Daddy's Home 2

image for Daddy's Home 2

Short takes

Not suitable under 9; parental guidance to 13 (violence, sexual references, coarse language, substance use)

Age
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
classification logo

This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Daddy's Home 2
  • a review of Daddy's Home 2 completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 27 November 2017.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 9 Not suitable due to violence, sexual references, coarse language and substance use.
Children aged 9–13 Parental guidance recommended due to violence, sexual references, coarse language and substance use.
Children aged 14 and over Ok for this age group.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Daddy's Home 2
Classification: PG
Consumer advice lines: Mild crude humour, sexual references and coarse language
Length: 98 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Stepdad Brad (Will Ferrell) and biological dad Dusty (Mark Wahlberg) seemed to have made amends after the feud seen in the previous Daddy’s Home movie, by demonstrating their family-raising abilities as “co-dads”. However, when their daughter Megan (Scarlett Estevez) announces in her school address that she hates Christmas because she has to go back and forth between houses, Brad and Dusty decide to have a combined Christmas that includes family members from both sides.

Brad announces that this year his good-natured Dad, Don (John Lithgow) will be joining them for Christmas, but the joy is short lived when Dusty’s estranged father, Kurt (Mel Gibson), also invites himself to the celebration. Trouble-making Kurt suspects that things between Brad and Dusty aren’t as amicable as they appear, and sets up situations in an attempt to reveal how the two dads genuinely feel about each other.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Family; Parent/child relationships; Divorce.

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie including:

  • Mild fighting/wrestling scenes.
  • Megan accidentally shoots Kurt in the arm with a high powered rifle.
  • Don gets hit very hard with several snow balls.
  • Megan aggressively shoots two turkeys with a rifle.
  • Threats of violence made by the dads and grand-dads against each other.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under five, including:

  • A scene where Don is lying motionless on the ground and a pack of wild wolves are hovering around him and nudging him.

 

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

Children in this age group are also likely to be scared by the above-mentioned violent and scary scenes.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

Younger children in this age group may be scared by some of the above-mentioned violent and scary scenes.

Thirteen and overinfo

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

Nothing further noted.

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

  • Apple iPhones and iPads
  • Various vehicles including: Toyota, Ford and VW
  • SpongeBob Square pants
  • Alaska Airlines
  • Air B’n’B
  • Starbucks.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • Kurt is a womaniser and there is talk, and boasting, about him sleeping with women.
  • Reference to hookers.
  • A young girl says to a boy; “Do you want to French (kiss) her?”
  • Brad attempts to have the “sex talk” with Dylan (Owen Vaccaro).

Nudity and sexual activity

Apart from kissing, there is no sexual activity seen in this movie. However, in one scene, Brad’s bottom can be seen through dangling underwear.

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

  • Drinking of shots and beer are featured with reference to drowning your sorrows with alcohol.
  • There’s a scene where children, Megan and Adriana, sneak eggnog, knowing that it contains alcohol. They are both seen drunk and acting inappropriately.

Coarse language

There is coarse language in this movie, including:

  • “…Two dead hookers wash up on a shore”
  • “I’d rather look into a loaded gun”
  • “I’ll jam that amazing Christmas in his butthole”
  • “You’ve got to be shitting me!”
  • “Piss off”
  • “Dickhead”
  • “Asshole”
  • “Shut your fat hole”
  • Men insultingly called “snowflakes” and “ladies”.

In a nutshell

Daddy’s Home 2 builds on the themes seen in the first movie - the complexities of families getting along after divorce and/or separation. This movie seems to reach deeper into that theme by including the good and bad of the relationships between the dads and their own fathers. Brad reminds Dusty that although he and his dad had a bad relationship growing up, he could benefit from doing what was right for his own kids. The movie's sexual references, coarse language and alcohol abuse make it unsuitable for children under 9, with parental guidance recommended for the 9 to 14 age group. There is plenty in the film to discuss with tweens and teens. 

The main messages from this movie are about working with others as a parent to do right for your children, despite any personal problems you may have as adults against each other. Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include the importance of getting along with parents and step-parents – particularly if they are trying hard to do the right thing.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

  • the dangers of using guns and high powered rifles. Megan is guided by parents in her use of guns but easily makes a mistake and shoots Kurt.
  • the consequences of shoplifting and the fact that an adult in the movie is featured shoplifting, but is overlooked because she is physically beautiful.
  • the importance of not drinking alcohol as a minor and not stealing alcohol to drink