BEFORE: Let's wrap up the Father's Day films with the last two, this is where I initially wanted to be four days ago, I got there, I just had to scramble a bit and move some things around. It's fine. Rachael Harris should really update her IMDB page and Wiki page if her scenes got cut out of "Daddy Day Care", I'm just saying.
If I'd known I was going to move this one further down the chain, I could have cut to the Doc Block a day or two earlier, because two people from today's cast make appearances in two separate docs, again, just saying. But it's fine. Bobby Cannavale carries over from "Incoming"
THE PLOT: Three best friends become fathers later in life and find themselves battling preschool principals, millennial CEOs, and anything created after 1987.
AFTER: Bill Burr was born in 1968, the same year as me, which is technically Generation X - so no more shouts of "OK, Boomer!" But Generation X is getting older now, we're all on our second (or third) spouses and most of us have kids (I've abstained though) and we're starting to see that movies just aren't directed at us any more. Jesus, on my last road-trip I realized that I now qualify for the senior specials at IHOP, that's a tough one to face. I mean, I'll happily take $3 off my shrimp and pancakes dinner (not a thing, it turns out, but chicken and waffles, somehow that's acceptable) but why try to make me feel old just because I'm over 55? I guess we're dying off if we're in a demographic that Hollywood doesn't care about? Well, finally there's a romance film directed at not just men, but men of a certain age, and well, it's about time.
You didn't hear it from me, but Tom Cruise is about to turn 63 in July. It's too bad he already made a film where he was in a wheelchair, because he's eventually going to need one again. Brad Pitt will turn 62 in December and George Clooney turned 64 in May. It might be time to start filming "Ocean's 66". Look up more celebrity ages if you want to feel old, too. It used to be a safe haven for us to go on a cruise, if we stuck to Holland America, which tends to serve an older demographic - it makes sense, if you want to feel skinny, just hang out with fatter people. But we went on another cruise line in March and we were NOT the youngest ones anymore, so that means we're officially part of the older crowd. And that's OK, as long as you don't act old. You can feel old, just try not to look like it, it's a sign of weakness and then before you know it, you're getting the AARP magazine in the mail and the only people who call you are scammers claiming they're from the bank and saying they need you to confirm your password.
But a lot of the humor in this film comes from the fact that things that Boomers and Gen X did or said are just not acceptable anymore, which means that the older generation thinks that the younger ones are too soft and too entitled, and the Gen Z and Gen Alpha people think that the older generations were unenlightened and insensitive. It's possible that both things are true, but really most of the jokes here belong in a Bill Burr stand-up routine instead of being forced into the framework of a film's narrative. Can older men have very young kids, with their second or third wives? Sure, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they SHOULD. What's the incentive to save up for their kid's college education if statistically they'll probably be dead when the kids are sending in their applications? It's just not their problem, then, is it?
Jack started a throwback sports apparel company, and ran it with his two best friends, Connor and Mike. But now Jack has sold the business to a millennial start-up manager, provided they can stay on as employees and equity shareholders. However, the first thing the millennial dude does is fire everyone else born before 1985, which, by the way, is kind of illegal, that's age discrimination. The new boss also wants to completely overhaul the business and become carbon-neutral, gender-neutral and get out of the team jersey business, instead he wants to create a "lifestyle" brand based on the idea that famous people are getting off of social media, so the next people to become influencers are people who aren't famous at all, and this leads him to the illogical conclusion that the new spokesman should be a guy who moved out to the desert decades ago and lives like a hermit. Even for Gen Z, that makes no sense.
Meanwhile, Jack gets involved in a feud with his son's pre-school director because he was two minutes late for pick-up, and in general is one of those control freaks (Rachael Harris is a perfect casting choice here, and this way her scenes can't be cut for once). Mike, a divorced father of two adult kids, learns that his young girlfriend is pregnant even though he got a vasectomy, and Connor is married to an insane helicopter mom who won't let him discipline their out-of-control son. All three are sent out to the desert to find this mystery man, and, well, what could POSSIBLY go wrong there? It leads to them all getting fired for the most invasive and unlikely reason possible. So now all three men are meant to feel even more marginalized by modern society, but hey, at least Jack now has more time to work on the pre-school fund-raiser.
Disputes between the friends and their wives all spiral out of control, and the men decide to solve everything with another road-trip, this time a bachelor party-style trip to a desert casino. Sure, that'll fix everything, strippers and alcohol and maybe some drugs. But it's actually the bar fight that brings them together, plus a phone call that informs Jack that his wife is in labor with their second child. That, plus a ride from an even older Uber driver who's somehow more politically incorrect than all three of them put together, inspires the three men to change their ways, and Jack finally agrees to therapy to deal with his anger issues. Relatable. And probably also very cringe-worthy if you're under thirty.
Directed by Bill Burr
Also starring Bill Burr (last seen in "Leo"), Bokeem Woodbine (last seen in "The Big Hit"), Katie Aselton, Reign Edwards, Jackie Tohn, Miles Robbins, Rachael Harris (last NOT seen in "Daddy Day Care"), Dash McCloud (last seen in "Venom: The Last Dance"), Justin Miles (last seen in "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip"), C. Thomas Howell (last heard in "Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay"), Bruce Dern (last seen in "Cut Bank"), Dominic Grey Gonzalez, Natasha Leggero (last seen in "The Do-Over"), Katrina Bowden (last seen in "Sex Drive"), Angela Gulner, Josh Brener (last seen in "The Front Runner"), Erin Wu, Justene Alpert, Cameron Kelly, Cody Renee Cameron (last seen in "The Clapper"), Joe Bartnick, Paul Virzi, Chelsea M. Davis, Carl Tart, Nate Craig, Rick Glassman (last seen in "A Futile and Stupid Gesture"), Abbie Cobb, Ron Taylor, Nia Renee Hill, Tom Allen, Rory Scovel (last seen in "Babylon"), James Lavon Miller, Steph Tolev, Paul Walter Hauser (last heard in "Inside Out 2"), Michael Sean McHale (last seen in "Get Him to the Greek"), Jeff Wolfe (last seen in "Drive")
RATING: 6 out of 10 e-scooters
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