Daddy's Home

I feel bad that this is the first movie that I'm reviewing in 2016, especially since I've seen Star Wars The Force Awakens 4 times and I'm still debating on whether or not I should do a full fledged review or not. (its an issue of bias because I loved Star Wars, I'm not sure if I can give a fully objective review) But I have been slacking a little bit on the reviews and I want to start 2016 off on the right foot so Daddy's Home is better than nothing.

You would think this movie would be a slam dunk. Will Ferrell, probably the funniest comedic actor out there today. Mark Wahlberg, both an incredibly talented actor and when he's in the right movie, a really funny guy. You'd think that these two together would be a match made in heaven. However, whenever it happens, it just doesn't really work out for some reason.

Daddy's Home follows the story of Brad Whitaker (played by Ferrell), a mild mannered guy who is the step father for two children. His wife (played by Linda Cardellini) and him are happy but the kids are having a little bit of difficulty really warming up to Brad.

This is made even more difficult when their biological father Dusty (played by Wahlberg) comes into town. Brad being the mild mannered conflict avoider that he is, obviously invited Dusty over so his kids will be happy. And thus begins a competition for the affection of the children between Brad, the overly involved sappy step-dad, and Dusty, the cool devil may care lets build a skate park in the backyard biological dad.

Now I won't say I was overly excited for this movie when I first heard of it. I saw the trailers and I saw a couple funny moments but nothing said this movie was going to be the next Step-Brothers or something. I thought it was two actors who I enjoy in a movie that has kind of a funny plot. Its the same with the new movie Central Intelligence coming out with Kevin Hart and Dwayne Johnson. The plot looks kind of funny but without those two names, I don't think I'd be interested.

This movie is a comedy so the first question you have to ask is, is it funny? Well... yes. 

The fact of the matter is, these two actors are funny guys. It doesn't matter how bad the script is, or how formulaic it is, these two are going to get a laugh out of me no matter what because they are talented guys. 

That doesn't take away from the truth that the script is formulaic and horribly written. 

So much of this movie happens exactly how you think its going to happen and there's not too many

surprises at the end of the day. With the personalities that are presented in even the trailer, you know that Brad is going to be this mild mannered person who doesn't like conflict. He's going to deal with Dusty's shit until he can't anymore and then he's going to dole out his own shit and he's going to go too far, there's going to be a blow up, there's going to be a span of time where it seems hopeless and then everything is going to resolve itself. Its the same formula that you see in a lot of comedies and there wasn't really anything new added to this one.

And unfortunately, this movie really banks on these two actors working off one another, and they do but its just not as good of a pair as you would think.

This same pair was in The Other Guys, and while I have learned to enjoy that movie after multiple viewings, I do know that its not either Wahlberg or Ferrel's best outing.

The issue that I have with this movie I think is mainly in the character of Brad.

I think in The Other Guys, Wahlberg was more of the straight man character while Ferrell was the

eccentric character, but in this movie, Ferrell is more of the straight man (though he has his quirks) and Wahlberg is the cowboy who breaks Ferrell out of his element. The problem is, while Ferrell is suppose to be the "normal" person in this situation, he's a dumbass. They paint him as this incredibly nice guy but he's just stupid and he does all these things just to please his kids when someone who doesn't even have kids know, that's not how you do it. And the weird thing is, that's not even addressed. For a lot of the movie, Ferrell is pandering to these kids but that's not how parenting goes. A valuable lesson would have been Ferrell figuring out that sometimes he needs to be the bad guy and actually be responsible with his kids.

And speaking of responsible, Linda Cardellini in this movie is just as dumb. Disclaimer: I actually really like this whole Linda Cardellini renaissance as she seems to be in everything and everything she is in she brings a good performance. And this movie is no different. However, her character is dumb as rocks. They kind of mention that she doesn't want to be the bad guy anymore because that's what she was when she was married to Dusty, but even still, she doesn't become the responsible adult until way late into the movie and by that point I was kind of thinking she wasn't a great character anyways. So she's written horribly, but she's entertaining and works with what she has.

And then there's Dusty.

Mark Wahlberg is interesting because I think I used to think the problem with The Other Guys was

because Mark Wahlberg isn't a funny actor, but then I saw him in Ted and he's actually really funny, so that's not the case. And he is funny in this movie.

However, the weird part is, I almost feel like this movie would have been funnier if Mark Wahlberg was the straight man being broken out of his element by Will Ferrell in this situation.

Yeah I know it makes sense that Mark Wahlberg would be the cowboy bad ass biological dad that comes in to disturb the weak and a little pathetic Will Ferrell's step father world, but thinking about it a little bit more, how unconventional would this movie have been if Mark Wahlberg is emasculated by Will Ferrell if the roles were switched. I think that would absolutely hilarious and make me forgive the conventions this movie falls prey to.

The big surprise of this movie was actually Hannibal Buress as Griff. Its a little bit confusing how Griff becomes a part of this entire situation but throughout the movie, there's just this random black guy hanging out in their house because Dusty wants him to hang out with them.

Like there will be this really serious moments and there will be Hannibal Buress just sitting there eating cereal or watching Frozen with the kids. And oddly enough, it really works.

Now I don't really think Hannibal Buress is that funny of a person, I just haven't really gotten into any of his work and everything I have seen him, including this, he just looks high and doesn't really do anything. But for some reason, him just being in the scene was funny. Like the picture above, Brad and Dusty are having a very serious conversation and Griff is just there. He'll add a line or two just to be funny but then it sits in with you, why is Hannibal Buress there? I don't think he was the funniest character but just how they used him was hilarious and I have to give the movie credit for that.

I think the biggest problem I had with this movie was how by the numbers it was. I didn't feel any of the heart I feel from movies like Step Brothers, the first Anchorman or any of the 21 Jumpstreet movies, I just felt this was a throw away comedy from the same guys who did Get Hard, Tammy, and Anchorman 2. And I know the purpose of the movie business is to make money but the sad thing is, I could have guessed this was going to be uninspired crap from the trailer and I only went because The Force Awakens was sold out.

The thing is, I'd like to believe that comedies do well when they are inspired and actually have some heart put behind it. Daddy's Home is not that movie. Yes there are some goofy moments that made me laugh and everyone involved is talented, I just wasn't wild about the script, I thought it was formulaic and the characters were just so stupid that I couldn't really handle it by the end.

I really want to see a movie with Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell work but I just don't see it happening. They've had two movies come out that have just not done as well as they though it was going to and I don't know if there will be a third outing for these two. At least not for a while.

But those are my thoughts on Daddy's Home. Have you seen it? What did you think about it? Comment and Discuss in the comments below! You can also share your thoughts with me on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me your requests for movies I need to review in 2016. If you follow me on Twitter you can get updates on movies news and reviews coming out of this blog all year as well as live tweets from movies I have been watching.

I'll leave you with this. Now to talk about something that is actually really funny and something I'm really looking forward to. A new Deadpool trailer dropped over Christmas. I probably won't do a whole post on it, but I love this trailer a lot more than the last one and now I'm super psyched for this movie. Here's the trailer. Enjoy!