Sequel a predictable and regrettable downer
MOVIE REVIEW /
“Daddy’s Home 2” is excessively negative, strained and predictable.
The sequel manages to expose the first film’s problems, such as a black light on old subway car upholstery. The biggest sin, though, comes in the final act, when the filmmakers completely waste a John Cena appearance.
Everything else to this point is forgivable, but that last error is not.
“Daddy’s Home 2” returns with co-parents Dusty (Mark Wahlberg) and Brad (Will Ferrell) getting along great, until they’re joined by two unlikable grandads: diabolical cad Kurt (Mel Gibson) and the annoyingly upbeat Don (John Lithgow).
From there, the comedy trudges through a series of contrived conflicts.
The fundamental flaw of the first “Daddy’s Home” was wasting Will Ferrell’s strengths, making him a one-note nice guy without the oblivious arrogance, flashes of anger or brazen cluelessness of his best film characters. The original film was carried by Wahlberg and his entertaining transformation from tough guy to enlightened dad.
Dusty and Brad both regress throughout the film, taking the kids down with them. The film has an anything- goes attitude toward obtaining a laugh, whether it involves pre- teen children getting drunk or a toddler being abandoned in Directed by Sean Anders.
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the cold.
Meanwhile, the scheming adults become more unlikable with each snowblower accident and car crash.
The film’s middle contains a few decent gags and some unexpected twists, all of which reinforce what the film might have been.
Some sports advice by Gibson as alpha male Kurt actually works for Brad’s dweeby stepson, and a turkey- hunting expedition builds with comedy.
But then Cena arrives, and the lazy writing is exposed again. The wrestler is a nuanced comic actor, aided by his willingness to look foolish or even a little insane.
But he isnt’ even given the opportunity for a memorable scene; he’s just another unsympathetic character adding to one of the more downbeat Christmas movies in recent memory.
A redemptive finale arrives too late. By any standard, every person in the world of “Daddy’s Home 2” would be scarred for life by events in the film.
The real happy ending is that no one in the audience has to go home with these people.
“Daddy’s Home 2.”