Daddy's Home

The other guy, better looking and stronger than you, father of the two children you are rearing, covetous of your stable ambient domesticity, questioning your every decision, flouting the love his children exhilarate, doing everything you can't do, outperforming you at work, giving advice that contradicts your tutelage, suddenly living in your once cozy home, awake bright and early, to reclaim that which he discarded.

Carelessly.

Since the time of cave people rivalries such as these have endured, but in the contemporary absence of sabre-toothed tigers and woolly mammoths, the biggest challenge for the reckless alpha, is patiently following smoothly polished bourgeois rules.

Being polite.

Complimenting others.

Nurturing through support.

Restraining violent impulses.

Never thinking, "this sucks."

Dusty Mayron's (Mark Wahlberg) suburban shadow Brad Whitaker (Will Ferrell) must also exercise caution by not attempting to court the exceptional, which he no doubt nevertheless tries to do, kneading knee-jerks as his outputs flounce and flail.

The A+ wild man versus A+ dependability, the disharmonious blend struggling within the uncertainty, great ideas not producing the laughs one might expect, although the virile exchanges offer constructive lessons learned.

Sara (Linda Cardellini) caught in-between.

Panda Smooth Jazz.

Griff (Hannibal Buress) adds solid ridiculous structure as his character functions as unnecessary referee, but Leo Holt (Thomas Haden Church) could have been more inappropriate in his consul.

Consul such as his could have provided even more completely unnecessary distractions from the narrative and refined raunchy and/or gluttonously verbose observations.

The kids are funny and cute, used to exaggerate the conflict as much as possible, the best part of the film.

Which struggles.

Paddington

Deep in the jungles of darkest Peru, a family of spectacled bears have learned to interact domestically from an adventurous British geographer, spending their time conversing in English while feasting on marmalade, science having been environmentally harmonized with their surroundings, the curious and the coddling, perching merriment's full bloom.

But tragedy strikes as an earthquake shatters their domain, and a loved one is lost, to unforgiving geologic caprice.

The youngest family member, having learned that if he arrives in London he's bound to be looked after by that very same geographer, sets out for the United Kingdom, luck and ingenuity aiding him on his way.

Upon arrival, he meets a kind family who agrees to help him, the husband, begrudgingly, the wife, hospitably, the son, ecstatically, the daughter, morosely.

Comic trials and errors then flourish, as a mystery invites sleuthing, and an evil taxidermist comes 'a callin.'

Set on vengeance and destruction.

What follows is a funny, charming, pleasantly peculiar tale of growth and discovery as a family comes together as one.

Through the power of bears.

Highlights: Paddington (Ben Wishaw) accidentally catches a pickpocket, young Judy (Madeleine Harris) learns to speak bear, whenever Paddington eats something, Mrs. Brown's (Sally Hawkins) outfits, Mrs. Bird (Julie Walters) tying one on, pigeons, baguette sandwiches, the emphasis on codes, manners, heart warmth.

The benefits of learning a Chinese dialect are also mentioned, the relations between youth and age are playfully cross-examined, creative multistep mischievous refinements abound, and there's a focus on understanding, nurtured through well being.

Paddington doesn't really look like a spectacled bear but there could be some variation within the species I'm unaware of.

And he's still young.

Costume design by Lindy Hemming.

You can still interact domestically while speaking bear.

Solid bear sounds.

Loved the alliteration.