Daddy’s Home
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Daddy’s Home

The alarm bells started ringing when Daddy’s Home (which re-teams The Other Guys stars Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg) was rated PG. Some genres work perfectly well at a PG rating: the kind of all-in comedy these two have previously made does not.

The set-up is strong – Ferrell is the mild-mannered, cry-heavy stepdad whose back is to the wall when the kids biological and much cooler dad (Wahlberg) comes back on the scene – but the war between them only rarely takes flight. Wahlberg’s character isn’t an outright dirtbag, but making him seem supercool doesn’t fit with him bailing on his kids, so there’s no firm basis for laughs there. Likewise, Ferrell takes too long to go nuts, which is where the laughs in his character are.

It’s a film that feels like it’s all build-up and no pay-off, and while there are occasional smart moments that twist expectations – explaining how it’s important to fight back against bullies goes wrong takes to Ferrell’s wussy nature. A big moment is when reconciliation is flubbed and everyone stands around discussing how it should have gone – it remains a film where imagining how the concept plays out is more satisfying than actually watching the result.

Reviewed by Anthony Morris