Scott Meslow, writing for GQ:
I’m sure Daddy’s Home 2 thinks it’s clever to cast Gibson, an actor widely known for his bad behavior off-screen, as Wahlberg’s bad-boy father. And with John Lithgow playing Will Ferrell’s cuddly teddy bear of a father, it’s easy enough to see where this is going: Lithgow will teach Gibson to be a little warmer, Gibson will teach Lithgow to be a little cooler.
But if Gibson’s character in Daddy’s Home 2 actually learns a lesson about the downsides of bullshit macho posturing, it’ll be one more lesson than Gibson seems to have learned in his actual life. You can argue, convincingly, that someone with an open track record of racism, misogyny, and anti-Semitism can eventually earn a second chance. But while Gibson has gone to rehab, what’s most striking about his return to the spotlight is his apparent lack of remorse.