With apologies to the extremely funny The Campaign, first-time co-director John Morris and Sean Anders’s (Horrible Bosses 2, Sex Drive) Daddy’s Home is, ironically, Will Ferrell’s (Old School, Step Brothers) best-starring comedy role since 2010’s The Other Guys. It’s not a movie I thought I would particularly like and one that I had serious doubts about as much as 20 minutes in (I hadn’t laughed, but maybe one time), but as the movie progressed, it got funnier and funnier. By its conclusion, it became a somewhat memorable movie I wouldn’t put on the “A-shelf” comedy list but might find itself just a notch below. What made the movie work was the dynamics between Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg (Lone Survivor, The Fighter), who didn’t have the same chemistry they had when they teamed partners in the buddy cop, The Other Guys, but were still pretty close. While Daddy’s Home was 100% entirely predictable, it didn’t make it any less fun, and while Ferrell and Wahlberg weren’t exceptionally fantastic in the scenes where they weren’t together, it more than made up for the scenes where they shared screen time.

This movie is 100% predictable. Ferrell plays Brad Whitaker, husband to Sarah (Linda Cardellini – Welcome to Me, Brokeback Mountain) and stepfather to Dylan and Megan, two early elementary school-aged children. While Brad and Sarah have a loving relationship, the kids don’t like the new man living in their house. It is assumed that Brad has been in the kids’ lives for at least a couple of years (or reasonably long enough for the pair to have dated and decided they wanted to be life partners). Brad tries his best, and while he is extremely likable, he follows the fairly predictable pattern of kids not liking a replacement man in their lives.

The father gets the kids every other weekend and on Wednesday nights for dinner. Dusty (Wahlberg) is MIA this entire time. But when he returns to the United States, he expects to pick up where he left off. Though divorced from Sarah, he had an awakening of sorts and wants his family back. While this makes the kids ecstatic, Sarah is in love with Brad and is not entertaining that idea. Still, Dusty is the children’s biological father, and they want him to be part of their lives since he seems to be back for good. This doesn’t give Brad the utmost confidence, however. Dusty is much better looking than Brad and is in much better shape. He is smarter, more athletic, better with tools, wittier, and an all-around good guy. It becomes a game of the two trying to one-up one another, with Brad always coming up on the losing end and, often, looking ridiculous in the process.

But what also doesn’t help Brad’s cause is that Dusty is likable. So, while he sees this guy trying to take his ex-wife back and sending Brad to the streets, he does so in a way that makes him hard to hate. Even Brad likes the guy. Ferrell and Wahlberg pull off a hilarious dynamic tremendously. Throw in Hannibal Buress (The Nice Guys, Neighbors) as Griff, the lovable handyman who makes an almost permanent residence in Brad’s home after Dusty effectively got Brad to fire him while convincing Griff it was because of his race. You’ve got a dynamic that keeps the wheels spinning throughout this movie. While we know how this film will end, it doesn’t make getting there less entertaining. 

Ferrell has had quite the movie career since a successful run on Saturday Night Live. He had a five-year run between 2003 and 2008/2009, where he was arguably the funniest man on the big screen (and got paid accordingly). With starring roles in smash hits like Old School, Elf, Stranger Than Fiction, Anchorman – The Legend of Ron Burgandy, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Blades of Glory, and Step Brothers, it was only a matter of time before he either went through a cold streak or branched off into other genres. Ferrell’s career certainly hasn’t had the same dire turn as other SNL alum who had blossoming movie careers that have since gone in the toilet (i.e., Mike Myers, Dana Carvey, Adam Sandler, the list goes on). But he is relatively one-dimensional. He’s excellent at playing the tall, goofy dork who might sometimes appear rough on the exterior but has a good heart inside. Since his peak run ended right around 2008, he’s still starred in some great movies (The Other Guys, The Campaign, Get Hard, Megamind), lent his voice to others (The LEGO Movie, The Flintstones), and produced films in which he has no screen presence at all (Welcome to Me, Sleeping With Other People). It’s been a fantastic career, and he’s not even 50. Ferrell has 20+ more years in him as a Hollywood funnyman.

I talked with a friend about which was the funniest movie of 2015. Trainwreck, Vacation, The Intern, and Daddy’s Home were contenders. Trainwreck was the one that received the most press. Amy Schumer’s breakout (as both a movie star and a movie screenwriter) resonated with critics (85% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) and audiences ($110 million at the US box office alone) alike. Vacation had the dubious and nearly impossible task of living up to the classic 1983 Chevy Chase-led National Lampoon’s Vacation. I’m not sure this movie ever got its fair chance, but I thought it was hysterical (side note: Ed Helms is brilliant). The Intern told the best story of the four movies and probably had the most mass appeal.

As I mentioned in my review, this was Robert De Niro’s best film since 2000/2001, when he had back-to-back successes with Meet the Parents, The Score, and Men of Honor. Yes, he was great in both Silver Linings Playbook and Joy, but he was by no means the focal point of those movies, and each of those movies would have done just fine had his role been replaced with someone else. I don’t think of a supporting character when I think of De Niro. I think of a leading man. And that’s why he was opposite Anne Hathaway in The Intern. Indeed, of all the characters in each of the four movies being compared here, De Niro’s portrayal of Ben Whitaker, a 70-year-old retired widower who takes a job as an intern for an online clothing company to pass the time, is the most enjoyable. Through his illustrious career (and this is a man who enjoyed immense success and fortune in the genres of drama, comedy, horror, and action), De Niro has not played a more likable character. And then there is Daddy’s Home, which, like Vacation, would be compared against The Other Guys, whether that was just or not. Now, while 2015 certainly wasn’t the year of the comedy, you ended up with one that most who saw it would remember for many years (Trainwreck), one that most people who saw it found endearing (The Intern), and two lesser-known ones that were still pretty good (Vacation and Daddy’s Home). Four memorable comedies in a year is a good year.

Plot 7.5/10 (predictable, but who cares. Ferrell and Wahlberg are dynamite)
Character Development 7.5/10
Character Chemistry 9/10 (these two work well together)
Acting 8/10
Screenplay 8/10 (formulaic, but still some hilarious scenes)
Directing 7.5/10
Cinematography 7.5/10
Sound 8/10
Hook and Reel 8/10 (first 20 minutes might not win you over, but keep going with it)
Universal Relevance 9/10 (this is a little extreme, but certainly)
81%

C+

Movies You Might Like If You Liked This Movie

• Vacation
• Neighbors
• Get Hard
• The Other Guys
• Step Brothers