Daddy's Home
Paramount Pictures | Release Date: December 25, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
42
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 30 Critic Reviews
Positive:
4
Mixed:
21
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonDec 24, 2015
If you’re looking for a film that’s just about guaranteed to make you feel good, you’d be well advised to drop by Daddy’s Home. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesMark OlsenDec 24, 2015
In its best moments, it's a sly exposé of the frailties of the contemporary male self-image and in its lesser moments a simplistic slapstick. This being a Will Ferrell comedy, sometimes those moments are one and the same. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyDana Rose FalconeDec 23, 2015
Anders had many opportunities to pit the dads against each other directly, but trades in the cheesy, expected route for devious mind games. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTom RussoDec 22, 2015
Consider it a predictable movie with flashes of unpredictability, one that actually coaxes some early laughs with, yes, scatological wit, then makes us groan when it shamefully takes the low road back to poopville a bit later on. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsAllen SalkinDec 23, 2015
The world needs great Will Ferrell comedies. Unfortunately, this isn't one of them. Read full review
60
EmpireSimon CrookDec 22, 2015
If it all ends in cornball reconciliation, the dumb, fuzzy smile it leaves suggests it’s well earned. Read full review
60
The TelegraphTim RobeyDec 21, 2015
Lame Ferrell, through some weird freak of his talent, tends to be the best Ferrell, and despite the film’s general mediocrity in most departments – let us swish briskly over everything about the way it looks – his floundering star turn delivers the goods. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerDec 24, 2015
Overconfidence in the face of mediocrity is something Ferrell usually satirizes. This time, he’s more of a participant. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzDec 25, 2015
Daddy’s Home is not the world of Peak Ferrell, where jokes fly fast and absurdism rules the day. Instead, it is a land of predictable punchlines, easy sight gags and easier paycheques. Read full review
50
The Seattle TimesSoren AndersenDec 25, 2015
Daddy’s Home is a movie with a one-joke premise: Will Ferrell, he’s a pincushion of punishment. Make him screech. Watch him squirm. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperDec 24, 2015
The problem with Ferrell’s character is he goes from bland to desperate to off the rails — and very little about that transition is genuinely funny. The problem with Wahlberg’s character is he never seems all that dangerous or mysterious. Read full review
50
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallDec 24, 2015
What keeps Daddy's Home watchable is Wahlberg's checkmate machismo, as the intimidating foil necessary for Ferrell's namby-pambyism to register. Read full review
50
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanDec 24, 2015
There are a few laughs here and there. Most come at the expense of Ferrell, who plays the kind of hapless (and occasionally shirtless) straight arrow that the actor could turn out in his sleep. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyDec 24, 2015
Such a hit-and-miss mess that it makes the wild-and-crazy-to-the-point-of-sometimes-flailing tenor of “Anchorman” and other such Ferrell vehicles feel like finely-tuned Logitech vehicles. Read full review
50
New York PostSara StewartDec 22, 2015
To be fair, Ferrell is almost always at least mildly funny, even when doing something as lame as skateboarding into a power line, but Wahlberg’s cowboy shtick just seems half-hearted. Read full review
50
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlDec 22, 2015
The performers are all skilled enough to make something of this tired material. Read full review
45
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeDec 22, 2015
Ferrell and Wahlberg are both game, but the material only sporadically lets them let loose and do something truly creative, while poor Cardellini transitions from naggy to unreliable. Read full review
42
The PlaylistKevin JagernauthDec 23, 2015
Fitfully entertaining, and even more rarely actually funny, Daddy's Home, tellingly, only really comes alive in the very last portion of the third act. Read full review
40
ScreenCrushE. Oliver WhitneyDec 30, 2015
Daddy’s Home is the white bread of family comedies, stuffed with everything you’ve seen before. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriDec 24, 2015
Ferrell and Wahlberg previously paired up in "The Other Guys", one of the great comedies of the millennium, but put aside any expectation that their latest collaboration might even come close to that sublime masterpiece. Read full review
40
Arizona RepublicKerry LengelDec 24, 2015
Not that there’s anything wrong with raunch. But in the Judd Apatow era of raunch-coms, Anders’ version is pretty weak tea. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenDec 23, 2015
Daddy’s Home is one of those comedies that is not terribly good, but not nearly as terrible as it might have been. Read full review
40
Time Out LondonDave CalhounDec 22, 2015
Daddy’s Home raises the occasional smile, but it’s not exactly Wahlberg or Ferrell’s finest hour. Read full review
40
CineVueEdward FrostDec 22, 2015
Directed by Sean Anders, the film goes out of its way to contrive its central masculinity crises in ways that quickly settle for lame, lowest common denominator jokes. Read full review
40
The GuardianWendy IdleDec 21, 2015
It’s by-numbers filmmaking that rarely adds up to anything worth the price of admission. Read full review
38
Movie NationRoger MooreDec 21, 2015
By playing it too safe, Daddy’s Home never finds that comic sweet spot and never rises above, “Well, it’s not awful.” Read full review
30
The Hollywood ReporterJon FroschDec 22, 2015
Its rhythms are sluggish, its jokes predictable and the gags are set up with such thudding deliberateness that even the sight of Ferrell losing control of a motorcycle, careening through the air and crashing straight through his house barely raises an eyebrow. Read full review
30
VarietyGeoff BerkshireDec 22, 2015
Daddy’s Home isn’t so much a lump of coal as an empty box. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineEric HendersonDec 23, 2015
Though Will Ferrell has made a career out of his own debasement, the film quickly becomes too cruel to generate laughter for anyone who would empathize with him. Read full review
20
The New York TimesStephen HoldenDec 25, 2015
Daddy’s Home is an ugly psychological cockfight posing as a family-friendly comedy. Laugh-free — except for some farcical, life-threatening stunts at the expense of Will Ferrell’s character, Brad — it is best avoided unless a movie that has the attitude and mind-set of a schoolyard bully happens to be your thing. Read full review
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