Old Dads is essentially a snapshot of Bill Burr's longstanding stand up routines so there aren't many surprises for the viewer.

So as a result your like or dislike of the movie will basically hinge on your opinion of Burr himself.

Its a softer representation of his material, I guess in an attempt to widen the audience and it does work from that perspective.

Its also very much a case of the older you are the more I think you will like the movie. Old Dads is full of generational jokes, pitting those who had to walk 5 miles in the snow to get to school vs the modern 'snowflakes'.

Its funny enought to get you by :)

The funniest humour is humour that tells it like it is. Jack's confrontations with his kids' school staff and other parents, and their outragous militant "faux sensitive" attacks, are painful to watch because we live with them in real life. Every one of them has a ridiculous shield of political correctness up around them, and they use it as a weapon, thus completely undermining how "sensitive" they claim to be. Jack calls them out on it, saying at one point, "All you care about is not getting in trouble". The obnoxious 20-something who takes over their company is exactly the tiresome, lazy arrogant twit we all dread as a new boss - has never gotten his hands dirty, never worked a day in his life, has been taught by his mommy that he's "special" so he can treat people like dirt. Unfortunately, about 2/3 of the way through, Jack's "epiphany" ruins the whole thing. His wife shuts him out because he has "anger" problems. No he doesn't. He doesn't hit people, wreck property, throw people out of their jobs, sit on his behind while others do all the work, or torture his schoolmates or coworkers with holier-than-though attitude. He calls people names somertimes, and he yells sometimes. That's about it. Otherwise, he's the most honest, hard-working, fair person in the whole story. It's sad that the movie goes south by having him "change" to become a gutted namby pamby shell of his real self. That is a HORRIBLE thing, but it is presented in the film as though he has reached some successful peak.

I love Bill Burr and his comedy. I watched the entire F is For Family series. And when I saw the trailer for this movie, I felt like checking it out due to Bill.

For the first half, I laughed my butt off. Watching him deal sensitive and judgmental people is exactly how I feel when those situations come up. One scene in particular is where he's encouraged (when really forced) to apologize for using "hurtful words" at the school earlier. I put the quotes in there because barely anyone acknowledges the fact that he swore in front of kids, but emphasize how they themselves were hurt. And the icing on the cake is most of them weren't even present when he cursed, but were told through their grapevine about it. And Bill delivers an apology as he should, and I mean with criticism towards them.

Watching the scenes with Bill and his buddies' new boss made me cringe, only because he has no idea how to manage people except to say "I appreciate you" after giving a thinly veiled insult, but that was the point of his character. He represents the younger generation in the workplace who force everyone to adapt to them and don't know what real work is. Conner's wife was another character we're supposed to hate. She's one of those moms that we've all seen somewhere who give their kids free reign and don't respond well to criticism. Not even when Conner tries to make his son apologize for injuring Bill's son. She not only turns it into a mini therapy session, but also has the audacity to snap her fingers at Conner, like he's a trained dog, to stop him from forcing their son to apologize. She does the snapping thing more times throughout the movie, including when she's not even looking at him. My sister and I were both cheering for someone to smack her :)

But after Bill and his buddies get fired in a scene that not only spurred my anger at his boss but also can see happening in the real world because of how the younger generation works, that's where I found myself laughing less. Mike, who's dealing with an unexpected pregnancy, blames Bill's character for getting them fired, even though they all were "guilty of their actions", and stops hanging out with him. Conner also stops hanging out, but only because his wife told him not to due to an argument she started with Bill's wife. And to add insult to injury, Bill sucks up to the principal that he insulted, strongly "encouraged" by his wife, spends a lot of money after having just lost his job when the guests don't really participate in the fundraiser, and the principal can't help but subtly verbally picking at his failures until he finally has enough and responds in his usual demeanor but in the same volume as her. This causes his wife to get mad at him and throw him out, which had me shouting at the TV. It's okay for her to insult the wife of a friend, but not for him to do it to someone who likes the control her influence gets her.

Everything gets resolved in the end, but some of it feels rushed and none of it results in anyone apologizing to Bill, not even his wife, which confuses me. It's like the message he learns from the whole experience is shut up and take the hits from life on the chin because your wife said so. That's why I couldn't rank this higher than a 7. I love Bill's stuff and his comedy, but the ending wasn't satisfactory for me.