I haven’t watched a movie with Will Ferrell in a leading role since Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues, which came out in 2013.  I can’t state exactly why my wife and I passed on seeing Daddy’s Home or its sequel.  Or Get Hard.  To me, it looked like Ferrell’s lovable doofus characters were being made the butt of violent jokes.  I know this sounds ridiculous, but while his comedy trades in an innocent, child-like stupidity, most of the time there is an intelligence about it.  For example, what Ferrell does as Ron Burgundy or Ricky Bobby or Frank in Old School works both as comedy and as meta-comedy at the same time.  The jokes are obvious and sly at the same time.  You can see the wheels going around in his mind while he performs.  When Ferrell’s schtick (for lack of a better word) works, it’s because we can tell he put thought into what he is doing.  When it doesn’t work, it comes off as sloppy or slapdash.  Being stupid is not enough to get a laugh, or a movies-worth of laughs.  Its the why behind the stupid.

Years from now, critics will look upon the year 2020 as the Year of the Streaming Blockbusters.  With the release of numerous studio pictures into movie theaters put on hold due to the pandemic, moviegoers have turned to streaming services to get their fill of new movies.  While Netflix has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the pandemic, Apple TV and Hulu have also gotten into the game.  While having an alternative is always preferable to nothing, the alternative has been a decidedly different bag.