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FEATURE: Adam McKay may have hit a career-high with his Oscar-nominated film about the 2008 economic collapse, The Big Short; but if you think that means he's walking away from making silly comedies with his producing partner Will Ferrell, think again. The pair's latest collaboration is called Daddy's Home, and this time they're bringing Ferrell's The Other Guys' co-star, Mark Wahlberg, along for the ride. In it, Ferrell plays Brad Whitaker, a man so plain and unassuming that he almost lacks any defining characteristics to speak of. A pushover in every sense of the word, Brad works at a smooth jazz radio station called The Panda, drives a Ford Flex, and — thanks to an unfortunate incident with an x-ray machine at his dentist's office — is unable to father any children of his own. But most importantly, he's newly-married to hot single mom Sara (Linda Cardellini), which makes him stepdad to her two adorable young kids, Dylan (Owen Vaccaro) and Megan (Scarlett Estevez). Yes, Brad loves Dylan and Megan as if they were his own; which is why he's ecstatic when they finally start to warm to him. However, their family dynamic is soon upended by the sudden reappearance of Sara's bad boy ex-husband, Dusty Mayron (Wahlberg). A fast-talker and the kids' biological father, Dusty manages to convince Brad to let him stay under his roof; and before long, Brad finds himself in a situation even his favorite self-help book — "Step-by-Stepdad" — can't answer: going head-to-head with Dusty, who's determined to win back his family by any means necessary. Directed by Sean Anders (Horrible Bosses 2), who co-wrote the screenplay with Brian Burns and John Morris, what follows is more or less what you might expect from a Will Ferrell comedy. Although, honestly, the movie feels tamer and more watered-down than what it should be; and, as a result, the level of hilarity often suffers. Still, Daddy's Home does have its share of laugh-out-loud moments, and at the end of the day, it's hard to go wrong with a pairing like Ferrell and Wahlberg, who have such a natural on-screen rapport that they could probably make this sort of movie in their sleep.  Daddy's Home hits Blu-ray with a great-looking hi-def presentation. And even though the film's cinematography — which is comprised primarily of a variety of suburban set pieces — is nothing to write home about, picture quality remains crisp and clear, the color palette is impressively vivid, and contrast and black levels add a nice amount of visual depth. On the audio side, the movie's sound design is more or less dialogue-driven, but the disc's DTS:X sound mix (which will translate to a DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track for most viewers) does an excellent job livening things up, thanks to the filmmakers' usage of songs by artists like The Pixies, AC/DC, The Hives and The Offspring.  Paramount's two-disc Blu-ray release includes an iTunes/UltraViolet digital copy, a DVD and the following Blu-ray extras:
Daddy's Home is available from Paramount Home Entertainment as of March 22nd, 2016. The Blu-ray features English DTS:X, Spanish, French and Portuguese Dolby Digital 5.1, English DTS Headphone:X and English Dolby Digital 5.1 Descriptive Audio tracks. The film is presented with English, English SDH, Spanish, French and Portuguese subtitles. The total runtime is 1 Hr. 36 Mins. |
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