Kicking & Screaming

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 :)

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.

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.

I saw the previews and thought this looked like a good movie. I've been a Will Ferrell fan since his SNL days and thought 'Anchorman' was awesome. Then I saw the clip on Conan and decided I was going to see it.

"Kicking and Screaming" is a movie about Phil Weston (Will Ferrell) whose son plays on his father's (Robert Duvall) soccer team, the Gladiators. Phil's father trades Phil's son to the Tigers, a losing team. Phil then takes up coaching the Tigers.

This was a good movie and provided more laughs than I thought there would be. I recommend it with 8 out of 10.

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.