2230. Daddy’s Home 2 (2017)

Starring: Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg, Mel Gibson

Director: Sean Anders

Running Time: 100 mins

Daddy’s Home 2 is an American film and the sequel to Daddy’s Home. With Dusty and Brad now settled as ‘co-dads’, home life is back to normal, until both of their dads arrive on the scene for Christmas, bringing tension back to the household.

Much like the last film, Daddy’s Home 2 is a very easy-going and fluffy hour and a half of comedy and mishaps, complete with an A-list cast that are actually a lot funnier than you’d expect at times. When it’s being a silly comedy movie, it does the job pretty well, even managing to spark a couple of laughs now and then. However, it’s a film that unfortunately brings too much story into play, when things should just be about silly humour and laughs, a point that makes the film a little dull come its final act.

Let’s start off with what this film does as well as the last movie. Even though it’s completely flipped from worst enemies to best friends, the relationship between Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell on screen is just as entertaining, with the first act actually proving even funnier as we see the two acting as overly perfect best friends, doing everything for each other in a deliberately sickly manner, something that got the film off to a great start for me.

Another plus comes in the form of the tension between Wahlberg and his father, played by Mel Gibson. Not only is it brilliantly contrasted with the perfect father-son relationship of Jon Lithgow and Will Ferrell, but both Wahlberg and Gibson get into the roles pretty well, allowing their fractious relationship to produce some genuine tension throughout that leads to all sorts of mishaps.

The first act of the film is by far the best, simply because it’s all about stupid comedy. From then on, the comedy is still decent, and when the movie is just acting as an ultra-simplistic comedy movie, it’s a joy to watch and smirk along at. Again, it’s very simple and predictable humour, so you won’t be laughing your head off or anything, but it’s enough to make an enjoyable watch.

However, the problem comes about half of the way through, as the film tries to get an already predictable story going. With the arrival of Mel Gibson on the scene, he attempts to instigate tension between Wahlberg and Ferrell once again, as he believes Ferrell’s raising of his grandchildren is a disaster waiting to happen.

The issue with that, however, is that it’s a premise that leaves too much for rather dull and inconsequential dialogue that this film just isn’t good at portraying. It’s a clear problem, as my interest and enjoyment of the movie fell off a cliff whenever they weren’t falling over one another, or trying to analyse their complex relationships in a frustratingly simplistic manner, failing to bring the desired emotion to the table.

It’s simply whenever the movie is focused on its story over the comedy that it falls apart, and that’s what ultimately proved its biggest downfall for me. In comparison to the first film, which had a simple premise of two dads trying to one-up each other the whole time, there’s a little too much going on here for its own good, which impedes on the simple entertainment value of the whole affair, and that’s why I’m giving Daddy’s Home 2 a 6.5 overall.