Will Ferrell is Brad Whitaker, a good hearted but wimpy man who is step father to two kids from his wife Sarahs (Linda Cardellini) previous marriage, although his colour by numbers approach to parenthood is not winning him any brownie points. His mundane lifestyle is thrown into disarray when Sarahs ex-husband Dusty (Mark Wahlberg) arrives back on the scene, much to the delight of the children. Dustys seat of the pants view on life is the polar opposite of Brads and thus the movies premise is set and Sarah and the kids generally sink down into the background as the back and forth game of emotional tennis is played out, with Dusty the emotional bully who constantly knocks back any attempt Brad may make to come out on top.

Wahlberg and Ferrell have shown that they can do comedy and their chemistry does shine through on a small number of occasions but they are brought back into banality very quickly by the weak plot. The highlight of the movie is the injection of Thomas Haden Church as Hannibal Buress, Ferrells boss at the radio station and his snippets of life advice coupled with Ferrells deadpan responses are signs of what could have been and perhaps basing a movie around ‘The Panda’ radio station owner is a good film waiting to happen.

Ferrell and Adam McKay have brought us some comedic gems like Anchorman, Step Brothers and, another venture with Wahlberg, The Other Guys and script writer Brian Burns has penned many episodes of hit series Entourage so on paper it should have worked, but perhaps it’s a case of too many cooks which makes this fall flat, right to the ending that pokes towards a sequel which hopefully never sees the light of day. It’s not that there are not some good comedy moments in the movie but they’ve all been done before and if this had of been accompanied by A Happy Madison production screen then I would not have been surprised.

DJ Speaks Rating: 4 Out Of 10