Daddy's Home

Starring: Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg, Linda Cardellini, Thomas Haden Church, Scarlett Estevez, Owen Vaccaro, Bobby Cannavale, Hannibal Buress, Bill Burr, John Cena
Directed by: Sean Anders
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Comedy
2015

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A stepfather (Will Ferrell) who wants to be accepted by his stepchildren more than anything in the world is devastated when their biological father (Mark Wahlberg) shows up and immediately wins their love.

Review:

Tim: Daddy's Home had a lot going for it. The central idea is brilliant- father vs. stepfather, Mark Wahlberg vs. Will Ferrell. These two couldn't be more dissimilar, so you'd think it would be great fun seeing them square off. Unfortunately, the movie never actually gets funny. It throws a ton at the audience, but very little connects. This is frustrating, because all the pieces were in place here for something good. Unfortunately, director Sean Anders can't leverage those at all. This ended up being a fairly disappointing comedy.

Now, I will say that seeing Wahlberg and Ferrell together is fun. They were good together in The Other Guys and continue to work well together here. They are just such opposites that it makes for a fun time seeing them share the screen together. Now, unfortunately, very little they do is actually funny or memorable, which is a letdown. The story follows the easiest path. There's nothing especially effective or unique about anything we see. It all feels generic and cheap. The gags are all predictable and so often are unmoored from reality. It might be funny to see a stepfather buy a pony, but when it disappears from the rest of the film, it's obvious that the sole purpose was one laugh (which wasn't even funny). There's a lot of examples like this throughout the film. You can make a silly comedy and still adhere to some form of realism and believability. This movie has no desire to do that. In a misguided effort to be funny, all logic is thrown out the window. I'm all for suspending disbelief, but there are limits and it has to be worth it. My brain won't go with illogical things if there's no payoff at the end. We don't get many laughs, and so everything about the film seems poorly thought out. I will mention that the funniest part of the whole movie is the punch near the end. It's sad that that moment was the highlight.

Ferrell shows up, doing exactly his Will Ferrell thing. It's hard to believe this guy has made some classic comedies, because it has been a long, long time since he did anything that wowed me. His shtick is his shtick, but it is getting old. Wahlberg is safely playing in his wheelhouse as well. He seemed to attempt to bring some energy to the role, but man was it easy to play this part. He's done it dozens of times before. So, while there is some enjoyment to be had by seeing these two together, their characters felt uninspired. I thought Linda Cardellini was fine (although her behaviors defy all logic as well. She was asked to do obnoxiously dumb things no mother in her position would ever do). I liked seeing Thomas Haden Church. He brightens up the film, although his character was no where near as funny as they assumed he'd be. Hannibal Buress surprised me with a solid performance and elicited a few chuckles.

I could go into more detail, by why bother? This movie put all of its chips on Wahlberg and Ferrell and seemed not to care if the movie around them was any good. It's not. It's not funny, it's not particularly entertaining. I will say that the ending was pretty cool and certainly set things up for the sequel. The movie did quite well at the box office, so the sequel is coming. I promise it will do significantly less well at the box office because of the poor quality of this movie. We really deserved better.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 5.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: The Other Guys, Ted, Get Hard