Daddy’s Home 2 Movie Review: It Is A Gooey Christmas Pudding

Starring: Mel Gibson,  John Lithgow, Will Farrell, Mark Walhberg

Directed by: Sean Anders

Rating:***

It is important  to understand that political correctness  is not always the right route to take  for escapist excursions while courting laughter. Daddy’s Home 2, which takes  the rather engaging sparring game in the  first film  between two neighbouring dads to the next generation is  a whirpool of  improper guffaws ,well-intended potshots at sacred cows  of the traditional family get-togethers.

 But for crying out loud, and laughing  out strong,  can’t we just have fun without looking anxiously over our shoulder at life through the prism of  isms?

So now here is the thing. Dads Will Farrell and Mark Wahlberg  are no longer  at loggerheads . Their dads are. And  the fact that actors of  Mel Gibson and  John Lithgow’s stature play the warring patriarchs just dads…I means, adds  so much sauce to the turkey topping.Having spent a large part of my movie experience watching Gibson’s Mad Max act it’s delightful to see him play a Madder Max, who is thrown into the Christmas spirit with sweeter-than-plumcake John Lithgow.

Just the night before I had fun with this Christmassy concoction I saw Lithgow as a hardboiled tycoon in the ecological drama Dinner With Beatriz. He  is a  complete contrast  here as a moony dad who meets  his son Will Farrell at  the airport with a  passionate  kiss on  the lips, much to the  disgust of Gibson who can’t get along with son Mark Wahlberg let alone smooch him.

 Lithgow and Gibson  hold the sprawling narrative  together. The heaving lurching cast comprises  kids of both the sexes from two families their moms,dads and grand dads, all in a travelling mode. The  plot has some razorsharp hunour, not all of its decorous  .But why must we relinquish the fun that we had  at the movies when every character and  situation was not scrutinized  for political correctness?

 I am appalled to see some reviews   do a Harvey Weinstein check on the male member of the cast, digging into their alleged offences  in the past to prove why they are  unfit to be enjoyable entertainers any more.

 Give  yourself a break from the pressures of  looking for relevances in every frame, andDaddy’s Home 2 will give you  that year-end pressure release from the Padmavaticontroversy that you were searching for  in the movies.

 The climax  is  located in  the lobby of  a multiplex theatre with the entire cast crooning  Do They Know It’s Christmas.

Awwww to that. And can you please  put away that Weinstein moral-o-meter and  just let the comedy be?