rating:
(out of
4 stars)United States; 2005
Directed by Jesse Dylan; produced by Jimmy Miller; written by Leo Benvenuti, Steve Rudnick
Starring Will Ferrell, Robert Duvall, Mike Ditka, Kate Walsh, Musetta Vander, Dylan McLaughlin, Tom Arnold
Below you will find a temporary review for this film. The real (better, more complete) review will be online very soon.
I
laughed occasionally while watching 'Kicking & Screaming', and that stays
the most important thing for a comedy I guess. Important here is Will
Ferrell, an actor who can get in almost every direction and the audience
will keep liking him. Here he is sweet at first, a gentle person named Phil
Weston who has had a pretty hard time growing up with a very competitive
father Buck (Robert Duvall).
The real story starts when Phil's son Sam (Dylan McLaughlin) is in the
soccer team of Buck, but Buck keeps his own grandson on the bench simply
because he wants to win. Buck even trades Sam so he suddenly has to play for
another team, not the best one we have ever seen for that matter. The new
team has no coach and Phil volunteers, becoming a coach in the same league
his father is coaching in. We understand that during this competition he
slowly turns into his own father when it comes to competitive behavior.
One reason for that is coffee. Phil never had any, but he asks the famous
American Football player Mike Ditka to be his assistant coach, and he
introduces Phil to the black stuff. Ditka approves to be assistant coach
because he hates his neighbor who happens to be Buck. The scene where the
coffee becomes too much for Phil is an example of why Will Ferrell and his
comedy works. He is not afraid of taking a scene as far as it can possibly
go; being thrown out of something is one thing, being thrown out of a coffee
shop while insulting every person in there is another. It is one the most
hilarious scenes in the movie. Like many other moments it is the way Ferrell
brings his dialogue that makes it funny, although the one-liners are pretty
funny anyway.
That we know where the movie will go, and that we can guess basically every
stop, does not really matter as long as we have fun. 'Kicking & Screaming'
is not a great comedy but it delivers. When you like other films with Will
Ferrell, or his moments in films like 'Starsky & Hutch' and 'Wedding
Crashers', you must be able to easily enjoy this.