Daddy’s Home Two (2017)

[6]

I was home sick with bronchitis and in desperate need of a diversion. I flipped onto Hulu and found Daddy’s Home Two. I’d never even heard of Daddy’s Home One, but I saw that this comedy sequel had John Lithgow in it, so I thought, ‘What the heck.’

Basically, Mark Wahlberg is a loser dad whose kids now live with their step-dad, played by Will Ferrell. The two dads butt heads, but try to make their unusual family dynamic work. All that wackiness is presumably covered in Daddy’s Home One, because Daddy’s Home Two is about GRAND-daddies. Lithgow plays Ferrell’s dad and Mel Gibson plays Wahlberg’s. Their parenting styles couldn’t be more different. Lithgow is a big goofy softy, while Gibson pretty much plays himself — I mean… Gibson plays a conservative hard ass. All the men and a bevy of wives, girlfriends, and children all gather for a Christmas holiday vacation in a snowy cabin retreat where everyone’s differences come to a boil and tear them apart, only for the Christmas spirit to reunite everyone in the third act, which all-too-pointedly takes place in a movie theater where all the patrons are snowed in.

Look. This shit ain’t magic. But if you’re sick as fuck with a sore throat and you just want to smile a few times and try to forget you’re dying, Daddy’s Home Two ain’t half bad. Ferrel, Wahlberg, Lithgow, and even Gibson, all bring their naturals charms and charisma to the table. And there are even a few jokes at the millennials’ expense (which I appreciated). And even though we know Wahlberg and Gibson are real-life conservatives, they’re not afraid to poke fun at themselves in this movie — and that’s refreshing, too.

So fuck you. I liked Daddy’s Home Two. I just hope I’m never sick enough to need a Daddy’s Home Three.

With Linda Cardellini and John Cena.