Mark Wahlberg must have agreed to this loathsome family comedy out of loyalty to director Sean Anders, his collaborator on their previous hits Daddy’s Home and . I’d much rather believe that than (a) the star is losing his touch for picking the right projects, or (b) he’s realized there’s a seemingly ever-widening market of ticket buyers who like their movies as stupid as can be, and he’s bellying up to cash in. The story concerns a childless couple (Wahlberg and Rose Byrne) who implausibly embrace the notion that becoming foster parents to not one but three problem kids will be as painless as rescuing a shelter puppy. Every single joke is either hackneyed, insulting, or else falls flat because Anders’s sense of comic timing is about as sharp as a garden tool that’s been left outside for a year. Byrne’s performance is shrill, the child actors’ parts are one-dimensional, and it’s embarrassing to watch Tig Notaro, Octavia Spencer, Julie Hagerty, and Joan Cusack struggle to find footing in this abyss.
