Kicking and Screaming

As Jason Batman plays what seems to be every role as a character lost in the middle, Will Ferrell has been playing the same type of character for years but unlike Batman, Ferrell's niche can't really be described. As in the Anchorman films or The Campaign, Ferrell's characters are all over the place and can be beyond strange and hard to put a finger on. Throughout Will Ferrell's filmography, we are used to getting the same type of silly comedy from him but Kicking and Screaming is his most different role. In it, he is trying to be a father figure and also a motivator in a sports film. In the end, Kicking and Screaming is just too generic to work fully.

Phil Weston ( Ferrell) is the type of guy who has never been able to live up to his father's expectations throughout his whole life and was always a benchwarmer in younger days as a soccer player. After his son's soccer coach leaves the team, Phil steps in to be the coach and that also makes him the father that he never was to his son. At the same time, he is trying to win against his old man Buck (Robert Duvall) who is also a coach in the league.

Kicking and Screaming is in the same mold of the original Bad News Bears. Actually you could now say that about many sports films because Bad News Bears was such an influential movie and the influence here is even more obvious. Ferrell is someone who never had anything himself and eventually finds himself through coaching this team that is so dysfunctional but in the end, they learn how to to play a soccer somehow. Robert Duvall works as unaccredited villain who's eventually turns into the good guy at the end. Even Mike Ditka shows up as the assistant coach but really he's not given much to do and I assume he is here on name value alone and to sell some tickets.

As like "Coach Carter" of the same year, Phil makes it but in a very interesting way. In some ways, Ferrell is  pulling off some of his past character traits and the character even appears to be  channeling The Anchorman character which is not surprising considering the films were only released one year apart. Phil is a strange character no doubt and at times very unlikable. He yells at his team a lot and wants his opponents to be injured which I would think go against most parent's ethics. He does however does admit many of his wrongs in a lengthy speech near the end. We can like Coach Carter more as character but Phil Weston gives us another more silly version of the sports coach.

This movie does have a lot of soccer in it for people that are interested in that though I'm not one of those. It does produce more than it's share of chuckles and you can also say you say you saw Josh Hutcherson before his career really took off. Kids will love this movie because of the humor but it really is a mixed bag for the parents and also the teenager audience because that humor is too childish. By the end, Kicking and Screaming will have you kicking and screaming because it's kind of a mess that barely survives.

3/5