《亲爸回家》

    “Daddy’s Home” pits Will Ferrell’s brainy stepfather against Mark Wahlberg’s brawny* biological father in a battle for the love of the kids.

    Ferrell is Brad, newly wedded to Sarah (Linda Cardellini) and stepdad to her two grade-school-age kids, Megan and Dylan (Scarlett Estevez and Owen Vaccaro). Brad is the kind of doting* sweetheart who places inspirational notes in the little ones’ lunchboxes and tears up when Megan asks him to a “daddy-daughter dance.”

    But just when he thinks he’s finally being accepted as a father, Brad is slapped with the news that Dusty, Sarah’s ex-husband and the father of her children, is coming for a visit.

    As his name suggests, Dusty (Wahlberg) is a vision of virility, a man with a leather jacket, slicked-back hair and muscles for miles, who inspires adulation* in his kids and may still make Sarah a little dizzy.

    He seems determined in winning back his spot at the head of the table, but Brad is determined to protect his position as the family’s new material and moral provider.

    It all turns into a big contest during a visit to a fertility doctor* played by Bobby Cannavale — as Brad and Dusty compete over who can tell Megan and Dylan the better bedtime story, build the better tree house, give better advice on how to handle bullies*, etc. It’s a ripe comic premise*, but director Sean Anders and his team of screenwriters don’t seem to have spent much time thinking up clever or imaginative ways to have the men hash out* their rivalry*.

    Ferrell and Wahlberg are playing concepts rather than characters, and appear understandably bored. Meanwhile, Thomas Haden Church and Hannibal Buress are wasted in lame* supporting roles as Brad’s boss and a handyman, respectively.

    The film is rated PG-13.

    (SD-Agencies)