There are some funny moments, mostly with the kids, but a lot of this comedy falls as flat as a deflated soccer ball.
Kicking and Screaming (2005)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:135
Fresh:56
Rotten:79
Average Rating:5.1/10
Consensus: The script is mediocre and fails to give Ferrell a proper comedic showcase.
Runtime: 1 hr 36 mins
Genre: Childrens
US Box Office: $52,580,895
Synopsis: Funny man Will Farrell's humorous man-child antics meet actual kids on this soccer comedy. As vitamin salesman Phil Weston, Farrell's a sensitive man easily capable of both crying and sewing.... Funny man Will Farrell's humorous man-child antics meet actual kids on this soccer comedy. As vitamin salesman Phil Weston, Farrell's a sensitive man easily capable of both crying and sewing. Unfortunately for Phil, these qualities have never quite endeared him to his tough-as-nails father, Buck (Robert Duvall), who will stop at nothing to one-up Phil. He goes so far as benching Phil's 10-year-old son--his own grandson--on the youth soccer team he coaches. When Phil begs for more playing time for the boy, Buck trades his grandson to the last-place team, the Tigers. Not just any normal cellar-dwelling outfit, the Tigers feature a cast of lovable losers who prefer eating worms and telling jokes to playing soccer. When the Tigers' coach leaves, putting the season on the line, an inexperienced Phil steps in to helm his son's new team. With help from Buck's neighbor and rival, real-life football coach Mike Ditka--hilariously playing himself--the Tigers turn their season around. Fueled by a raging caffeine habit, Phil starts to be overly obsessed with beating Buck, losing sight of why he took the job in the first place--to be a better dad to his own son. Director Jesse Dylan (AMERICAN WEDDING) is a natural for the storyline, being famed musician Bob Dylan's son. Farrell, for once, is content to play straight man to the crazy tykes in the first half of the film, before he unleashes his trademark zaniness. Those attributes alone, along with fun-loving family themes, make KICKING & SCREAMING a treat for fans both young and old. [More]
Starring: Will Ferrell, Robert Duvall, Mike Ditka, Kate Walsh
Starring: Will Ferrell, Robert Duvall, Mike Ditka, Kate Walsh, Musetta Vander, Josh Hutcherson, Dylan McLaughlin
Director: Jesse Dylan
Director: Jesse Dylan
Screenwriter: Leo Benvenuti, Steve Rudnick
Producer: Jimmy Miller
Composer: Mark Isham
Studio: Universal Pictures
Reviews for Kicking and Screaming
With a formula film, you have to have just the right ingredients to make it work. In the case of Kicking & Screaming, that's Will Ferrell.
Doesn't quite deliver the comedy goods, but it plays well in spurts and, thanks to Ferrell, remains slightly off-kilter.
The sort of almost-there family movie for which half-stars exist in ratings.
[Ferrell's] humor is cut off at the knees by sloppy editing, a tedious pace and an underwhelming payoff.
Rather shakily directed by Jesse (son of Bob) Dylan, who possibly knows something about larger-than-life fathers.
Once Phil's repressed indignities emerge as a caffeine-fueled rage that makes Ditka tremble, Kicking & Screaming shoves Ferrell into the wacky-land where he excels.
An embarrassment of a movie that shows how deliriously unfunny the former Saturday Night Live star can be with sub-par material.
Kicking & Screaming has an idea, and little more. Well, an idea and Will Ferrell’s slavish comedic devotion. And these days... that’s apparently all you need.
[I]neffectual loser manchild Ferrell is up to his usual schtick here, and no ‘joke’ is too inevitable or obvious.
It plays to Ferrell's strengths: his Everyman normality, as well as his gift for silly, merry lunacy.
Kicking & Screaming will keep Ferrell’s fans in line and probably families in even longer ones.
a mostly flat-footed comedy (that) also incorporates liberal doses of the slapsticky-sentimental hogwash that was once Jerry Lewis' calling card.
The kind of movie that makes you wonder why anyone would even bother making it in the first place.
A good script is the most essential ingredient for a good movie. Hiring a comedian isn't enough.
Latest News for Kicking and Screaming
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August 07, 2006:
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May 25, 2006:
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February 13, 2006:
Trailer Bulletin: Talladega Nights
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