588. Kicking And Screaming (2005)

Starring: Will Ferrell, Robert Duvall, Josh Hutcherson

Director: Jesse Dylan

Running Time: 94 mins

Kicking And Screaming is an American film about a man, born with his father’s overly competitive spirit, who takes over the coaching position of a boys’ Sunday league team, however becomes too caught up in the aim of winning against his father, the rival team’s coach.

This film was pretty poor. Quite simply, from the start, it’s got a horrible type of comedy which can never really make you laugh properly. It’s a comedy, with a similar feel to Step Brothers, however it’s also family-friendly, which means a lot of the material is extremely weak and the characters seem to have very little fun.

I admire the makers of this film for trying to blend these two types of comedy, as a funny film for both kids and adults can occasionally work, but it sadly falls flat on its face here.

Basically, there’s a whole heap of dull jokes all the way throughout, along with some of the longest-winded running gags I’ve seen in a comedy in ages, and although some of the lighter stuff may be funnier for kids, the story, that follows an adult’s life, does somewhat exclude them.

Although this film never has a particularly intriguing or complicated plot, it may be too upsetting for some kids, because it involves numerous adults having random (comedic) breakdowns, as well as the screaming their heads off (comedically) at kids’ faces.

The performances were quite poor as well. Robert Duvall just seems to have turned up on the day and been told that he had to stand wherever, with no real sense of interest in the story, and even Will Ferrell’s performance as what’s basically an overgrown child is very dull and unfunny as well.

And then, we come to the age-old question of why football doesn’t work in films. Nobody knows exactly why, but every football scene in a football film that I’ve watched will usually be extremely awkward, cheesy and seemingly forced, and as that popped up again in this film, it again ruined the slightly more dramatic or plot-oriented side of the film, and along with its poor comedy, I struggled to enjoy it, so that’s why it gets a 5.2.