Daddy's Home 2 (2017)

“Daddy’s Home 2” stars Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg, Linda Cardellini, John Lithgow, and Mel Gibson.  Released on November 10, 2017, the film has Brad and Dusty dealing with their fathers while attempting to pull off a perfect Christmas for their families.

The film is directed by Sean Anders, who also directed films such as Never Been Thawed, Sex Drive, and That’s My Boy.  It is a sequel to the 2015 comedy, Daddy’s Home, also directed by Anders.  One of the main competitors that went up against the box office juggernaut known as Star Wars: The Force Awakens during the Christmas weekend was a comedy that involves two dads competing against one another for their family’s love.  While it didn’t put a huge dent in Star Wars’ amazing box office run, it surprisingly managed to become Will Ferrell’s highest-grossing live-action film in his career, beating out his other film, Elf.  The first Daddy’s Home film wasn’t a perfect comedy, by any means, but I found it to be an enjoyable (and funny) take on “fathership” and family.  Something that I wouldn’t mind watching again if I’m bored.  So now we are once again getting a sequel that no one wanted, and yes, it’s set around Christmas time.  Wouldn’t it make sense if they call it “A Daddy’s Home Christmas” instead?  You know, like “A Bad Moms Christmas”, but with dads?  The reason why I wanted to review this first is because I let my mother watch the first film with me and because of that, she wanted to watch this movie as well.  Also, the showtimes for Murder on the Orient Express was flipping packed all day, but don’t worry, I’ll get to that soon.  Right now, it’s time for me to celebrate the holidays with the craziest fathers around.

Taking place after the events of the first film, Brad and Dusty (played by Ferrell and Wahlberg, respectively) are now working together to parent their kids.  With the holidays approaching, they decided to pull off a “Together Christmas” so they can celebrate with their two families under one roof.  However, things get complicated when their own fathers decided to show up and spread some Christmas cheer with idiotic results.  What I liked about the first film was the enjoyable cast, mostly Ferrell and Wahlberg, and its ridiculous, yet funny, use of PG-13 humor that fits nicely with its relatable messages.  For this film, it was able to find the enjoyableness that made the cast fun to watch, but the chemistry between the two main actors, to me, proves that there are some things that only worked once.  Don’t get me wrong, I thought that Ferrell and Wahlberg were good together, but in terms of how their characters react to one another, it can get a bit tiresome as the film went on.  To add insult to injury, they somehow got overshadowed by their characters’ own fathers, Mel Gibson and John Lithgow.  The only two actors that were able to carry the film forward and have fun doing it.  Say what you want about Gibson, but he did an impressive job at playing Dusty’s father, who has the tendency of getting under his skin.  As for Lithgow, man, this guy knows how to portray a sweet and loving grandpa.  I just really like his performance.  Like most comedy sequels, the film has plenty of issues balancing the jokes with storytelling with a few moments that forced itself to trend into familiar territory from time to time.  If you watch the first film and then watch this afterwards, you’ll probably understand what I’m talking about.  Not to mention the story itself wasn’t able to impress those who would prefer comedies that are smart and well-written.  The movie also offers a couple of relatable messages, but with its series of hit-and-miss jokes (including the ones that were overplayed), it makes it harder for itself to attract people who didn’t like its predecessor to begin with, which is basically the main issue for comedy sequels these days.  Yes, you read that right, this film does have its usual sense of hit-and-miss humor like its predecessor.  There were some humorous ones that I laughed at, including Lithgow’s grandpa joke, and there were some other moments that range from “meh…” to “that’s a bit much”.

Overall, “Daddy’s Home 2” boasts an entertaining cast and a few dumb, but humorous, moments like its predecessor, but like the other comedy sequels, it’s only fitting to those who enjoyed the original or those who just want to a good chuckle or two.  I know that a lot of people will be too quick to judge by saying that it’s another unnecessary sequel, but let me tell you something.  This is one of those times where you just need to get rid of all of that useless negativity in your brain, relax for at least two hours, and have a good time, whether the film is good in your eyes or not.  That’s what my mother and I did and, despite the film’s amount of idiocy and flaws, we had a nice time watching it.  Again, it’s not going to impress those who wanted Oscar-worthy comedies and it’s definitely not going to impress those who aren’t fans of the first film.  It’s just another comedy sequel that is only there to make people laugh, for better or for worse.

C-