Daddy’s Home 2, written and directed by Sean Anders

Daddy’s Home 2, written and directed by Sean Anders

5 out of 10

Most critics have discarded this comedy, giving it an average rating of just 30 out of 100, which means that you should stay clear, unless you want to watch some silly, neuron-depleting feature.

Indeed, much like the first installment, this motion picture may make one wonder how low can humor get, or if they may continue producing “comedies” without the essential ingredient: humor.

Having said that the film is practically no good, maybe we should look a moment at the (non-existent?) bright side.

There are a few positive elements in this production, mostly on the lines of”…

“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so” Hamlet

If we have that in mind and are willing to spend a long one hundred minutes with nothing on our minds, this ridiculous fare might do the trick.

If they fought in the first part, Brad aka Will Ferrell – rather wasted on this – and Dusty aka Mark Wahlberg are now very good friends, which means co-dads, they work together to raise their kids.

To make the plot more interesting – or as most might say, just more preposterous – Kurt aka Mel Gibson and Don aka John Lithgow are brought on the scene, as the parents of Dusty and Brad respectively.

Kurt has been a pilot for the space shuttles, but that seems to be his only, professional achievement, for in his private life he has been an awful father, a womanizer, absent at the most important moments of his son’s childhood.

When he was supposed to sing with the chorus in a rendition of It’s Christmas Time – the Band Aid for Africa super hit which appears through the film – very young Dusty had to watch his father as he paid no attention to him, but eloped with one of the many women he seems to have frequented.

On the opposite end of the spectrum of affection and tenderness, we find Brad and his parent, Don, who love each other beyond a re4asonable limit, at least according to their exaggerated – and probably meant to be funny, when they are only foolish and outré – displays of love.

Brad repeatedly kisses his father on the lips…seemingly

Kurt mocks all these shows of affection and looks down on his son when the exaggerated collaboration between him and Brad is in evidence.

Then there are the efforts to make the public laugh, which result in annoyance, stupid actions, silly falls and that is about all, with very few exceptions.

One of the children keeps playing with the temperature in the rooms, resulting in excessive heat, gas bills and damage to the environment, although the last part does not seem to be considered by any of the silly players of this game.

Bard destroys phone company equipment that he thinks was the best Christmas tree possible, and he has to pay twenty thousand dollars for it.

Kurt, always vicious, wants to buy a gun as Christmas present for one of his grandsons, only a granddaughter is much more interested, making the old man displays male chauvinist, retrograde attitudes.

The girl takes the shotgun, shoots Kurt, then takes it with her and kills two turkeys in a speedy manner.

Hilarious?

Not in the least…embarrassing is more like it

After Brad takes the snow cleaner out, he manages to get it on the lighting system and all the thousands of preposterous lights – why do they need this multitude of resource wasting things on their houses? – he then wipes out all the arrangements, the displays and…the expensive luxury car that belonged to his now former friend Dusty, which was a Range Rover.

The only reasonable scene that seemed enjoyable for the under signed is connected with the Nativity.

All the many characters, children, parents and grandparents come outside and wear the costumes of Joseph, Mary, the 3 wise men and the rest, after which they start quarrelling in a funny manner, made even merrier by the wearing of beards and amusing looking costumes.

Alas, this is about the only moment when this made any sense and that is not sufficient to make this worthwhile.