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In 2015’s Daddy’s Home, Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell faced off as two very different dads competing for the affection of a couple of kids. Now, for the sequel, Daddy’s Home 2, the dads find themselves facing the holidays with their blended family and a couple more fatherly frustrations.
Daddy’s Home 2 catches up with Brad and Dusty (Ferrell and Wahlberg) after they’ve settled into their roles as co-dads to Dusty’s two kids. When his daughter admits that she hates Christmas because the holiday is split, Dusty and Brad decide to celebrate a Together Christmas with both families. The party gets bigger and crazier when Brad’s bubbly dad, Don (John Lithgow), and Dusty’s disapproving dad, Kurt (Mel Gibson), show up for the holidays—and Kurt rents the family a cabin in the mountains for the week, in hopes of shaking up the dads’ easy-going parental partnership.
Wahlberg and Ferrell make a great comic duo—because their styles are so different. Ferrell brings the slapstick wackiness, while Walberg’s too-cool sarcasm tones down Ferrell’s over-the-top craziness. And in their third comic collaboration, they’re still as entertaining as they were in 2010’s wild buddy cop comedy The Other Guys. In fact, they work so well together that viewers who can’t handle Ferrell on his own will find him much more likable here.
The dads, then, add a new level of craziness to the story. Gibson’s Kurt is crude and condescending, an insufferable womanizer and a general troublemaker. He’s the kind of character that says just the wrong thing at just about every moment—and he does it all with a knowing smirk, just as you’d expect Gibson to do.
Lithgow’s Don, on the other hand, is a kind of lovable lunatic—a flamboyant, affectionate dad who fits perfectly with his goofball son. On his own, he can be funny—but when you put him together with Ferrell, it’s all just a little too much, and their non-stop silliness eventually turns cringe-worthy.
The dads and their dads definitely make sense together—and their personalities lead to some laughs. But, after a while, it’s clear that while two differing dads may be entertaining, doubling the dads doesn’t necessarily double the entertainment value.
Still, as far as holiday comedies go, Daddy’s Home 2 at least has its share of entertaining moments. It probably won’t replace any of your all-time favorites, but it’s still good for a few ho ho hos in the middle of another hectic season.
Listen to the review on Reel Discovery:
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