Daddy’s Home 2
Directed by Sean Anders
Starring Mark Wahlberg, Will Ferrell, Mel Gibson, John Lithgow
Reviewed by Julian Lehnert
[rating: 3.5/5]
If current movie releases and shopping mall music selection are to be believed, ’tis the season to be merry. And so, in a striking display of originality, we once more find ourselves facing a Christmas-themed numbered sequel to an American comedy about parenthood. Yet, with a premise almost identical to that of this month’s other Christmas cracker, Bad Moms 2, I find myself somewhat better disposed toward the star-studded, formulaic, not-quite-family-friendly flick that is Daddy’s Home 2. Maybe I still haven’t gotten over that whole stripping Santa business.
When I say “with a premise almost identical to Bad Moms 2“, I mean “completely identical” – our established protagonists’ parents (in this case their fathers, who would have guessed) are blessing the family with their presence for Christmastime and naturally this throws a monkey wrench into all sorts of uncomfortable places. While the number of problematic parents has been cut down to two as opposed to Bad Moms 2‘s trio of terror, actors Mel Gibson and John Lithgow in their respective roles pack enough heat on their own for things to swiftly go pear-shaped. Throw in a healthy dose of that typical Will Ferrell-brand humour based on repetition of silly phrases coupled with repeated grievous bodily harm and property damage and you have a recipe for a standard holiday-themed comedy to tide you over the season’s food coma. This is very much director Sean Anders’ thing; famous (depending on who you ask) for films like Hot Tub Time Machine (2010) and That’s My Boy (2012), the American filmmaker is right back in his predictably funny comfort zone with the sequel to 2015’s Daddy’s Home.
You may perhaps have heard of the “controversy” Gibson’s character Kurt – the macho, school-of-hard-knocks father to Mark Wahlberg’s recurring protagonist Dusty – has been causing. Yes, let it be said: even when played for laughs – which I assume the film does – the misogynist Kurt hits a little too close to home. While it is all well and good to brush some of the more jaw-dropping aspects of Gibson’s character aside when one is watching for entertainment’s sake (and after all, isn’t that what it’s all about), at the end of the day we still have to come to grips with the fact that Kurt’s advice for his grandson on how to get a girlfriend is to engage in sexual harrassment. Comedy or not, in this day and age that will turn a mostly family-friendly holiday flick into one you’d rather not want to bring your kids along for. At all other times, Gibson is a fairly reliably source of laughs in this otherwise somewhat drab adventure populated exclusively by one-note characters. The abrasive and facetious Kurt evolves into somewhat of an audience surrogate throughout the film, pointing out and berating some of the more ridiculous parts – this makes it especially heart-wrenching to say that a line was overstepped by allowing some of the more offensive aspects of an otherwise alright character to see the light of day.
At face value, Daddy’s Home 2 is passable – a watch-and-forget flick with a decent laugh here and there; not so offensive that audiences would naturally avoid it like the plague, yet not the box-office buster that, let’s face it, it was never meant to be anyway. Should one dare to peel back the film’s facade however, things are not quite as rosy as they seem on the outside. Approach it with the same cynicism that likely went into its production.
