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Amazon.co.uk Review
Will Ferrell is at his full, frenzied power as Phil Weston, a married, uncoordinated would-be sportsman with an uncoordinated would-be sportsman son--and an unresolved relationship with his coach father, Buck (Robert Duvall), who has very little tolerance for the uncoordinated. When Buck trades his own grandson to a real loser of a little league soccer team, Phil naturally takes over underdog coaching duties and the two men butt heads. You could easily, and perhaps rightfully, dismiss all of this as a dumb, demented Meatballs or Bad News Bears rip-off, but it's pleasantly dumb and sometimes hysterically demented: Encouraged by his neighbor, ex-Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka (yes, playing himself), Phil stops his vitamin regimen and becomes wildly addicted to regular doses of caffeine, which turns him into a monster of a team leader. In addition to Ferrell, Duvall does a doozy of a comic riff on his Great Santini role, and even Ditka is unexpectedly funny. It's a formula film with just enough far-out notions to keep you chuckling. --Steve Wiecking
Synopsis
In KICKING & SCREAMING, funny man Will Ferrell's (Old School, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgandy) humorous man-child antics meet actual kids on the soccer pitch. He plays vitamin salesman Phil Weston, a sensitive man easily capable of both crying and sewing. Unfortunately for Phil, these qualities have never quite endeared him to his tough-as-nails father, Buck (Robert Duvall) who will stop at nothing to one-up Phil. He goes so far as benching Phil's 10-year-old son - his own grandson - on the youth soccer team he coaches. Upon Phil's begging to get his son more playing time, Buck trades his grandson to the last-place team, the Tigers. Not just any normal cellar-dwelling outfit, the Tigers feature a cast of loveable losers who prefer eating worms and telling jokes to playing soccer. When the Tigers' coach leaves, putting the season on the line, an inexperienced Phil steps in to helm his son's new team. With help from Buck's neighbour and rival, real-life football coach Mike Ditka - hilariously playing himself - the Tigers turn their season around. Fuelled by a raging caffeine habit, Phil starts to overly obsess with beating Buck, losing sight of why he took the job in the first place - to be a better dad to his own son. Director Jesse Dylan (American Wedding) is a natural for the story-line, being famed musician Bob Dylan's son. Farrell, for once, is content to play straight arrow to the crazy tykes in the first half of the film, before he unleashes his trademark zaniness in the latter half. Those attributes alone, along with fun-loving family themes, make Kicking & Screaming a treat for fans both young and old.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very funny until the comedy is allowed to get out of hand,
By Daniel Jolley "darkgenius" (Shelby, North Carolina USA) - See all my reviews (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER) (TOP 100 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Kicking and Screaming [DVD] (DVD)
Will Ferrell is always funny, and the part of Phil Weston would seem to be tailor-made for his comedic antics. Phil's basically a little boy in a man's body, a little boy who wants to finally prove himself to his father and make up for never having met the old man's expectations. Robert Duvall lends the film an importance presence and additional laughs as the highly competitive Buck Weston, sporting goods king and highly successful coach of the Youth Soccer League Gladiators team. Phil (Ferrell) has never been able to get a leg up on his father - but certainly not from lack of effort. When he got married, his father got re-married; when he had a son, his father's wife gave birth to a son (slightly larger, of course) the same day. Young Sam and his equally young uncle Bucky play for the Gladiators, Buck's team, and they are all but unbeatable. Sam, though, is the proverbial benchwarmer, so Buck decides to trade his own grandson to the league's worst team. Yes, it's another team of misfits of all shapes and sizes that just need an incredible coach to take them to unsuspected glory. That coach is nowhere to be seen, and Phil ends up taking on the job. That's when the competitive juices start flowing. The first big move Phil makes is to take on an assistant coach, his dad's neighbor and long-time enemy Mike Ditka. Iron Mike is surprisingly good in this film and more than holds his own beside both Ferrell and Duvall. He only takes the job to try and make Buck's life more difficult, but he soon goes about whipping the little misfits into shape. The team still stinks, but their fortunes begin to change when Ditka and Phil bring in two new players, a pair of Italian kids who were apparently born with soccer balls balanced on their feet. The team begins winning, and with every win Phil goes a little more cuckoo for cocoa puffs; his new coffee addiction doesn't really help, either. Sure, it's funny to watch Ferrell go about inspiring his team in pretty unorthodox ways, but it eventually gets to the point that the whole thing stops being funny. Even Ditka can't get behind telling the kids to cheat (without getting caught, of course) or break a few clavicles. Ferrell's character just goes so over-the-top that you just want to slap him; he lets the desire to beat his dad corrupt him completely, and the lack of moderation in the second half of the film is a real negative. There are a lot of laughs to be had in Kicking and Screaming. It's exceedingly formulaic and predictable, but that doesn't matter all that much as long as the laughs keep coming. The script just takes Ferrell's character way too far over the line; watching a crazy guy coach soccer is funny, but watching a freak going bonkers on the sidelines is more annoying than anything else. The film could really have used more Ditka in the later stages. Don't go thinking this is some cameo by Iron Mike; he gets a lot of screen time, and he makes this movie better and funnier with all of his trademark habits. In the end, Kicking and Screaming is a very funny movie, but it's not a great comedy. Despite excellent performances all around (especially Ditka's), the film is just too over-the-top for its own good. You can't say the movie tries to be anything more than it is, though - it's all about generating laughs and nothing else.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great film for kids,
This review is from: Kicking and Screaming [DVD] (DVD)
I rented this movie for my eight year old son, who does not at all like playing soccer himself. However he loves that movie, especially the slapstick part and really finds it funny when Ferrell drinks too much coffee. We have rented this movie so many times that now I am actually going to purchase it. My son still has not gotten tired of watching it over and over. If you look for light family entertainment, I would recommend it.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
passes the time nicely,
By
This review is from: Kicking and Screaming [DVD] (DVD)
I settled down to watch this on a rainy Sunday afternoon and it passed the time nicely. To say this film is formulaic is an understatement but Will Ferrell and the kids are excellent. If you liked this check out 'Shaolin Soccer'. The DVD has some nice bonus material but I won't be rushing out to buy it, it does not compare well to other Ferrell films in terms of repeat watching. Being a UK resident the identity of the US NFL coach was lost on me and it was a good job it was explained for the global audience - not everyone watches the Superbowl!
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