droidguy1119
05-10-2005, 01:39 AM
Kicking & Screaming - Review Thread
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v483/droidguy1119b/review%20threads/kickingandscreamingposter.jpg
Trailers, TV Spots and Media
Teaser Trailer http://www.apple.com/trailers/universal/kicking_and_screaming/large.html
Theatrical Trailer http://www.apple.com/trailers/universal/kicking_and_screaming/large_t2.html
Synopsis
When Phil Weston discovers his father, coach of his son's soccer team, has traded away his own grandson, Phil takes matters into his own hands and begins coaching his son's team in order to defeat his father on the soccer field.
Official Website
www.kickingandscreamingmovie.com
May 13th, 2005
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v483/droidguy1119b/review%20threads/kickingandscreaming10.jpg
Kicking & Screaming
A Review by Tyler Foster
for www.funkdiggityfresh.com
There is a place in cinema for those kinds of movies that just plain don't deserve to be as good as they are. Usually these are films rescued by performance rather than direction. Kicking & Screaming is simply one of those films. It's not that the plot about misfit soccer teams trapped between a father-son rivalry has no potential or is even overdone, like many kids movies plots. It's just that a lesser movie wouldn't have deserved so many laughs, so many great kids, Robert Duvall, or Mike Ditka. It's all thanks to Will Ferrell, and bless the man for not letting me down yet.
I've already explained the plot. There seems to be more behind it, such as years of torment specifically reflecting the torment Ferrell ends up unleashing on his own team, but with most kids' movies starring popular comedians, it's doubtful that anything less than an hour of footage hit the cutting room floor on the way to the final 87-minute running time. The press booklet I was given goes into many details about the kids on the team. None of it is in the movie, obviously lost to make way for Ferrell to give his entire team finches (yes, the bird) as a reward for doing well.
Among the other things he does is yell through orange cones, taunt everyone, drink a lot of coffee, and in one case even push a kid over (which ends up seeming a little too mean to not address later). Robert Duvall, as his father, generally looks like he's having a good time, but Kicking & Screaming has remarkably little for an Academy Award winner (and six-time nominee) to do. Some of the characters and jokes, such as David Bowe's flag-waving airhead, seem a bit too weird, maybe, and it's hard not to wonder, when the lesbian soccer moms appear, if the film was intended originally to be PG-13.
If this is true, then it was probably the pesky kids that brought the film back down to the lighter rating. All of them get plenty of worm-eating, falling down, and general running-around-screaming time to fill up the movie's soccer bits, although the standout is Elliot Cho as the remarkably short Byong Sun. The kid is just plain funny. Meanwhile, Dylan McLaughlin is saddled with being the moral delivery man at the end of the movie who shows up during halftime to bring his hypercompetitive father back down to planet Earth.
During the middle and last acts, director Jesse Dylan doesn't work too hard to keep the movie running. But that's okay, because by that point Kicking & Screaming is pretty self-sustaining. It's a trifle, too nice and relatively empty to be a great film, but it's worth matinee price at least and fans of Ferrell will find plenty to enjoy. Kicking & Screaming contains a semblance of wit, the kind of things other comedies, especially for kids, have a tendency to go without, and in general it's hard to be mean to any movie in which Mike Ditka's life philosphy involves bratwurst sausages.
Stars (out of four): **1/2
Starring Will Ferrell, Robert Duvall, Kate Walsh, Jim Turner, David Bowe and Mike Ditka
Written by Leo Benvenuti and Steve Rudnick | Directed by Jesse Dylan
Universal Pictures (2005) | 87 Minutes
Rated PG for thematic elements, language and some crude humor
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v483/droidguy1119b/review%20threads/kickingandscreamingposter.jpg
Trailers, TV Spots and Media
Teaser Trailer http://www.apple.com/trailers/universal/kicking_and_screaming/large.html
Theatrical Trailer http://www.apple.com/trailers/universal/kicking_and_screaming/large_t2.html
Synopsis
When Phil Weston discovers his father, coach of his son's soccer team, has traded away his own grandson, Phil takes matters into his own hands and begins coaching his son's team in order to defeat his father on the soccer field.
Official Website
www.kickingandscreamingmovie.com
May 13th, 2005
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v483/droidguy1119b/review%20threads/kickingandscreaming10.jpg
Kicking & Screaming
A Review by Tyler Foster
for www.funkdiggityfresh.com
There is a place in cinema for those kinds of movies that just plain don't deserve to be as good as they are. Usually these are films rescued by performance rather than direction. Kicking & Screaming is simply one of those films. It's not that the plot about misfit soccer teams trapped between a father-son rivalry has no potential or is even overdone, like many kids movies plots. It's just that a lesser movie wouldn't have deserved so many laughs, so many great kids, Robert Duvall, or Mike Ditka. It's all thanks to Will Ferrell, and bless the man for not letting me down yet.
I've already explained the plot. There seems to be more behind it, such as years of torment specifically reflecting the torment Ferrell ends up unleashing on his own team, but with most kids' movies starring popular comedians, it's doubtful that anything less than an hour of footage hit the cutting room floor on the way to the final 87-minute running time. The press booklet I was given goes into many details about the kids on the team. None of it is in the movie, obviously lost to make way for Ferrell to give his entire team finches (yes, the bird) as a reward for doing well.
Among the other things he does is yell through orange cones, taunt everyone, drink a lot of coffee, and in one case even push a kid over (which ends up seeming a little too mean to not address later). Robert Duvall, as his father, generally looks like he's having a good time, but Kicking & Screaming has remarkably little for an Academy Award winner (and six-time nominee) to do. Some of the characters and jokes, such as David Bowe's flag-waving airhead, seem a bit too weird, maybe, and it's hard not to wonder, when the lesbian soccer moms appear, if the film was intended originally to be PG-13.
If this is true, then it was probably the pesky kids that brought the film back down to the lighter rating. All of them get plenty of worm-eating, falling down, and general running-around-screaming time to fill up the movie's soccer bits, although the standout is Elliot Cho as the remarkably short Byong Sun. The kid is just plain funny. Meanwhile, Dylan McLaughlin is saddled with being the moral delivery man at the end of the movie who shows up during halftime to bring his hypercompetitive father back down to planet Earth.
During the middle and last acts, director Jesse Dylan doesn't work too hard to keep the movie running. But that's okay, because by that point Kicking & Screaming is pretty self-sustaining. It's a trifle, too nice and relatively empty to be a great film, but it's worth matinee price at least and fans of Ferrell will find plenty to enjoy. Kicking & Screaming contains a semblance of wit, the kind of things other comedies, especially for kids, have a tendency to go without, and in general it's hard to be mean to any movie in which Mike Ditka's life philosphy involves bratwurst sausages.
Stars (out of four): **1/2
Starring Will Ferrell, Robert Duvall, Kate Walsh, Jim Turner, David Bowe and Mike Ditka
Written by Leo Benvenuti and Steve Rudnick | Directed by Jesse Dylan
Universal Pictures (2005) | 87 Minutes
Rated PG for thematic elements, language and some crude humor