I'm a little late to the party on this one as Daddy's Home was released Christmas 2015, but after recently rewatching it for a third time, I figured I would give my two cents on it. And don't assume that simply because I have seen it three times in the span of a little over one year means it's by any means great, because it isn't. Rather, it was a movie I enjoyed and got a few laughs out of, and definitely a recommended viewing if you're in a mood for something throwaway. Other than that, though, this movie didn't live up to the lofty expectations some might have set for it (myself included) considering the cast it had. Personally, I'm a big fan of Will Ferrerll and loved Elf, Anchorman, Semi-Pro, and Step Brothers. But it seems as if he hasn't had that same level of success since those films from a decade ago. For example, I liked Anchorman 2 (which I also wrote a review of here), but it was far from being as good as the original. I thought Daddy's Home fell in the same category as Get Hard in that it was nice for what it was, but it won't be remembered as one of Ferrell's better movies. Mark Wahlberg is an excellent actor as well in my opinion and can thrive in a variety of roles, whether it be comedic or serious, and he and Ferrell had the potential to be a phenomenal pairing. To their credit, they did play well off of each other and provided quite a few chuckles, but there wasn't enough of an entertainment value to justify me giving it a rave review.
Now, you're likely asking yourself why I would watch it three times if I didn't at least like it. The first time, I saw it in theaters, I watched it with friends the second time because they hadn't seen it, and the third time I felt like refreshing my memory as to how good (or not so good) it might have been. Again, I enjoyed it, but I enjoyed Hot Tub Time Machine 2 as well and I don't think I would suggest anyone go out of their way to watch that. Liking a movie and calling it great are two very different things. Essentially, the premise of the film is that Ferrell's character is a step-dad, and the original dad (Wahlberg) comes back to attempt to win his family back by doing all these crazy things. It eventually becomes an all-out war between the two as they battle for the family's love and affection, trying to oust the other from the house. The plot is simple enough and easy to follow, so that isn't the issue. It's just that the comedy itself wasn't humorous as I thought it would be, and aside from a few moments here and there, it never once clicked for me where I was dying of laughter. I will say that for as much as I liked Ferrell and Wahlberg together, the real star of the film for me was Thomas Haden Church, who played Ferrell's boss at the radio station. If you watched him on Wings and other shows from earlier in his career, then you probably already know how hilarious he can be when portraying an idiot. He wasn't in a ton of scenes throughout Daddy's Home, but whenever he pops up and tells Ferrell a story that is completely irrelevant to the situation at hand, he knocks it out of the park. Last but not least, and spoilers are ahead so stop reading here if you don't want to find anything out about the ending, but I would be remiss if I didn't mention a cool cameo during the last scene of the movie. Wahlberg's character gets remarried and he ultimately becomes a step-dad to his wife's daughter. The real dad? John Cena. I thought that was great because not only was he the perfect, jacked-up dude for Wahlberg to be intimidated by, how often over the years have those two been compared to each other due to their similar looks? That was pretty sweet. All in all, Daddy's Home is an all right family-friendly film that's worthy of a watch on Apple TV or wherever else you can stream it, yet not good enough for a DVD or Blu-ray purchase. I'm still waiting on Ferrell to be a part of another Elf or Anchorman, and while I badly hoped this would be it, it wasn't. It isn't a blemish on his career or anything, but for what it could have been, Daddy's Home fell flat for me. Should you see this movie? No. |
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