Daddy's Home 2

Gibson could scarcely hope to play a character more like himself if he landed the lead in The Mel Gibson Story.

The best that can be said for Daddy's Home 2 is that it's slightly less awful than its recent female-led counterpart, A Bad Moms Christmas.

A cynical, synthetic piece of Hollywood production line tat, which reheats the narrative leftovers of an already mediocre domestic comedy about blended families.

This can be a moderately successful film until Mel Gibson shows up and opens his mouth. Or even just smiles.

Daddy's Home 2 is a family film only in the sense that it concerns a family. (It is, in that sense, like the Texas Chain Saw Massacre).

It's a basic rule of entertainment - seemingly ungrasped here - that when Mel Gibson is laughing at something, you are probably not.

A series of clumsy slapstick gags, exaggerated conflicts, and formulaic holiday comedy nonsense.

...a milquetoast artifact of antiquated social norms, choosing to mock the notion of blended families while claiming to be empathetic to them.

Even the kids are subjected to humiliation here.

While a lighter touch might have actually made great strides in making these characters appear to act like functioning human beings, instead the movie repeatedly goes for the obvious, cheap laugh, rarely resulting in actual laughter.