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Movie Review - Kicking & Screaming
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(What this rating means)
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| Director: |
Jesse Dylan |
| Starring: |
Will Ferrell, Robert Duvall, Mike Ditka, and Kate Walsh |
| Rated: |
PG (for thematic elements, language and some crude humor) |
| Length: |
95 minutes |
| Genre: |
Family/Comedy |
| Tagline: |
All his life Phil Weston has dreamed of being on a winning team. Phil... your time has come. |
| Studio: |
Universal Pictures |
| Website: |
Kicking & Screaming |
| Release: |
May 13, 2005 |
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PLOT
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Robert Duvall coaches his grandson's (Will Ferrell's son) soccer team. Unfortunately for the little tike, he's not
the greatest soccer player in the world, and Duvall is too concerned with winning to let his grandson venture too
far from the bench. When Ferrell complains to his dad, Duvall says not to worry, little Sam will get plenty of
playing time now because he's been traded to the worst team in the league. Ferrell becomes the team's coach,
enlists the help of Mike Ditka, becomes way too addicted to coffee, and slowly adopts his father's maniacally
competitive ways. Family-style hilarity ensues.
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JOHNNY'S TAKE
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You may be surprised to learn that rather than just being another overly silly Will Ferrell movie, Kicking &
Screaming is actually a brilliantly poignant exposé on the foibles of the human condition. While a movie like
Crash chooses to tackle the heavy issue of human relationships within a racially
diverse atmosphere, Kicking & Screaming goes a different direction and touches the soul of two topics that
are near and dear to my heart: sports competition and coffee addiction.
I don't know about you girly girls, but all us manly men are well-rehearsed in sports competitiveness. If you're
worth your "man weight" in gold, then you're driven by the need to compete. This isn't something that you carry
through high school and then grow out of, oh no, you're stuck with it for life. I may have been at my most intense
when running over a catcher back when I played high school baseball, but I'm still known to throw an elbow in
the church basketball league and to do a little trash talking during a heated ping pong match. If you refuse
to believe a ping pong match can get heated, then you've never played it the right way.
Anyway, this is a movie whose humor feeds heavily off the fuel provided by the competitiveness of all the men
involved. Whether it be Robert Duvall (a real man who says the only daily vitamin he needs is a steak) going
toe-to-toe against Will Ferrell in a passionate game of tether ball or Duvall and Mike Ditka constantly trying
to outdo each other or Will Ferrell becoming so addicted to coffee that he installs a cappuccino machine on
the bench and forces Ditka to resign as assistant coach, the chemistry just works.
It's a chemistry that is hard to accurately depict in writing. A chemistry whose effectiveness lies in the delivery.
For example, there's a young Asian boy on the soccer team named "Byong Sun." When his mother asks Ditka for an
autograph, Ditka asks how to spell his name. She starts to spell it, but he stops her and says, "I think I got
it." When she later looks at the autograph she sees that Ditka has written, "Bing Bong." I can't explain why,
but this had me cracking up for about 5 minutes. I'd try to concentrate on the movie, then I'd think about how
self-assured Ditka was that he now knew how to spell the name, and I'd bust out laughing all over again. Then
later in the movie when Ditka yells out, "Way to go, Bing Bong!" I lost it all over again. It's just one of
those things.
Or when Ditka tells the kids, "I eat quitters for breakfast and spit out their bones," and then Ferrell deadpans,
"Delicious." My words can't do it justice. It's all in the timing and delivery. Sometimes this type of humor
is so subtle that it might not be fully appreciated, so I'm warning you now to pay attention to it.
Speaking of Ditka, he steals the show. He has a natural talent for comedy like this, and it's hard not to laugh
when he's on screen wearing a Bears sweater vest or a shirt that has "Ditka" on it. Just sit back and enjoy his
competitive bickering with Duvall. When Duvall starts to taunt Ditka because he's been reduced to coaching little
league soccer, Ditka responds by holding his hand out and saying, "I couldn't hear ya; my Super Bowl ring was
making too much noise." The self-referential tone works perfectly.
The kids can get a little too cutesy at times, which will play well with soccer moms, but they do have some genuinely
funny moments. Steven Anthony Lawrence is pretty annoying (intentionally so), but I did a spit take (well, not
literally) when the camera focused on his face while he was running and he breathlessly stated, "I'm in bad shape
for 11." I guess you had to be there.
I'm giving the movie 4 marks, and I realize that's fairly high, but this *is* a family movie, and as such it's one
of the most entertaining family movies I've seen in a while. Sure, I didn't care for some of the cutesy kid
stuff, and things *do* get predictable and silly, but what are negative elements for me will be looked upon more
favorably by younger audiences and sappy parents.
To find a movie that will keep adults consistently laughing throughout without resorting to material that'd make
you squirm if you're sitting next to mama or the kids, you usually have to look for the Pixar label, so I tip my
hat to Kicking & Screaming for succeeding. This is the kind of "kid's movie" I want to take my 10-year-old
brother to, not Racing Stripes.
Oh, and please do yourself a favor and try not to take the movie too seriously. If you're such a curmudgeon that
you'd actually complain about the scene where a mother stops her son during a game to put sunscreen on his face,
and you actually question why she didn't do this BEFORE the game then I'm sorry, but you deserve to be slapped.
Let me explain something... *ahem*
IT'S A MOVIE!! Still not clear? OK, let me elaborate...
IT'S A WILL FERRELL MOVIE!! Do you see "directed by Clint Eastwood" attached to the credits? No? Then remove
the corn cob, loosen up, and enjoy life a little.
Sheesh. Some people. Now who wants to go head-to-head with the Betts-meister in a friendly game of ping pong?
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ODDS & ENDS
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- Judd Apatow, creator/writer/director of Undeclared and writer/director for Freaks and Geeks is
an executive producer. His hands are all over this...
- Timm Sharp from Undeclared has a very small role as a butcher shop employee.
- Martin Starr, the beloved Bill Haverchuck from Freaks and Geeks, has a cameo as a coffee store
customer.
- One of the soccer players has the name "Apatow" on the back of his jersey.
- No kid had "Betts" on the back of his jersey.
- David Herman, aka Michael Bolton from Office Space, has a small role as the soccer referee. He's gained
some weight over the years. In fact, he looks like a fat Zach Braff.
- Will Ferrell was in Melinda and Melinda with Josh Brolin who was in Hollow Man with Kevin
Bacon.
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MAMA'S APPROVAL
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There are a couple of "jokes only the adults will get," and there is one out-of-place scene where Byong Sun is
revealed to have two mothers, but other than that this is a movie the whole family can enjoy.
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TRAILER COMPARISON
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I thought the movie was even funnier than the trailer led me to believe it'd be. Ditka and Duvall both have
bigger roles than the trailer indicates.
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THE GIST
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Kicking & Screaming does get about as cute as a rainbow-colored teddy bear covered in scented roses,
snuggled between a bunny and a puppy at times, but thankfully it doesn't overdo it. Ferrell, Duvall, and Ditka
all put in winning performances. Avoiding the over-the-top stupidity that dampened Anchorman, Kicking &
Screaming is a consistently funny movie that the whole family can enjoy.
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