Wick's Review

Summary - Barely OK 2.0

More cringe-worthy than laugh inducing, Daddy’s Home is barely worth passing the time on a long flight.

Bottom-line: one LOL and some grins aren’t enough to rescue this mean-spirited Will Ferrell comedy.

SEQUEL NOTE: Daddy’s Home 2 is a much, much better movie.

Acting - OK 2.5

Will Ferrell operates one click above Adam Sandler territory, only Ferrell’s stock-in-trade is self-abasement. He’s good at it, but not enough to elevate the third-rate material in Daddy’s Home.

Mark Wahlberg easily plays a stud-muffin. He’s a fine straight man, if only the jokes he sets-up paid off.

• Linda Cardellini is fine as the wife who must exist between them. However, she too is little more than a straight man.
• Thomas Haden Church misfires as a macho boss, literally sounding like he phoned it in.
• Scarlett Estevez & Owen Vaccaro are cute as a couple of coddled kids, but aren’t called upon to be funny, adding to the movie’s comedic deficit.
• Bobby Cannavale jumps off screen as an exuberant doctor, but so what.
• Hannibal Buress is fine in a small odd-ball role.
• Kobe Bryant cameos.
• John Cena also cameos.

Film - Barely OK 2.0

Edge - Risqué 2.0

I saw the bowdlerized airline version, which was itself inappropriate for little kids. The original version must be even less appropriate for a “family comedy.” Shame on Will Ferrell.

Reality - Surreal 2.7

Highly surreal, Daddy’s Home is an action-comedy where humans take a licking and keep on ticking.

Suspension of disbelief aside, the movie reflects today’s upside-down parenting patterns. In these child-centered families, fathers and mothers follow their children’s emotional lead, instead of leading the children towards emotionally healthy adulthood. Countless emotionally-stunted adults are now being loosed upon the world as a result.

1 Comment

• BrianSez May 8, 2016 6:19PM

  Regarding Wick’s Review
  I’ll stay away from this one

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