Review of Daddy's Home (2015) by Craig O — 29 Dec 2016

Daddy's Home is a formulaic, paint-by-numbers comedy that suffers from its own predictability and shallowness. Although it has a few laugh-out-loud moments, it also suffers from lowbrow comedic situations that could have been replaced by something a little more original and fresh.

Will Farrell does most of the work here, trying to give his step-dad character empathy. Because of this, he gets the most laughs. Wahlberg, meanwhile, feels miscast as the cool but manipulative biological father.

Cary Grant used to play this type of character superbly, alternating between gleeful roguery and pathos. Wahlberg proves that he doesn't have Cary Grant's energy or comedic instinct. Although Daddy's Home is not a dreadful film, one can't help but wonder why studios still bother to make this kind of drivel?