Class is in session. Sadly, legions of kids know this to be true, as they begin to head back to school for another year of filling their brains with knowledge.
Now that Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg’s dads have got their “co-dad game on lockdown,” it’s time to shake things up for the holidays. The first trailer for Daddy’s Home 2, aka Sofia Coppola’s most anticipated film of the year, has arrived and it’s brought the grandaddy of all problems — literally — along with it. Yep, grandpa’s comin’ home and he’s Mel Gibson.
Beaming families, teary smiles, mortarboards in the air — it’s graduation season, which means that more importantly, it’s celebrity commencement address season. While some high-profile speakers have received a chillier reception than others, the A-lister speech has long been a reliably amusing diversion in between long-winded orations from dusty academic types. Maya Rudolph took plenty of artistic license with “The Star-Spangled Banner” at my graduation ceremony from Tulane a few years ago, an unforgettable experience that I was too drunk to currently remember. But today brings video of another movie star taking the stage before a mass of fresh-faced students blissfully unaware of how hard getting a job is. Ladies, gentlemen, Will Ferrell is in the house.
What do Clydesdale horses, frogs and dogs have in common with Anna Kendrick, Will Ferrell, Harrison Ford and Jessica Alba? They all want to sell you beer.
The first trailer for The House is about what you’d expect based on the plot description: Amy Poehler and Will Ferrell need to raise money to send their kid to college, so they start an illegal casino / underground fight club in their basement, various hijinks ensue, etc. It looks pleasant enough, and the combo of Poehler and Ferrell (with a handful of other funny people) should make for a solid comedy — though this one looks a bit safe, which is surprising considering that The House comes from the minds behind Neighbors.