Daddy's Home 2

DADDY'S HOME 2

Director : Sean Anders

Year : 2017

Genre : Comedy

Rating : **

Trailing hot on the high-heels of the disappointing 'A Bad Moms Christmas' released earlier this month, the similarly-themed 'Daddy's Home 2' throws dysfunctional grandparents into the comedy mix in an attempt to spin seasonal sequel success. Following on from the events of the forgettable 2015 original, Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg return as co-parents Brad and Dusty who having learned to put their many differences aside must now deal with their own fathers who have come calling for Christmas. Fresh from his recent Emmy win, John Lithgow is great as Brad's overly-attached father whose displays of public affection leave very little to the imagination while on the other side of the coin, controversy-magnet Mel Gibson charmlessly grunts his way through the role of Dusty's alpha-male Dad Kurt. Inevitably, it is only a matter of time before calamity ensues as the warring personalities of the four fathers clash with disastrous, holiday-ruining results. As was the case with the first film, 'Daddy's Home 2' is essentially one long unfunny joke stretched out for an hour and a half and while some of the one-liners are performed with a fair degree of pizzazz, much of the movie is a drawling, overlong, tasteless, annoying mess that attempts to hide it's many flaws behind cringe-worthy pratfalls, unlikable characters and bare-faced product placements - a poorly choreographed and horribly edited final song and dance sequence set in a cinema on December 25th being a particularly shameless exhibition of corporate backslapping. 

In the grand scheme of things, this isn't a terrible film. There are a couple of gags that raise a chuckle or two and the always likable Lithgow manages to make the very best of the situation, not matter how bad it frequently gets. However, when compared to the recent roster of great family comedies such as 'Thor Ragnarok' and 'Paddington 2', 'Daddy's Home 2' falls drastically short. One to be enjoyed over a generous glass of particularly strong Eggnog.