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| Cast and Credits |
| Cast: |
Will Ferrell, Robert Duvall, Mike Ditka, Kate Walsh, Jim Turner, Jarrad Paul |
| Director: |
Jesse Dylan |
| Writer: |
Leo Benvenuti, Steve Rudnick |
| Rating: |
Rated PG for thematic elements, language and some crude humor. |
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Reviewed By: Brendan Cullin
Rating: 6/10
Will Ferrell's latest silly comedy, Kicking & Screaming, stars the former Saturday Night Live funnyman as Phil Weston, a father-turned-soccer-coach who takes on a sad sack kids team and tries to turn it into a team of champions. In order to do that, Phil hires former Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka as his assistant coach and they must now lead their club in a championship game against a powerhouse team coached by Phil's father Buck Weston (Robert Duvall).
I have to say right from the get-go that I am not a Will Ferrell fan. I have taken a lot of flak for this, but I couldn't stand him in Old School and from that point onwards, I often considered poking out my eyes with a red-hot spike rather than having to watch a Will Ferrell movie. With that being said, I must admit that I enjoyed his performance in Woody Allen's Melinda and Melinda (even though I found the movie as a whole to be quite pretentious). But still, knowing that I was going to see Kicking & Screaming, I went into the movie with the lowest of expectations. I was expecting a few laughs and a whole lot of stupid Will Ferrell antics. I have to admit, Kicking & Screaming wasn't all that bad. It had more than a few laughs, a fairly decent story and that little kid who played Byong Sun (Elliot Cho) was just the funniest little fella running around the soccer field. For some reason, I just couldn't keep my eyes off him. He reminded me of a young, oriental "Mini-Me" for some reason. Sure the movie had some silliness - I'm not too sure I got the whole coffee addiction thing and perhaps that whole scenario wasn't entirely necessary but still, the movie made me laugh enough to give it a decent recommendation as a funny, light-hearted family movie.
I have to say this however - the movie had some terrible editing. There were so many inconsistencies in the movie (for example, one minute a kid had a soccer ball, then he didn't, then suddenly he did again) and maybe I'm being a bit too picky but some of those discrepencies really stood out like a sore thumb. Whoever did the editing for Kicking & Screaming, if you ever read this, you did a really bad job!
Nevertheless, although Kicking & Screaming isn't the best movie I've seen even this week, it really wasn't that bad. I'm sure the young ones will have a blast watching this one and if you're a parent and you're worried about being forced to sit through the movie, fear not. It really isn't all that bad.
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