Cast: Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg, Linda Cardellini

Direction: Sean Anders

Produced: Will Ferrell, Adam McKay, Chris Henchy, John Morris

Written: Brian Burns

Genre: Comedy

Duration: 98 Mins

Brad Whitaker (Will Ferrell) is trying really, really hard to get his stepchildren to like him. He is more hands-on than most biological fathers would be but Megan (Scarlett Estevez) and Dylan (Owen Vaccaro) remain detached. Megan has morbid family drawings where she is setting Brad on fire or dissecting him at the operating table, so when she has one with him alive (save for a severed eye), Brad considers it an improvement.

The progress does not last when the biological father Dusty Mayron (Mark Wahlberg) troops in, complete with AC/DC’s Thunderstruck as entry music. He dazzles the kids with his adventures and a bizarre fairytale of a king who returns to battle with the step-father king who has taken over the kingdom. His ex and Brad’s wife Sara (Linda Cardellini) considers Dusty the lovechild of Jesse James and Mick Jagger. He’s bad news.

Tension between both dads is rife and the competition is fierce as it will be between Brad’s optimistic, self-help book philosophy (he reads Step by Step-Dad for guidance) and Dusty’s unflappable awesomeness. No, really. Dusty is the guy who builds a treehouse for the kids and gets Red Bull to sponsor the backyard.

Thomas Haden Church as Brad’s boss and Hannibal Buress as Griff play the deadpan bystanders to the uneasy ménage à trois forged by the persistent Dusty. “You can eat my dust, Dusty!” says Brad eventually but it is the film that really does so.

The Ferrell-Wahlberg team was more formidable and hilarious in The Other Guys, which parodied the buddy-cop genre. It was more inventive unlike the episodic predictability of Daddy’s Home. Either a DVD-watch or when you are sick of TV, this comedy draws out the chuckles but remains an unsatisfying watch.