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Created May 08, 2016 01:33PM PST • Edited Sep 07, 2020 06:25PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Barely OK 2.0

   More cringe-worthy than laugh inducing, Daddy’s Home is barely worth passing the time on a long flight.

   Bottom-line: one LOL and some grins aren’t enough to rescue this mean-spirited Will Ferrell comedy.

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   SEQUEL NOTE: Daddy’s Home 2 is a much, much better movie.

4. Acting

   OK 2.5

   Will Ferrell operates one click above Adam Sandler territory, only Ferrell’s stock-in-trade is self-abasement. He’s good at it, but not enough to elevate the third-rate material in Daddy’s Home.

   Mark Wahlberg easily plays a stud-muffin. He’s a fine straight man, if only the jokes he sets-up paid off.

   • Linda Cardellini is fine as the wife who must exist between them. However, she too is little more than a straight man.
   • Thomas Haden Church misfires as a macho boss, literally sounding like he phoned it in.
   • Scarlett Estevez & Owen Vaccaro are cute as a couple of coddled kids, but aren’t called upon to be funny, adding to the movie’s comedic deficit.
   • Bobby Cannavale jumps off screen as an exuberant doctor, but so what.
   • Hannibal Buress is fine in a small odd-ball role.
   • Kobe Bryant cameos.
   • John Cena also cameos.

5. Male Stars Good 3.0

6. Female Stars OK 2.5

7. Female Costars OK 2.5

8. Male Costars Barely OK 2.0

10. Film

    Barely OK 2.0

11. Direction Good 3.0

12. Play Pretty Bad 1.5

13. Music Barely OK 2.0

14. Visuals OK 2.5
15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 2.0

    I saw the bowdlerized airline version, which was itself inappropriate for little kids. The original version must be even less appropriate for a “family comedy.” Shame on Will Ferrell.

17. Sex Titillating 1.7

18. Violence Fierce 1.8

19. Rudeness Salty 2.5

21. Reality

    Surreal 2.7

    Highly surreal, Daddy’s Home is an action-comedy where humans take a licking and keep on ticking.

    Suspension of disbelief aside, the movie reflects today’s upside-down parenting patterns. In these child-centered families, fathers and mothers follow their children’s emotional lead, instead of leading the children towards emotionally healthy adulthood. Countless emotionally-stunted adults are now being loosed upon the world as a result.

22. Circumstantial Surreal 2.1

23. Biological Supernatural 3.1

24. Physical Surreal 2.8