While stepmoms have long been fodder for storytelling, Will Ferrell is giving stepdads the kind of attention they haven’t received since the 2009 slasher The Stepfather in his new movie, Daddy’s Home. Ferrell plays a mild-mannered stepfather who has to compete with the macho posturing of his stepkids’ biological dad (Mark Wahlberg). High jinks ensue as the two engage in a “good old fashioned dad-off” to try to buy their kids’ affections and/or impress them with physical feats that almost always end with Ferrell in a life-threatening situation.
The main joke of the trailer—which it hits again and again—is that Ferrell is an emasculated dweeb while Wahlberg is a hyper-masculine bad boy. Linda Cardellini, meanwhile, gets to play the (presumably) thankless role of Ferrell’s wife, while Paul Scheer and Hannibal Buress are on hand to humorously comment on the kooky situations around them. It all feels a little familiar, but considering Ferrell and Wahlberg made a similar schtick work in The Other Guys, maybe there’s hope for Daddy’s Home.