Kicking & Screaming

Review by Clint Morris

“It’s going to get worse before it gets better,” says one of the film’s characters halfway through the film.

Well, if that’s the case, then we can expect - what? - ten minutes of something resembling reasonable entertainment towards the end, but only after most of the audience has nodded off or fled the scene.

Sadly, that’s indeed the case.

He may be kicking a few career goals at the moment, but incessantly busy funnyman Will Ferrell is about to snag his first sour score.

Kicking & Screaming is the blandest addition to the Ferrell back catalogue yet. Ferrell assumingly did this for his kids – who are sick of seeing Dad’s behind in the movies – and not for the box office.

Thing is, Dad in the film or not, even the youngsters at the Ferrell abode are likely to ditch this routine thing after ten minutes and seek succour in the Nintendo – pop’s film is about as exhilarating as unstacking a dishwasher.

An inconsistent, intolerably written and largely lifeless underdog sports comedy – which we’ve seen a dozen times before – Kicking and Screaming (even the title is about as appealing as beetroot flavoured potato chips) centres on a father and son (Robert Duvall and Will Ferrell) who become sports opponents when the little league soccer team’s they coach prepare to go head to head. Dad’s all about winning, son’s all about having fun and giving it your best. Guess who’s going to win?

Knowing they’ve got Will Ferrell playing the lead, and believing he’ll be funny enough to watch himself alone, writers Leo Benvenuti and Steve Rudnick phoned in their script from the Bahamas. Unfortunately, not even Ferrell can sustain interest when he’s swimming in murky waters.

The jokes here are few-and-far between, and even then are forced and flat. A sub-plot about the lead character’s growing obsession with coffee – and how it changes him from an easygoing guy into an conceited, malicious coach, like his father – is just ridiculous.

Fortunately, there’s a few genuinely fun moments towards the end of the film, when our losers start showing signs of being winners, but by then, you don’t much give a damn. Makes Bewitched, Ferrell’s most recent film, look like Citizen Kane.

2 out of 5

Kicking & Screaming
Australian release: Thursday the 11th of August, 2005
Cast: Will Ferrell, Robert Duvall, Mike Ditka, Kate Walsh.
Directors: Jesse Dylan.
Website: Click here.

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