Daddy’s Home ***
It’s been five years since hapless detectives Gamble and Hoitz stumbled onto our screens in The Other Guys, and Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg produced some great comedic timing in a rather average cop comedy offering.
The only question worth asking about their latest comedy, Daddy’s Home, is whether the pair still has that onscreen magic. They do, and it’s a thrill to see them reunited. The trouble is, as a film, it’s even more void of original comical scenarios than the 2010 outing. It stays far too superficially silly that it misses many chances to really tackle the minefield that is stepdad-dad territory. Still, it’s light-entertainment stuffing for the holiday season.
Radio host Brad Whitaker (Ferrell) is desperate for his stepchildren’s acceptance as their ‘Daddy’. He finally achieves his goal, only to be upstaged by the arrival of their ‘cool’ but previously unreliable biological dad, Dusty Mayron (Wahlberg), who shows up on the scene on his motorbike and stirs things up. Dusty has designs on his ex-wife Sara (Linda Cardellini) and reuniting his family. Both men come to loggerheads in a battle to be ‘Dad’.
Ferrell and Walhberg have another session of a witty war of words, hilariously summed up in the bedtime story battle, where their true feelings come out in an ‘innocent’ fairy-tale for the kids. Ferrell plays his trademark petulant man-child as things get heated, while Wahlberg wouldn’t be out of place in a frat house initiation ceremony. As predictable as this is, the film does tick along nicely on their infantile exchanges, sadly never getting any grittier though with its intriguing subject matter.
With frivolity comes crudity too, hence cheapening the opportunity to be anything more. It’s hardly surprising what with its ‘awkward’ 12A rating, meaning the filmmakers are stuck in limbo trying to keep it 12-friendly while toeing the adult-humour line. It ends up feeling like screenwriters Brian Burns, Sean Anders and John Morris have wound down for the festive season.
In addition, the set pieces can be seen coming from the other side of the neighbourhood, but it’s just the fact that Ferrell and Walhberg are involved in acting them out that the film gets away with it. There is an end ‘payback’ too, that will have most missing the celebrity gag, aside from ‘history repeating itself’.
Daddy’s Home is heart-warmingly funny because Ferrell and Walhberg deliver what’s expected of them. It’s a shame it doesn’t get riskier or more poignant with the spectrum of emotion such a situation richly offers up to make it hit home more.
3/5 stars
By @FilmGazer
by lgileskeddie
