Kicking & Screaming (2005) User Reviews

A formulaic cliché, true. But also a colourful, honest, and straightforward entertainment. I liked it.

[bopdog · 7/10 · 31 July 2005]

I liked this movie. Sometimes a 'simple' movie can be colourful enough, and entertaining enough, without having to be great or artsy. 'Kicking and Screaming' was very formulaic. I actually found myself predicting each step and outcome as the plot unfolded--- the adult abused child, his dad, and his son, and the three generations colliding. The re-play of the overbearing father thing, the adult man vowing to never be like his father, but then getting accidentally caught up in the same dynamic himself. then the sports movie redemption, etc., etc.

It sounds like a cliché, and it is--- but, oddly, I found myself more surprised than annoyed as each cliché denouement surfaced. I kept thinking, as the cliché loomed--- 'Nahhhh... they wouldn't do that. There must be some slick tricky twist coming up.' Nope. No twists, no tricks--- all the clichés play through exactly like you expected them to. But there was a certain courage and honesty about that, which I greatly admired. They had a simple, straight-forward, no-nonsense formula story, which they played out exactly as that. It was very honest.

Robert Duvall--- always great. Will Ferrell, always funny. Mike Ditka, as an actor--- he's a great football coach.

Hilarious sports film...

[mtr0118 · 7/10 · 21 March 2007]

Watching this film made me remember when Mike Ditka was on the sidelines shouting and swearing off his own players when they didn't meet his demands. Will Farrel's performance was wacky and funny considering the fact he was competing against his dad (Robert Duvall in a nice spot). Anyone who likes soccer will find this film entertaining for a change along with Bend it Like Beckham. The kids on all the teams did their best on and off the field. If there would of been better props, we could say this movie could equal Little Giants(1994), another good comic sports film.Between a one two ten, I give a seven and a half thanks to the director's effort to bring in Mike Ditka to help out.

Better Than Bewitched As Anything Would Be

[DKosty123 · 6/10 · 2 December 2007]

It'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.

Coach On Coffee

[Chrysanthepop · 11 October 2008]

'Kicking & Screaming' is pretty much a typical football comedy about an underdog team that wins in the end. Nothing new here but the reason why I watched it and enjoyed it was because of the cast. Will Ferrell is fun to watch and a laidback Robert Duvall gives a funny relaxed performance as the jerk dad with a comic touch. The beautiful Kate Walsh plays the typical wife and mom and is pretty much there for star value and eye candy. I also enjoyed the scenes with the kids. The Byong Sun character was particularly funny. The film does occasionally derail as Ferrell's Phil gets hooked on coffee and turns into a maniac coach but then again, it made me laugh. Overall this isn't exactly a great film and it has nothing new to offer but it's good time pass as it draws some laughter. Perhaps that was director Jesse Dylan's intention.

Will Ferrell's Attempt to Save a Crummy Cheeseball Movie

[MichaelMargetis · 4/10 · 13 May 2005]

Out 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)

Decent, but not Anchorman or Elf

[FordPrefect-42 · 7/10 · 9 May 2006]

Kicking and Screaming was decent. Will Ferrel plays the son of a dad who WILL NOT lose to ANYONE (Robert Duvall). He takes over coaching his son's Little League soccer team and goes nuts trying to win at all costs.

Kicking & Screaming seemed like it wanted to be the Anchorman of kid's movies, but it just lost me. There were some really funny parts, one involving the team needing to help out at the Italian kids family butcher shop, but overall, it just tried to hard to be a quirky movie that adults and kids would enjoy.

All in all, not Will Ferrel's best movie, but definitely not horrible. A good saterday night rental.

Kicking And Screaming

[cultfilmfan · 5/10 · 24 May 2005]

Kicking And Screaming, is about Phil Weston, who works at a vitamin store and lives with his wife Barbara, and his son Sam. Phil's dad Buck Weston, is very competitive and owns a sporting goods store. Buck coaches one of the little league soccer teams and Phil finds out that Buck, traded Sam to another team. Phil discovers that the new team Sam, is on doesn't have a coach so Phil volunteers. Phil meets Buck's neighbour former football coach Mike Ditka, and finds out that he really doesn't like his father so he agrees to help Phil coach the team. The team also gets two new players who help the team win. Phil, gets really caught up in winning and really wants to beat his dad and along the way he becomes a totally different person obsessed with winning and addicted to coffee. Kicking And Screaming, isn't a terrible movie but it isn't a good one either. Actor, Will Ferrell tries his best here and he doesn't do a bad job and neither do the other actors but the main problem is the script and they aren't really given a chance to do much. The film is a comedy and it didn't make me laugh once. The script was actually pretty bland. It just never really took off. A lot of the humour and jokes feel forced and it just didn't work. The kids in the audience seemed to find it pretty funny and I think that is generally who the movie is aimed at. I wasn't bored at Kicking And Screaming, but I didn't laugh and didn't leave the theater thinking it was a great movie. It felt more like something you'd watch on video. For kids this is probably an entertaining movie but there isn't much there for the adults.

Mike Ditka steals the movie

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 26 December 2013]

Phil Weston (Will Ferrell) is always trying to live up to his super competitive father Buck (Robert Duvall). Buck is so competitive that he has a son at the same time as Phil. Buck plays his son Bucky (Josh Hutcherson) over Phil's son Sam (Dylan McLaughlin) in their little league soccer team. It gets so bad that Buck trades Sam away to the worst team in the league. Phil needs help and gets Buck's arch-nemesis next door neighbor Chicago Bears legendary coach Mike Ditka.

This Will Ferrell character may be getting too familiar to people. He has made a living playing the same idiot all the time. So it's understandable if the critics are tired of him. But the big discovery is Mike Ditka. His combative relationship with Robert Duvall is hilarious. When you put two great men together, Will Ferrell's childlike behavior is even more funnier. The chemistry of the three men is perfectly suited.

Save yourself!

[jmpomaha · 3/10 · 13 May 2005]

Will Farrell plays the same character he did on SNL and it it old, tired, and worn. I want the last two hours of my life and my money returned to me. Robert Duvall brings in a fine performance to this disappointment of a film. The whole coffee sidebar was distracting and pointless. What were they thinking? Troubles is, they weren't. How did this guy (Farrell) become so well paid for putting out less that average garbage onto the film going public? The actress playing the wife is believable and sympathetic. The interaction between Farrell and the son, for whom he is coaching the soccer team, has so little to do with the plot that you wonder why the child even wants the attention of the father. This film should have been titled, "Save yourself, it is too late for me."

Will Ferrell is just as crazy as ever.

[the-movie-guy · 7/10 · 19 May 2005]

Phil Weston (Will Ferrell) has been unathletic his entire life. In college he failed at every sport that he tried out for. It looks like his 10-year old son, Sam (Dylan McLaughlin), is following in his footsteps. Sam is riding the bench on the best soccer team in the league, which just happens to be coached by Phil's father, Buck (Robert Duvall). Buck has been competitive his whole life and winning is everything to him. Buck trades Sam to the last place Tigers team. The coach of the Tigers quits, and Phil becomes the new coach, even though he has never coached in his life. Phil gets a neighbor, Mike Ditka of the Chicago Bears, to help him coach. Mike recruits two Italian soccer kids to the Tigers. The Tigers start winning, and they get to play in the championship game against Buck's team.

This movie is one of those stupid and funny types. Will Ferrell is just as crazy as ever. The movie ends with a moral about what sports should be, and not what some sport fans think it is. You can take your children to see this movie. Sit back and have a big laugh. (Universal Pictures, Run time 1:36, Rated PG) (7/10)

Typical Ferrell

[Filmcritic624 · 4/10 · 10 September 2005]

I'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.

If You're a Member of a Soccer Family, You'll Love It

[gmihran · 8/10 · 22 November 2005]

If you're a parent with kids in AYSO soccer, or a kid that plays(ed) the game, then you'll love this mindless, uplifting comedy about a coach going to the extreme to help his Tigers soccer team win. If you expect nothing more than that, then you'll enjoy yourself and have fun with this movie. The kids' soccer play has some real tricks, many of which our own kids tried during the next Saturday game! Kudos especially to Robert Duvall and Mike Ditka who really played their parts well and added a lot of variety to the movie so that it is not completely saturated with Will Ferrell (who also balanced his father/son roles well). A great family flick enjoyed by all, even the grandparents :)

Will Ferrel saves this movie

[cindy-346 · 6/10 · 9 January 2008]

Kicking & Screaming tells the story of a loving father and,Phil Weston, (Will Ferrell) and the local children's soccer league. His son, Sam, (Dylan McLaughlin) played on the team coached by Phil's father, Buck, (Robert Duvall) until he was suddenly traded to the Tigers. Put simply, Ferrell is awesome. At First Phil Weston is an insecure everyman who has grown up in the shadow of his father, a and vicious coach of the Gladiators Little League Soccer team.

The directing was decent, but also the acting was respectable. Will Ferrell (Old School), is hilarious. He is seemingly comfortable with films for all audiences such as Elf and the soon-to-come Bewitched. Robert Duvall (Secondhand Lions) plays an excellent role as an overbearing and competitive father. Also, the appearance from Mike Ditka, tight end in the NFL from 1961 to 1972 and coach of the Chicago Bears from 1982 to 1992, is a great accentuating ingredient to this film.

Rated PG and has thematic elements, language and some crude humor. The humor can be understood by younger pre-teens, but there is a lot of wittiness that pertains specifically towards adolescents and older.

Mediocre Family Film

[christian123 · 4/10 · 30 May 2005]

After years of dealing with his father's insanely competitive nature, Phil Weston (Will Ferrell) finally gets the chance to meet up to his father's lofty expectations. He starts coaching a kids' soccer team, but as they get closer to the championships, he finds himself turning into his manic father.

The premise isn't exactly new and a movie like this one tends to be on the predictable side. However, sport comedies can be enjoyable and fun so I was expecting a fun little movie from Kicking and Screaming. The film turned out to be mediocre though. It offered a few funny moments but the script is kind of weak and Ferrell isn't given a lot to work with. Screenwriters Leo Benvenuti and Steve Rudnick offer a rather lame script filled with a bunch of clichés and it brings the film down. They seem to be stealing from the Bad News Bears and Little Giants. However, Kicking and Screaming still has a few original ideas and it is a harmless movie.

The acting is okay, nothing special. Will Ferrell gives an okay performance as Phil. Sometimes he manages to be really funny while other times he tries way too hard. Surprisingly, Mike Ditka steals the film from Ferrell and he gives a good performance. His performance isn't going to light the world on fire but at least he does a better job than Duvall. Robert Duvall gives a bad and dull performance as Phil's dad. Comedy is not his element and he should avoid doing it in the future. The funniest kid in the film is Elliot Cho who played Byong Sun. The most annoying kid in the film is Steven Anthony Lawrence since he isn't funny at all. I don't understand what casting directors see in him since he's just annoying and not funny.

Jess Dylan directs and he does an okay job. He manages to come up with a few funny scenes and he keeps the film very simple and safe. While the movie did have it's funny moments, it also had a few dull scenes that weren't all that necessary. The movie is also kind of bland and really predictable. It was also kind of a lazy movie since the filmmakers didn't really try anything new. The good thing is that the movie is only 95 minutes long so at least it wasn't too much of a pain to sit through. Still, Kicking and Screaming is only a mediocre family film and it's kind of a one joke comedy that gets old after awhile. In the end, Kicking and Screaming isn't worth the full ticket price but it might make for a decent rental. Rating 6/10

Ferrell comes back to comedy

[eichelbergersports · 9 May 2005]

Will Ferrell has had a pretty decent film career after leaving Saturday Night Live – much better than some of his contemporaries. His first effort, "Old School," was hilarious and was followed up by "Elf," which was even funnier. Later, he made "Anchorman" and most recently had the best role in Woody Allen's uneven "Melinda & Melinda." Now it's back to family comedy with the tale of a frustrated, milktoast father, Phil Weston (Ferrell), the owner of a vitamin store, who decides to coach a soccer team so his son can get in some playing time. Ironically, his son, Sam, was dumped from his grandfather Buck's (Robert Duval) squad, the champion Gladiators. Utilizing his father's worst enemy (and neighbor), former Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka as his assistant, as well as two extremely talented Italian players (Francesco Liotti and Alessandro Ruggiero), Phil's Tigers go on a "Bad News Bears"-type winning streak. Of course, this is a family film, so when the gentle Phil goes crazy with the intense competition (and his new found addiction to coffee), he has to humble himself before his team – and his son – and finally do the right thing when the Tigers meet the Gladiator's for the title. Ferrell excels playing the goofy, sensitive man-child, who finds himself becoming like his father, a sporting goods mogul. Sure, there are the typical over-the-top SNL-like pratfalls (he gets stomped by Buck in a violent tether ball game, beaten up by a group of kids, spills scalding hot coffee on himself, etc.), but the message is sweet, the children cute and the 90 minutes, for the most part, very entertaining.

Almost a complete Bad News Bears ripoff.

[nuclearsnow · 2/10 · 29 May 2006]

If 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.

it wasn't all that bad...

[mhags33 · 7/10 · 11 October 2005]

there seems to be a lot of people out there who just don't get how certain movies are aimed at certain audiences. This movie was very funny, but not in a dirty, adult way. It was more like Elf in that it was aimed at kids and it was pretty tame with the comedy. I liked it, and it is just a silly movie and shouldn't be taken as a piece of theatrical art. Some people need to lighten up. will Ferrell is very funny, and you can see how a lot of his stuff is ad libbed, and that might be a certain type of comedy only appreciated by certain people, but I enjoyed it, and will continue to do so as I got the DVD and there are some good outtakes and deleted scenes on that as well...Don't over analyze movies too much, that can take the enjoyment out of a lot of movies.

Childish lessons for childish people

[nowonmai42 · 3/10 · 13 June 2005]

"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.

Just a silly movie

[LtlHippo · 7/10 · 31 March 2020]

This is just a cute fun movie. If you want to sit back and laugh a little, this movie is for you. Will is just a fun guy to watch. Enjoyed all the supporting cast also.

Horrible, even for a Will Ferrell Fan

[ddubbert · 1/10 · 10 June 2005]

This is the worst movie that I've seen in years. Everybody keeps talking about what a barrel of laughs it is, but I just didn't see it. Will Farrell isn't funny, he's a whining brat that you just want to smack around. He cries all the time, can't really coach, and receives no respect from his team. Frankly, I was rooting for his dad's team to win. Yes, it is a movie aimed more at kids, but I would have expected Ferrell to be funny nonetheless. It isn't as if his humor is raunchy and needed to be toned down. I admit, it could be that I've just gotten tired of him, but my girlfriend and I went to see this, and from 15 minutes in, both of us just couldn't wait for it to be over. Don't be deceived, this movie has nothing going for it.

A very conventional film that is, at times, very unconventional.

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 22 August 2012]

This is a goofy Will Ferrell film. Not surprisingly, it's a rather conventional movie compared to many of his later films. Clearly this is NOT another "Talladega Nights" or "Stepbrothers". This isn't necessarily a complaint--just an observation that it's a relatively normal plot. At least, normal for a Will Ferrell film.

Ferrell plays a guy who is ALWAYS being put down by his hyper-competitive father (Robert Duvall--who is very reminiscent of the Great Santini in this role). It nags at Ferrell but he seems to have accepted this. However, when the job of coaching a kids soccer team is thrust upon him, his competitiveness comes out--since the best team in the league is coached by his awful father. Oddly, Ferrell is able to get some help from a guy who hates Duvall even more....coach Mike Ditka--who is pretty funny in this very off-beat role.

The first 75% of the film is pretty conventional. It's pure sports formula. However, due to the miracle of coffee (something Ferrell's character never drank before), much of the last 25% is amazingly weird--much weirder than films like "Lady Bugs" (a soccer film with Rodney Dangerfield) or "The Bad News Bears". In fact, this portion is the best part of the movie because it stops being so formulaic...for a while. However, at no point do you forget exactly how this film MUST end! So is it a great film...absolutely not. But it is quite enjoyable and worth seeing due to its goofiness. Not great but a decent little film.

Oscar-caliber film!

[fifi_st_michael · 1/10 · 27 May 2005]

*May contain "spoilers"*

This movie was Oscar-worthy incredible! Never before have I seen such an inventive, original script!

An underdog team rising to the top, despite all odds! How "inspired!" I've never seen anything like it! No one's ever done this before!

Who could believe that these misfit losers would ever get anywhere? I was so sure they'd lose the big game miserably!

But just as I was about cry into my popcorn, they got the never-before-seen pep rally and it worked! Amazing!

Wow! This movie sure cured me of whatever stereotypical formulaic expectations I feel so guilty about having...

It's a masterpiece! An inspiring classic of "Raging Bull" caliber. I'm sure this will endure countless decades, unscathed and unmatched in its magical, inspiring quality.

Finally, a non-Pixar family movie that adults can enjoy

[TheMovieMark · 8/10 · 12 May 2005]

You may be surprised to learn that rather than just being another overly silly Will Ferrell movie, Kicking & Screaming is actually a brilliantly poignant exposé on the foibles of the human condition. While a movie like Crash chooses to tackle the heavy issue of human relationships within a racially diverse atmosphere, Kicking & Screaming goes a different direction and touches the soul of two topics that are near and dear to my heart: sports competition and coffee addiction.

I don't know about you girly girls, but all us manly men are well-rehearsed in sports competitiveness. If you're worth your "man weight" in gold, then you're driven by the need to compete. This isn't something that you carry through high school and then grow out of, oh no, you're stuck with it for life. I may have been at my most intense when running over a catcher back when I played high school baseball, but I'm still known to throw an elbow in the church basketball league and to do a little trash talking during a heated ping pong match. If you refuse to believe a ping pong match can get heated, then you've never played it the right way.

Anyway, this is a movie whose humor feeds heavily off the fuel provided by the competitiveness of all the men involved. Whether it be Robert Duvall (a real man who says the only daily vitamin he needs is a steak) going toe-to-toe against Will Ferrell in a passionate game of tether ball or Duvall and Mike Ditka constantly trying to outdo each other or Will Ferrell becoming so addicted to coffee that he installs a cappuccino machine on the bench and forces Ditka to resign as assistant coach, the chemistry just works.

It's a chemistry that is hard to accurately depict in writing. A chemistry whose effectiveness lies in the delivery. For example, there's a young Asian boy on the soccer team named "Byong Sun." When his mother asks Ditka for an autograph, Ditka asks how to spell his name. She starts to spell it, but he stops her and says, "I think I got it." When she later looks at the autograph she sees that Ditka has written, "Bing Bong." I can't explain why, but this had me cracking up for about 5 minutes. I'd try to concentrate on the movie, then I'd think about how self-assured Ditka was that he now knew how to spell the name, and I'd bust out laughing all over again. Then later in the movie when Ditka yells out, "Way to go, Bing Bong!" I lost it all over again. It's just one of those things.

Or when Ditka tells the kids, "I eat quitters for breakfast and spit out their bones," and then Ferrell deadpans, "Delicious." My words can't do it justice. It's all in the timing and delivery. Sometimes this type of humor is so subtle that it might not be fully appreciated, so I'm warning you now to pay attention to it.

Speaking of Ditka, he steals the show. He has a natural talent for comedy like this, and it's hard not to laugh when he's on screen wearing a Bears sweater vest or a shirt that has "Ditka" on it. Just sit back and enjoy his competitive bickering with Duvall. When Duvall starts to taunt Ditka because he's been reduced to coaching little league soccer, Ditka responds by holding his hand out and saying, "I couldn't hear ya; my Super Bowl ring was making too much noise." The self-referential tone works perfectly.

The kids can get a little too cutesy at times, which will play well with soccer moms, but they do have some genuinely funny moments. Steven Anthony Lawrence is pretty annoying (intentionally so), but I did a spit take (well, not literally) when the camera focused on his face while he was running and he breathlessly stated, "I'm in bad shape for 11." I guess you had to be there.

I'm giving the movie 4 marks, and I realize that's fairly high, but this *is* a family movie, and as such it's one of the most entertaining family movies I've seen in a while. Sure, I didn't care for some of the cutesy kid stuff, and things *do* get predictable and silly, but what are negative elements for me will be looked upon more favorably by younger audiences and sappy parents.

To find a movie that will keep adults consistently laughing throughout without resorting to material that'd make you squirm if you're sitting next to mama or the kids, you usually have to look for the Pixar label, so I tip my hat to Kicking & Screaming for succeeding. This is the kind of "kid's movie" I want to take my 10-year-old brother to, not Racing Stripes.

Oh, and please do yourself a favor and try not to take the movie too seriously. If you're such a curmudgeon that you'd actually complain about the scene where a mother stops her son during a game to put sunscreen on his face, and you actually question why she didn't do this BEFORE the game then I'm sorry, but you deserve to be slapped. Let me explain something... *ahem* IT'S A MOVIE!! Still not clear? OK, let me elaborate...

IT'S A WILL FERRELL MOVIE!! Do you see "directed by Clint Eastwood" attached to the credits? No? Then remove the corn cob, loosen up, and enjoy life a little.

Sheesh. Some people. Now who wants to go head-to-head with the Betts-meister in a friendly game of ping pong?

Will Ferrell tries but the writing fails itself!

[Sylviastel · 6/10 · 9 June 2008]

I love Will Ferrell. I was watching this movie yesterday. He works well with the brilliant Robert Duvall who plays his champion father, Buck Weston, who would do nothing but win. Will's character marries Kate Walsh's character and they have a son, Sam, and so does Will's dad and his new wife have a son named Bucky Jr. Years later, Duvall's soccer team exchanges his own grandson to the losing team in the league. On top of that, their coach quits and Ferrell takes over. One of the younger players is a foreign adopted boy, Byong Chun, whose lesbian mothers offer a book about their son's shyness. I love seeing David Hermann play the referee, Greg Kinnear play the opposing coach, Laura Kightlinger as the lesbian mother, and of course Mike Ditka as Buck's neighbor and nemesis. The story is typical and predictable but still watchable and enjoyable.

Top 5 reasons to see this movie.

[slivers33 · 2/10 · 26 May 2005]

I love Will Ferrell, let me start off by saying that, and was looking forward to seeing him in this movie. i have enjoyed most of his movies, I loved "Elf", heck I even liked "Night at the Roxbury". I knew this was a family film, and being an adult w/o children, did not effect my voting of this movie. With that said, here are the + Top 5 reasons to see this movie... 5. The Video store had rented all their copies of "Son of the Mask". 4. Free air conditioning. 3. To count how many times Mike Ditka mentions "The" Superbowl. 2. The empty theaters was a great place to catch up on sleep. 1. No Tara Reid (or Paris Hilton...toss up).

or

Top 5 Movies to watch instead of "Kicking & Screaming": 5. Glitter 4. Son of the Mask 3. Alone in the Dark. 2. From Justin to Kelly. 1. Gigli

2/10.