Kicking and Screaming (film) : Why Will Ferrell, WHY?

When I saw this on my Netflix screen I thought it was odd that there was a Will Ferrell movie that somehow managed to pass me by. Not only had I not seen this film but I was completely unaware that it existed.

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As it turns out there is a really good reason that I this never made a bleep on my radar - it is extremely unfunny and the jokes consist almost exclusively of the usual Will Ferell being a dope about certain things and also getting hit in the head or stomach by stuff for slapstick comedy.

The story is that Will's character Phil has to coach a kids soccer team because his son's team has no coach. His own very competitive father is also a coach in the same league and is a very competitive person who doesn't seem to have a great deal of respect for his own kid. Of course the team that Will gets is terrible and his Father (who is played by Robert Duvall) has an excellent team.

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It's not just that the movie is extremely predictable that makes this film bad it is also the fact that the footage of the actual soccer game is really horrible too. I know that we are dealing with children playing a sport here and I shouldn't expect anything exceptional but it is really bad. It isn't even how the game is played.

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I think the only thing I even found remotely interesting in the entire 90 minutes was that Mike Ditka has a role in it as Phil's assistant coach. Mike Ditka is not an actor but manages to pull off better acting than most of the people in this movie, including Ferrell.

The jokes are extremely tame as you would imagine because this film was aimed primarily at a audience of kids. The movie did ok financially, pulling in $54 million in total sales. However, it seem remarkable to me that the production budget was $45 million. I look at this movie and think "other than the salaries of Duvall (who I can't believe signed on for this turd) and Ferrell, where did the money go?"

This makes 2 Ferrell movies in a row from him that I have been severely disappointed with. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised since Will is basically Adam Sandler part 2. He is gonna keep making movies, most of which are not really good until the end of time. I would say that Ferrell isn't even on Sandler's level though because I believe that Sandler can actually act but chooses not to because his silly stuff makes significantly more money. I can't really say the same for Ferrell.

On a scale of "Urgh!" to "Wowsers" I give Kicking and Screaming the overall score of....