Kicking & Screaming (2005) Will Ferrell, Robert Duvall, Mike Ditka, Kate Walsh, Musetta Vander, Dylan McLaughlin, Josh Hutcherson Movie Review

Kicking & Screaming (2005)   2/52/52/52/52/5


Robert Duvall and Will Ferrell in Kicking & Screaming (2005)

Ferrell Does Footie

Phil Weston (Will Ferrell) never really had an aptitude for sport which meant that this sports mad father, Bucky (Robert Duvall), often ended up belittling him and mocking him for being a loser. And things are no different having become a father himself as his son Sam (Dylan McLaughlin) isn't good at sport either and ends up being a bench warmer for the soccer team Buck coaches. But when Buck trades Sam to the Tigers it leads to Phil deciding to become their coach and hiring his father's neighbour and rival Mike Ditka to help knock the team in to shape. But after finding a couple of soccer mad Italian kids with mad skills Phil's competitive, coffee filled side starts to come out.

Family friendly Ferrell is an acquired taste, in truth I wind even no family friendly Will Ferrell a bit of an acquired taste but his family friendly stuff even more so. What I mean by that is when Ferrell is not be crude or offensive all you end up with is him delivering over the top moronic comedy, playing dumb, throwing in some hysterics and well delivering the same sort of stuff he does in other comedies. To be honest whilst some of the humour from Ferrell in "Kicking & Screaming" it does end up one of those movies which is all about Ferrell going over the top and little else.

But let me say that look beyond the Ferrell brand of comedy and what you have is an okay storyline, the sort of storyline which basically any actor could have done from Adam Sandler to Jackie Chan. As such I reckon a younger audience might find it more entertaining than I did. I even reckon that maybe a young audience will enjoy all the heavily edited footage of the football and will get a kick out of seeing a young Josh Hutcherson in the case.

What this all boils down to is that "Kicking & Screaming" ends up simply a vehicle for Will Ferrell doing family friendly comedy. And as such you really need to be a fan of Ferrell and that style of over the top humour to really enjoy it as if you don't there is not a lot else.


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