson gets to show what it would look like if we could harness 100% of our intelligence.  Johannson plays the title character, who is captured by an especially merciless Chinese crime lord and then get dosed with a designer drug that unharnesses her full brainpower.  Processing more information much faster than everyone else is a superpower that allows her to wreak mayhem upon the bad guys.  She’s in a race against time to find and snag the rest of the world’s supply of the drug and to download what’s she’s learned to a brainiac scientist (Morgan Freeman) before she implodes.  Kind of a sci fi D.O.A. 

French director Luc Besson is an unapologetic lover of American action films.  He really does excel at action, notably in the underrated parkour film District B13.  He has also delivered kickass female characters in Leon: The Professional (Natalie Portman’s breakout role) and La Femme Nikita.

Fortunately, Besson has Scarlett Johannson’s magnetic screen presence at his disposal.  Here, she gets to show off an amazing intensity that comes when her character’s superbrain is whirring away.  Her throaty voice turns out to be perfect for delivering very authoritative statements.  Of course, she looks great in a t-shirt (first half of movie) and a little black dress (second half).  She doesn’t take herself too seriously and clearly has fun with these roles where she is kicking some serious  ass.

Not too deep and with great eye candy visuals, Lucy is pedal-to-the-medal summer fun.

The Family: when a very violent family settles into a new neighborhood

Michelle Pfeiffer in THE FAMILY

In the dark comedy The Family, the family of an American mafioso has been relocated to Europe under the witness protection program.  However, they are so violent that they keep blowing their cover and have to move again.  Here, they have just failed to fit themselves in to the sunny French Riviera and have been moved again to chilly Normandy.

The recurring joke in The Family is that these people escalate almost every human interaction into severe violence and that all the family members are highly skilled.  The mafioso is played by Robert De Niro, his wife by Michelle Pfeiffer, and both very ably deliver the deadpan comedy.  But the best performances (in the best written roles) are by Dianna Agron (Quinn in Glee)  and John D’Leo as the couple’s teenagers.  Tommy Lee Jones is also VERY briefly in the movie, as are Vincent Pastore and Dominic Chianese of The Sopranos.

Luc Besson (The Professional, District B13), the French director who celebrates American action movies, gets to make an American action comedy set in France.  I enjoyed The Family much more than I thought I would because I expected another lame culture clash comedy and instead got a darker comedy.  Still, it is what it is – a broad comedy – but a competent one.