Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

Daddy's Home 2 Blu-ray Movie Review

Just Visiting.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman February 7, 2018

Daddy's Home 2, sequel to the midrange Comedy Daddy's Home, plays like a parallel, male-centric companion film to A Bad Moms Christmas. Both are sequels to films that didn't really demand sequels, both bring in the characters' parents as foils, and both take place at Christmas. Moms is much more raunchy than Daddy; this is the more family-friendly franchise, Moms being the more adult-oriented Comedy series. About the most hardcore joke in Daddy's Home 2 involves the word "buttquack" so...it's a bit more tame. It's also a bit funnier, but by no means a great movie; it scrapes by as a solid enough time killer that flounders as much as it's funny but for lightweight moviemaking with a few laughs, things could be much worse.

Funny not funny.

The co-dads -- Dusty (Mark Wahlberg) and Brad (Will Ferrell) -- are still getting along. In fact, they’re darn near best friends. But their newfound friendship and family bliss is about to be tested. Considerably. When the kids demand a simple Christmas in one location rather than be pulled around from house to house and from family to family, Dusty and Brad decide to oblige and make this year's Christmas unlike any other before, with all of them gathered under one roof. But things grow more complicated when Dusty’s dad Kurt (Mel Gibson), a brash, womanizing man’s-man and the only person on the planet who can intimidate Dusty (other than Roger); and Brad’s dad Don (John Lithgow), who is still very close to his son; arrive for Christmas. The house grows ever more crowded and the problems ever more pronounced. Kurt books a large, beautiful, rustic, snowy getaway home for Christmas, but can several generations of blended families and clashing personalities survive under one roof?

Daddy’s Home 2 is a pleasant enough little film. Its shortcomings are obvious, not the least of which is that it plays out with the expectedly stern and strict modern Comedy structure, an unflinching adherence to gender trope and sequel silliness. Tight character bonds are tested, strained, and broken as the film moves along. Holiday glee turns into mounting frustrations, resulting in a seemingly irreconcilable falling-out that, hopefully, the season’s spirit (and perhaps a little intervention from Mother Nature and an off-screen friend), can remedy. The film just takes no chances. Its slapstick gags are generally funny but too scattershot within the film's otherwise unbending structural rigidity, and various subplots, including a young boy’s quest to get up the courage to kiss a girl, only seem to slow down the movie’s already quasi-laborious journey to the inevitable.

But it's certainly the getting there that the movie banks on, and getting there, while a fairly trite and repetitious and predictable journey, is at least safe and largely comfortable. The film's quartet of leading men certainly light up the screen with enough glee -- some openly jovial, some shining through the tough veneers Kurt and Dusty put up -- to carry the movie through the structural doldrums. Wahlberg and Ferrell have no problem maintaining the chemistry-laden performances from the first film. That they're less antagonistic, at least as the film begins, isn't at all a hindrance, and it's nice to watch them work through the relationship's evolution and see them feel the frustrations of the fractures that begin to pull them apart. The film cashes in on the mostly amicable character currency the first film produced; it's easy to sympathize with both characters, each of whom just wants to do what's best for their (and the other's) family, though hopefully without the strain of being at odds. The dads add a decent dynamic to the mix, and like the moms from A Bad Moms Christmas the writers have done a fine job of crafting characters who are not all dissimilar from their children. Kurt is sure and direct, Don more fun loving and laid back. Most of the dramatic tension stems from Kurt and Dusty's strained relationship, but it's a late-movie revelation that reshapes the dynamic between Don and Brad that pulls on the heartstrings the hardest.

Daddy's Home 2 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Daddy's Home 2 delivers a positive 1080p viewing experience. The image is firm and organic, its digital origins constructing a good, complex image that translates well to the 1080p resolution. Textural efficiency and complexity impress. Facial definition throughout the spectrum -- hair, wrinkles, pores -- are pleasantly revealing. Wintertime clothes, including woven sweaters, reveal fabric complexity with ease. Environments are clearly defined and naturally sharp, whether a cavernous, rustic cabin; an airport interior; or a movie theater lobby. Colors are rich and punchy, with the variously and brightly colored winter jackets the predominant standouts in the film. Every shade is nuanced and well saturated, popping with screen-commanding authority and vibrance. Black levels hold deep and flesh tones appear accurate. Noise is a mild interference, even in some more evenly lit scenes (such as an interior house scene around the 15-minute mark) but rarely, if ever, is it an irritant. This is another typically excellent new release image from Paramount.

Daddy's Home 2 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Daddy's Home 2 is a film of, generally, modest sonic needs. Atmos might seem overkill for a Comedy of this style, but it does enhance several key sound effects and adds a general sense of greater spatial command. Music enjoys no major overhead component, but score and popular music alike play with all of the amenities of a modern track, including precision spacing -- width and depth -- as well as pinpoint clarity. The film's biggest gags generally earn the most intensive sonic depth and intensity. A snowblower crashes with a distinct fall from above partway through the film, and a "tree" crashes down beginning with a similar overhead localization and maneuvering from the top of the stage to the theater floor. A scene inside a movie theater late in the film offers distinct rearward and overhead components. Atmospherics -- inside a crowded theater lobby or a bustling bowling alley -- are well defined and draw the listener into some of the film's most sonically interesting locales. Dialogue is clear and well defined and properly positioned in the front-center for the duration.

Daddy's Home 2 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Daddy's Home 2 contains a few featurettes, a gag reel, and deleted/alternate/extended scenes. A UV/iTunes digital copy code is included with purchase, as is a DVD copy of the film.

• Making a Sequel (1080p, 4:50): A quick look at developing the story, adding more dads to the series, the film's gags, Sean Anders' work as director, and more.
• Look Who's Back (1080p, 7:16): Reuniting the primary cast from the first film for the second with a brief focus on each character.
• Co-Dads: Will & Mark (1080p, 6:36): Putting the film's two main characters in the spotlight.
• The New Dads in Town: Mel & John (1080p, 7:37): Highlighting the two new dads in the movie.
• Captain Sully (1080p, 2:17): A short look at a big cameo and his role in turning Brad's character on his head.
• Deleted/Extended/Alternate Scenes (1080p, 11:17 total runtime): Cabela's - Extended, El Padre Stink Eye - Alternate, Kurt's Firewood - Deleted, Really Brad Advice - Extended, The Wise Man - Deleted, and Yammering Don - Extended.
• Gag Reel (1080p, 3:40).

Daddy's Home 2 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Daddy's Home 2 certainly doesn't reinvent the family Comedy. It's basically the male-perspective, less raunchy version of A Bad Moms Christmas, the film giving more sensitive audiences the same story with a little less of the crude language and situations that define the other franchise. The cast is a strong point, and the additions of Gibson and Lithgow are great; they're both well cast and slip right into the movie's agreeable little world of blended families and the struggles of everyday modern life. The film is predictable, its big gags more agreeable, but much of the filler in the middle only slows the movie down. Still, fans of the original should find this a satisfying enough little second outing, and the movie is certainly more than watchable as a largely pleasing time killer. Paramount's Blu-ray delivers quality video and a good Atmos soundtrack. A few extras are included. Recommended.