CORPORATE LINE: Will Ferrell (Elf, Old School) stars in a lively comedy about the cutthroat, hyper-competitive world … of little league soccer.
Kicking & Screaming stars Ferrell as Phil Weston, an average Joe who’s had to put up all his life with his overly competitive father, Buck (Robert Duvall). When Phil decides to coach his 10-year-old son’s soccer team, he goes head-to-head for the league championship against Buck, who coaches his own young son on the preeminent team of the league. Old scores come into play as Phil and Buck find themselves going to extreme measures to win the championship trophy.
THE GOOD: Will Ferrell. He carries the entire film on his back and tries to run for a touchdown but only gets a field goal. Yes, that was a football analogy but its okay because Mike Ditka is in the movie. Ferrell is hilarious. He starts to transform himself from loving innocent, big-hearted man into a raving Ditka clone. The children are good mostly because they show why Ferrell is so funny—because he is a six-foot child.
As great as Duvall is he can barely keep up with the manic Will Ferrell. Even the kids don’t seem to have enough energy to keep pace. Ferrell is truly a raving comedic lunatic and that’s why we love him. Had they failed to cast Ferrell this movie would have been 100% dud.
THE BAD: The film itself is Hollywood through and through. The blueprint was laid out to craft Kicking & Screaming.
THE EXTRAS:
“The Red Cards: Deleted Scenes” – Nothing remotely interesting or pertinent.
“The Yellow Cards: Outtakes” – There are some funny moments surrounded by other vanilla ones.
“Soccer Camp” and “Kickin’ It With The Kids” – Attempts at making cute featurettes.
“Behind the Net: The Making of Kicking & Screaming” – Some fun behind the scenes featurettes.
FRANKLY: Kicking & Screaming isn’t unique… think of The Bad News Bears and The Mighty Ducks. What neither of those films had was Will Ferrell it just too bad Will Ferrell didn’t have those scripts.
+ Charlie Craine
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