Kicking & Screaming Movie
Storyline
TAGLINES
All his life Phil Weston has dreamed of being on a winning team. Phil... your time has come.
Family man Phil Weston, a lifelong victim of his father's competitive nature, takes on the coaching duties of a kids' soccer team, and soon finds that he's also taking on his father's dysfunctional way of relating...
| Will Ferrell | Phil Weston |
| Robert Duvall | Buck Weston |
| Mike Ditka | Mike Ditka |
| Kate Walsh | Barbara Weston |
| Musetta Vander | Janice Weston |
| Dylan McLaughlin | Sam Weston |
| Josh Hutcherson | Bucky Weston |
| Steven Anthony Lawrence | Mark Avery |
| Jeremy Bergman | Hunter |
| Elliott Cho | Byong Sun |
| Erik Walker | Ambrose |
| Dallas McKinney | Connor |
| Francesco Liotti | Gian Piero |
| Alessandro Ruggiero | Massimo |
| Sammy Fine | Jack |
| Jesse Dylan |
5.40 out of 10 (7573 votes)
Visitor Reviews
Childish lessons for childish people
posted on 13 Jul 2009"Kicking and Screaming" concerns two brazenly childish parents who learn that Winning Isn't Everything. That another movie about grown men revisiting wounds of their youth through age group sports is upon us is quite sad in its own right. That "Kicking and Screaming" goes for laughs with ethnic jokes at the expense of children is just ugly. The shopworn proceedings are meant to be freshened by the antics of Will Ferrell (who's just started to be on a roll) and the hoary support of Robert Duvall and Mike Ditka. Yes, that Mike Ditka. But this is still a movie about cute kids and life lessons.Phil Weston (Ferrell) has had to deal with his uber-competitive father (Duvall) all his life. When Phil announces his engagement, dad announces his own to a much younger woman. Family rivalry runs so deep that, when both men have sons born on the same day, dad takes great pleasure in pointing out that his own boy is a few ounces heavier. This seems a considerable effort for a set up – Phil has a son and brother the same age, etc. – but the film mostly forgets about it. Odd. Being an empowering, sensitive father, it's of course only a matter of time before Phil's inner Lombardi is awakened when he agrees to coach his son's soccer team, to which his son has been traded by grandpa, himself the coach of the best team in the league. This is perhaps the first youth sports league in which players are actually traded, making it ideal for highlighting tropes about Doing Your Best and Just Having Fun.With the help of neighbor Mike Ditka as assistant coach, and his introduction to coffee, which he's never drunk, Phil indeed becomes a competitive monster. There are a lot of jokes about his growing caffeine addiction, as well as the team's game strategy of always passing to the two soccer prodigy Italian immigrants, whose father lets them play only if they remember the mantra of the family butchery, "meat comes first!" Sadly, "Kicking and Screaming" seems largely stuck in a retarded stage of development in which immigrant caricature and mispronunciation of Asian names (Ditka refers to little Byung Sun as "Bing Bong") pass for laughs. Ferrell is gradually proving himself capable of sustaining films with his manic energy, but here he's too often constrained by the confines of playing a more of less normal guy. By the final game – you guess between which teams – the filmmakers seem to realize that neither side is worth rooting for, and abruptly force a moral epiphany on Ferrell as if it were a straitjacket.There's a lot of potential for sharp satire in the culture of sports parents, but its insistence on simplistic moralizing prevents "Kicking and Screaming" from being anything more than a kids' movie. The lessons learned are so juvenile and basic that it seems insulting to be expected to care about adults who have yet to grasp them. Characters this immature aren't worth the time it takes to witness the meager redemptions imposed upon them.
Almost a complete Bad News Bears ripoff.
posted on 09 Jul 2009If you rent and watch the Bad News Bears then watch this movie it will pretty obvious the movie copied it almost completely. Several key points in both movies..1.In Bad News Bears a ex washed up baseball player coaches a very bad little league baseball team, in Kicking and Screaming Will Farrel plays a man who wasn't good at sports much to the letdown of his father decides to take over a junior soccer team.2.In Bad News Bears Buttermaker lets the team play as they want till he see's how bad they are and decides to recruit some good players to help them win, Phil a nice guy lets them play as they can, seeing how disappointed his son is in not winning, lets Mike Dikta talk him into recruiting two good soccer playing Italian kids so they can win.3.Buttermaker starts to get very competitive and instead of letting everyone have fun and play, gives his two ringers most of the playtime and the other kids get left out, Phil makes a bet with his dad, gets very competitive and puts everything on his two ringers and the other kids get left out.4.Buttermaker see's the error of his ways benches his two ringers and lets the kids play,Phil see's the error of his ways and benches his two ringers and lets the other kids play.Basically take out baseball in the Bad News Bears, insert soccer and make a few changes and you have Kicking and Screaming, most movies and TV shows copy each other in Hollywood, shame when they do it as blatantly as Kicking and Screaming does, watch the original Bad News Bears a much better movie.
"I Was Kicking & Screaming For This Film To Be Over"
posted on 29 Jun 2009Phil was never good at sports, his dad never really gave him a chance. Now that he is older and has his own son, his dad is doing the same thing to Phil's son as he did with Phil. Now Phil is the coach of the worst team in the league and tries to have fun with the game, but loses his sense of mind when he became addicted to coffee and winning.Will Ferrell should stay away from kid friendly comedies (Bewitched, Elf). It just doesn't suit his comedic talent at all. 2005 was a horrible year for Ferrel, banking in crap like Bewitched and Screaming, as well as the only funny once cameo in Wedding Crashers. Kicking & Screaming tries to be something it's not, which is THE BIG GREEN. I was kicking and screaming for this film to be over.The kids are nowhere as funny, cute, or good at anyone from the Big Green. I mean, who would you rather have, two Italian kids, or the red head from The Sandlot and Alfalfa. I honestly couldn't tell if this film was an ad for coffee or soccer. The parents should have had more screen time as it could have possibly helped the film with it's comedic moments.Ferrell learns his life lesson at the end of the film, as is expected, and I guess it's a good one for kids to learn, but it's told in a strange way. They basically tell the kids to do the exact opposite of what Phil has told them, but for kids at a Young age, how are they going to know the opposite? Duvall seems really old here and looks like he would kill over any minute. He unfortunately didn't bring much to the table. It seemed like he tried to hard to be like Ken Titus. Will Ferrell (Will the word, not the name) learn from his mistakes and step away from family friendly films and gear towards funny movies such as Oldschool and dare I say the mediocre Anchorman. Do yourself a favour and watch the Big Green instead, it's much funnier, and more friendly for the kids. Put please, stay away from this...and while were on the subject of soccer films to stay away from, put Home Team up there to.
I'm not really a big fan of Will Ferell, but after I saw "Kicking & Screaming", I thought, maybe his past movies that I didn't wanna see aren't that bad.
posted on 27 Jun 2009I was'nt crazy to see "Kicking & Screaming" because I'm not really a huge fan of him. I have not seen most of his movies. But after I saw "Kicking & Screaming" I thought, maybe his past movies that I didn't wanna see aren't that bad. I did'nt wanna see Anchorman or Elf, but now I'm thinking that I do. Will Ferrell is a funny guy. I don't know why I haven't seen a lot of his movies.I really love watching sport movies that deal with younger kids. Like, The Big Green & Little Giants. Movies when they try to work their way in winning the championship.There were very smart kids in the movie that did a good job at acting. There were scenes when I laughed a lot, but most of those scenes came from the little Chinese boy, his name is Byong Sun in the movie. Everyone in the theater enjoyed him. He's very funny by the way he talks and acts. Kicking and Screaming is a film the whole family would enjoy watching together.
Cant say that i'm all that surprised.
posted on 26 May 2009Here we have another fine specimen of American soccer movies all cliché and so predictable.Will Ferrell is pretty funny in this although this is as much as i could've expected out of this movie.Basically this is the story of a father son rivalry where the son(Will Ferrell) will do anything to impress the dad (robert duvall)(who should really stick to movies like the Godfather.)Will ferrell decides to manage his own soccer team to rival the team that his dad manages.You can kind of guess what happens next so i wont bore you by giving you the storyline.This is a disappointing movie.I give this a 4/10 as it does have its funny parts.
Will Ferrell's Attempt to Save a Crummy Cheeseball Movie
posted on 22 May 2009Out of all the talented people who were on 'Saturday Night Live' in the last fifteen years, Will Ferrell is by far my favorite. He's such a charismatic, energetic and hilarious performer. He truly is a comic genius. He's also one of the most successful SNL alumni of all time. For most of the cast members, after they leave 'Saturday Night Live' their careers go down the toilets. But not Will Ferrell, he only improved his career after his goodbye to SNL, with great comedies like Old School, Anchorman, and even, Elf. Whenever you go see a Will Ferrell film you have the strong expectation of it being really good. Well, Ferell's latest effort, 'Kicking and Screaming', is a disappointment of epic proportions. But that isn't his fault. Poor Mr. Ferrell tries as hard as he can to lift this dud off the ground, but he just isn't able to because of the movie's beyond lame screenplay. Yes, those thinking 'Kicking and Screaming', would be the next great Will Ferrell movie are sadly mistaking. I was one of those people, and that's why I left the theater so incredibly disappointed.The movie is a little league soccer flick, and it circles around the all-too-familiar plot of the dipstick son trying to live up to his non-supportive father. The dipstick is Will Ferrell's character, Phil Weston. He owns a vitamin store, and is always trying to gain the respect of his father, Buck Weston (played by Academy Award Winner Robert Duvall), who owns a chain of sporting good stores and viciously coaches a little league soccer team, which Phil's son is a part of. One day, Buck trades Phil's son to another team because he isn't a good player. This infuriates Phil, and eventually has him coach the team his son has been traded to, to show daddy he's not a screw-up. The movie pretty much follows the competition of the two father-son coaches. Whose team will win the championship? By the end of the movie, you really don't care anymore, and you're looking at your watch frantically to see how much of this waste of film is left.It isn't so much 'Kicking and Screaming' is a horrible movie, it's just not a good one by any stretch of the imagination. The biggest problem with the film is the screenplay -- it is absolutely dreadful (to quote Simon Cowell to one of the untalented hack wannabe singers on 'American Idol'). It's very amateurish, and it doesn't go places it should to be funny. It's very bland and so conventional it will have you yawning after the 30-minute mark. Although it succeeds being funny sometimes, for the most part it fails miserably at earning laughs. Whoever wrote this trashy script should be banned from the film industry, because it is just awful. The movie is really saved by Will Ferrell, who really puts forth an effort to make the most of his part, but an actor in a film is only as good as the film's screenplay. Ferrell achieves hilarity in some scenes, but most of his lines are embarrassingly stupid and unoriginal. Mike Ditka is actually pretty good playing himself, and Robert Duvall serves as an example of a waste of good talent in this childish sap fest. In conclusion, 'Kicking and Screaming' is something you should avoid. If you really love Will Ferrell, it just may be worth watching to see Ferrell break out in a violent rage brought on by too much coffee, but for the lot of us it is just plain old cinematic crap. Grade: C- (screened at AMC Deer Valley 30, Phoenix, Arizona, 5/13/05)
The view according to www.georgevader.co.uk
posted on 06 May 2009Will Ferrell, love him (which I do) or hate him (which a lot of people do) you can't ignore him, which is probably due to the high volume of films he has appeared in recently the past couple of years you'll have seen the grinning idiot in 'The Wedding Crashers', 'Starsky And Hutch', 'Anchorman', 'Elf' and 'Old School' to name but a few, and here he appears as Phil Weston who takes on the coaching of a kids 'soccer' team, but soon his Father's competitive edge starts to usurp.Every cliché in the book is rolled out in this rather average, but ultimately, rather enjoyable comedy flick.Ferrell is manic as usual, though there is some good support from Robert Duvall, and a great turn from NFL coach Mike Ditka as Duvall's warring neighbour.The kids too are pretty charismatic, the film ends exactly as you would expect but it's still a solid 90 minutes of sports comedy cheese.
A pretty forgettable but funny Will Farrell film
posted on 04 May 2009Kicking and Screaming is just one of those movies that you might watch one time fully through and if it's on TV, you might watch a little bit of it if nothing's on. It's a very forgettable film that had Will Farrell in it to give some good laughs. I thought Will Farell was hilarious though and pretty much stole the show just like any other comedies he does. Lines like, "No, you go to hell, and while you're there, why don't you grab me a juicebox," made me laugh a lot. I thought Mike Ditka and Robert Duvall were pretty funny also and had a couple funny lines. Overall, this is a film that I might watch maybe once or twice and then totally forget about it. It's enjoyable because Will Farrell steals the show.Hedeen's Outlook: 7/10 **+ C+
Average movie made for the kids
posted on 26 Apr 2009Oddly, I haven't seen anyone point out that this is simply a remake of Bad News Bears. A guy who reluctantly ends up coaching a team of misfits, gets two ringers to make his bad team good, gets caught up in the moment and forgets that it's all about the fun, until the end when he realizes his mistakes in the championship game. Just change baseball for soccer and you've got this movie.Except Bad New Bears (the original, not the awful remake) had great kid actors and was actually funny, whereas this movie has awful actors and lots of set ups that lead to no punchlines. It's basically a kid's movie, I doubt most adults will find it funny, despite having Will Ferrell who is generally hilarious.Just please, no "Kicking and Screaming go to Japan."
Hilarious
posted on 26 Apr 2009Kicking & Screaming: This movie is basically a Father-Son trouble movie. A family movie, you'd say. It's hilarious! I loved it a lot! It really is funny.Some soccer parts kept on going for like 10 minutes but still, the movie was great to me. I guess I'm not a hard core critic on IMDb.Anywho, this movie was really funny-a family movie. Shows mostly about father-son relationships and the competitions between any relationship like that. People can relate to it and it really is hilarious especially because of actor Will Farrel-any movie with him is 99.9% guaranteed hilarious! <3 The movie is too cute and too hilarious that's why I loved it!! One of the soccer players (italian) was hot! =] Litio or something Anywho, really funny and stays on topic and does have a good meaning er...moral!
Better Than Bewitched As Anything Would Be
posted on 06 Apr 2009It's strange how people look at Will Farrell movies & think Will is the funny guy. Will is sometimes a weird guy (in fact in this soccer movie, he is a weird coach). But in most movies, Wills best moments are making others seem funny when they play off of him.In this movie where the Bad News Bears do soccer in a way, Will Ferrell makes Mike Ditka look good. He makes Robert Duvall look good. He even makes the kids look good. Will is just pretty much himself, weird and a little out of touch with reality. Make that a whole lot out of touch with reality.Still, the support he gets in this movie is priceless. The concept of the team arriving late at a soccer game in a Butcher truck all wearing bloody aprons is inspired. Some of the other things are creative & cute too. The films end is predictable, but a little different. Overall, it is entertaining for a young audience.Mike Ditka should find some more movie work. He is pretty good in this, & is missed when he leaves the film for a while.
One of the Worst Movies I Have Ever Seen
posted on 23 Mar 2009This is one of the worst movies I have ever seen. Completely predictable, unfunny and so badly written and acted it's hard to believe. An Oscar winner like Robert Duvall should be ashamed to have made this movie. Not one person in the theater laughed once at anything in this abomination. Will Farrell was in his element in "Elf" but is terrible in this movie. Every part of the movie feels false and contrived. The ending can be guessed after the first minute of the movie. The only redeeming part of the movie is the little Korean player. The rest of the child actors were awful. Put down Will Farrell in the same class as Ben Afflick and Ben Stiller, the three worst actors in Hollywood.
Embarrassing to Watch
posted on 17 Mar 2009Buck (Duvall) trades his bench-warmer grandson to the Tigers, who are always in last place. Phil (Ferrell) decides to coach the Tigers and do combat with his overly competitive father (Duval). Mike Ditka helps Phil out in coaching the Tigers, a soccer team.I took a chance on this "comedy" because Robert Duvall and Mike Ditka were in it. Will Ferrell should be selling cars or something away from movies. The man is not funny. Well, I was thought Duvall and Ditka would bring some sanity and a little class to this. And, to be honest they did pretty good. It was getting past Ferrell's performance that upset me and I am still upset.Mike Ditka gets Phil hooked on coffee, which is, of course, loaded with caffeine and here is where the problem comes in to play and I get upset at the way Phil (Ferrell) goes completely out of control and treats adults and especially the kids he is coaching like they count for nothing and are always in his way. At one point Phil (Ferrell) knocks a kid to the ground. This is funny? This is a comedy? This shouldn't happen. These kids are kids and they look up to adults for guidance and to be treated this way is not right. There is no comedy in pushing a kid to the ground regardless of the reason. This is where I got more upset. Watching Phil go out of control with adults was one unfunny thing, but knocking a kid to the ground was embarrassing to watch. In fact, watching the whole out-of-control-unfunny-Phil was embarrassing in itself.Yes, Phil sees the error of his ways later on, but for me, that was too late and wasn't good enough. I was kind of disgusted. That will be the last Will Ferrell movie I watch. The man is just not funny and it seems he will do almost anything for a laugh. Again, no one was laughing. If you see this and you laugh, you need to see someone.
Awesome
posted on 23 Feb 2009I chose to watch this film on the TV because there was nothing on. I looked at the information and saw that the famous actor and one of my favourite actors, Will Ferrell was in this film.I watched it and really got into it. Will Ferrell's humour was good for anyone who liked Anchorman and/or Elf.He plays a good coach, but not a normal coach. He tries different plays with his team, even though they are not the best.Will Ferrell gets back at his dad for being such a stuck-up person and then realises quite near the end of the film that he is acting like his dad was to him.Will Ferrell is quick to act and explains that he was an idiot to the team and finally puts his son in. He has a new game plan, not just all about the Italians kids.Overall this film is quite funny and good for the whole family. Very good acting from everyone.Worth watching.
Possible Spoiler: I admit it! I admit it! I laughed at this movie!!
posted on 15 Feb 2009You know every single lousy joke before it's made...including the awful "balls" joke (why, GOD, why are grown men still making jokes about their testicles that weren't funny when they were 10 years old and are only more embarrassing now?). I didn't laugh at those. I groaned.But there is something about Will Ferrell and the way he delivers lines that's reminiscent of Peter Sellars. Bill Murray has this same quality. These three people can just say "Hello." and their delivery will make you laugh. Ferrell pulls that same quality off here. The movie is awful...just awful. Every corny thing you can think of, every predictable plot line there is. It's like that 10-year-old earlier wrote the whole movie. BUT Will Ferrell can deliver a line like "Are you a robot? Are you a robot woman?" so well that it has me smiling now as I type it. He brings that same quality to "Anchorman" which is also very funny and less predictable.And the adding of Mike Ditka as the neighbor is a great touch, as well. I didn't get the reference to Ditka's hair...does he wear a toupee? They kept making wig jokes through the whole movie and referred to Ditka's hair, too. Anyway, I found that and Ferrell's performance to be the only two things that make this movie watchable, like chocolate milk during and the promise of chocolate cake after a dinner with vegetables making it possible to choke the veggies down.So, as awful as the rest of the movie is, see it on cable just for Ferrell's sake. A guilty pleasure, but I confess...I confess...I laughed at this movie!!
one of the best family movie of the year
posted on 15 Feb 2009i am not a person who comments on the movies that often but i was reading somebody comments on and it stated how pathetic this movie. i don't how can people write that about this movie its a kids movie. i am 22 years and i loved this movie. there were a lot of sports movies out with it like longest yard and rebound. i have seen rebound but that is no way closer to this movie. i will recommend this movie to anybody who has not seen it. there was good storyline, good performance by everyone and you will laugh nearly in the whole movie. i will give it 9.5 out of 10. If you are gonna watch this movie watch it as a movie fan not a critic. when i got out after watching this movie i was still thinking of it. the ending was perfect. watch the movie with your whole family
It is about a man who coaches his son's soccer team to prove to his father he isn't a loser... or something like that. The movie too bad to bother remembering details.
posted on 15 Feb 2009This movie was possibly the worst movie I have seen in a long time. Will Ferrell is, I think, one of the funniest actors and I have been a fan since I saw him on SNL. However, this movie was a huge disappointment and I am at this time trying to forget I ever saw it. The plot was predictable and unoriginal. It almost reminds me of a bad "The Big Green". After watching "Kicking and Screaming" I have realized it was probably meant for younger children and that may have put a few restrictions on the movie, but that does not mean the script had to be as poorly written as it was. "Elf" was another children's movie that Will Ferrell was in, however it was a solid movie. THe script was decent, the plot was decent and it was an all round funny movie. It is a movie that can be enjoyed by everyone, even people who only saw it because they are Will Ferrell fans. I would not recommend "Kicking and Screaming" to Will Ferrell fans as it will only lead to disappointment. However, if you are 10 and under, you will probably enjoy the movie.
Typical Ferrell
posted on 07 Feb 2009I'm only going to say it once, and probably never say it again, but Will Ferrell is an absolutely unfunny actor, regardless of what people think.OK, I'll let "Bewitched" and "Anchorman" aside, but this movie really shows how unfunny this man is. Even the co-star Mike Ditka has more humor than he does! The story is about a family which is divided between winning and losing. Ferrell's father, Buck (portrayed by the always great Robert Duvall), is a legend. He's rich, he's a great athlete, and he's loved by everyone, and he's also everything his son isn't. Ferrell, on the other hand, is the almost opposite. He's a terrible athlete, and never lived up to his father's expectations. When Ferrell and Duvall both have children (yes, Duvall remarries and has a son with his second wife), they both grow up with a love for soccer, but it turns out the Ferrell's kid is a bench-warmer, while Duvall's kid is a star, and in a split second, Duvall, who is the league commissioner, trades his grandson to the Tigers, the worst team in the league. So, what do you do to get revenge? Coach. That's what I'd do.Well things don't go as planned for the stupid Ferrell, trying to crack in some laughs on stupid moments. But he realizes he needs help, so he branches out and grabs Duvall's neighbor (Mike Ditka), who hates the guts of him and works with Ferrell as his assistant.Next thing you know? The Tigers unleash, and things really start to crank out. Guess you can predict what happens next.In the end, it all proves how much of a terrible actor/comedian Ferrell is. He just should have stayed with SNL and prospered there. Unlike the ones before him (John Belushi, Chris Farley), he's not the one to go get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.Mike Ditka on the other hand gets a decent applause, as the insensitive coach, who really lays the smack-down on his players. His role of his own self made it better than some corny coach.Kids humor at its best. Ferrell at his worst. Go figure.4/10.
Remember when Will Ferrell used to make funny movies?
posted on 24 Jan 2009Let me say up front that I think Will Farrell is one of the five funniest humans currently walking the the face of the earth. That said, based on his involvement with "Kicking and Screaming", he is also one of the five worst judges of movie scripts! All right, maybe that's a little unfair to say, since he was in "Old School" and "Anchorman", which were both very funny movies. And I guess it's possible that at some point -- very, very early in its development period -- "Kicking & Screaming" might have shown enough promise to make him think it'd be a worthy successor to those bombastic comedies.So what happened? I suspect that, at a key juncture, the filmmakers decided to approach it as BOTH a G-rated kids' sports movie and an adult comedy. As has happened with most such films before it (many helmed by directors far more adept than Jesse Dylan), the result is an empty movie orphan which satisfies neither audience.And it doesn't help that the film looks like it was directed by a 12-year-old -- with spare change, on a Saturday afternoon -- who has never even WATCHED soccer before.It's tough to call this a truly awful movie, because there are a few laughs scattered here and there, mostly because Ferrell is able to mine one or two golden nuggets from the mostly barren script. But they are few and far between. He has little help from the rest of the cast (aside from Mike Ditka), and the kids especially are a disappointment. I expect more from executive producer Judd Apatow, who scored a slam dunk with his cast for the TV show "Freaks and Geeks." I guess he used up all of his casting inspiration on that show, because this is perhaps the least memorable kid cast ever.As you probably know by now, Ferrell plays Phil Weston, an over-his-head youth soccer coach saddled with a sad-sack team who feels he's a disappointment to his father (Robert Duvall), also a coach, but more successful. Hilarity is supposed to ensue from this premise, but doesn't. Despite the use of every single tired sports-movie cliché in the book.The main problem is that we never care about any of characters. We never get any feel for the relationship between Ferrell and his kid, which should be pivotal because that's what gets him into coaching. The kids are broad stroked and typecast (the short shy kid, the big slow kid, the jokester, etc.) and never really figure into the story in any meaningful way. And Mike Ditka is supposed to be Duvall's nemesis...but why? Motivations are never explained. The result is a very empty movie.Director Jesse Dylan (son of Bob Dylan) brings nothing to the party and ineptly stages a series of pratfall-ridden music videos featuring the most used-to-death sports anthems -- Vangelis' theme from "Chariots of Fire," Queen's "We Are the Champions" and Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger." And I'm no soccer expert per se, but I played for 13 years and can tell good-movie soccer from bad-movie soccer...and this is as bad as it gets! I was shocked to learn that they had "soccer advisors" on-set. I hope that's not your day job, guys, because this is some very shoddy stuff! If you're looking for a good family sports movie, check out Dennis Quaid's "The Rookie" which came out a few years ago. And that advice goes double for anybody associated with "Kicking and Screaming" who might be reading this!
A bottom division of a movie.
posted on 24 Aug 2009After having enjoyed Will Ferrells other films,i decided to pick this one up,and while it is a present enough family film,it has a bit of a "Cookie cutter" feel to it. The plot:Ferrell is Phil Weston,a guy who has always tried to in press his dad Buck (Robert Duvall) at how he does sports,but he has sadly failed to do so.Yet when he sees his son football team without a coach,he decides that he should coach the team,so they beat the team his dad coaches and with help getting a co-coach in Mike Ditka,they start winning,but can they get to the final?View on the film:Direction:Director Jesse"son of Bob"Dylan is sadly unable to get the film past the point where you forget the other movies that are very like this(The bad news bears being the main one.)and the speed the team improve means that you don't get any feeling of joy when they win a match. Cast:While Ferrell gives a fine performance,the very surprising highlight is Mike Ditka as himself,who gives a really fun over-the-top performance as the co-coachFinal view on the Film:A pleasant enough film,with some fun performances,that is not able to get past a been-there-done-that feel.