Kicking & Screaming

Plot synopsis:
Phil Weston (Will Ferrell), is an average person who had to endure his father Buck Weston's (Robert Duvall) over-competitiveness throughout his childhood, an upbringing which has left permanent mental scars. Now middle-aged and married, with a young son named Sam, Phil runs a small vitamin store, while Buck operates a local chain of sports stores.
Buck is coach of the Gladiators, the most successful little-league soccer team in the district. Sam is on Buck's soccer team, but to his dad's annoyance his grandfather keeps him on the bench, a humiliation he also visited upon his son decades prior. Buck eventually transfers Sam to the Tigers, the league's worst team.
At Sam's first game with his new team their coach is absent. Rather than forfeit, Phil decides to coach the team, a position he takes up permanently. However, despite Phil's best efforts the team does not seem to improve. In desperation Phil recruits Mike Ditka (played by himself), who is Buck's neighbor and hated enemy. Enticed by the opportunity to beat Buck, Ditka accepts the position. Despite grueling training, the team continues to lose.
Ditka introduces Phil to two exceptionally talented Italian boys working in a local butcher's shop. Phil succeeds in gaining their Uncle's permission for them to play for the Tigers. They have an immediate impact, scoring repeatedly. The resulting winning streak makes them serious contenders in the league. After finally winning a couple of games and Phil said that his team was going to go to the finals, Phil and Buck make a bet, if the Gladiators win then Phil would sell his store and work for Buck. If the Tigers win then Buck would hand over his most prized possession, 'The Pelé Ball', a soccer ball struck by the famous player which Phil caught as a child and Buck took from him.
Meanwhile, Ditka also introduces Phil to coffee, which rapidly changes him from a mild-mannered caring dad, to an obnoxious, over-competitive coach, not that different from his father, abusing kids and parents alike. The team's mantra becomes "Get the ball to the Italians", which, though effective, demoralizes his team. In the ultimate over-competitive act he benches his own son for the entire semi-final game.
The Tigers make it to the finals where they face off against the Gladiators. At half-time, the score is two-one to the Gladiators. In a heart-to-heart discussion with his son, Phil realizes the error of his ways. He tells his team to do exactly the opposite of what he taught them. Although the Gladiators score one more goal after half-time, they don't give up hope. Phil gives the goalie a vision test with glasses from the crowd. From there, Ambrose scores one goal—making the score three-two. After another goal, the score is tied. The team rallies and produces a spectacular team performance to win 4-3, with Sam scoring the winning goal against his uncle Bucky (Josh Hutcherson), (Buck's child who was born on the exact day as Sam) using a move that he practiced when his dad benched him in the semi-finals.
Honoring the bet, Buck tries to give Phil the ball, but Phil refuses. Making peace with his father, they merge their businesses, realizing there is more to life than winning.
The film ends with an adapted version of the "He's Got Balls" commercial originally produced by Buck. In it, the entire Tigers team appear, announcing the merger of Phil's vitamin shop—Phil's Pills—and Buck's Sporting Goods Store. The team shouts, after the "He's got balls" line, "And vitamins."
Closing credits are set to a cover The Beatles song We Can Work It Out.

Tags: flashback

Review:
He takes over coaching his son's Little League soccer team and goes nuts trying to win at all costs.Kicking & Screaming seemed like it wanted to be the Anchorman of kid's movies, but it just lost me.
There were some really funny parts, one involving the team needing to help out at the Italian kids family butcher shop, but overall, it just tried to hard to be a quirky movie that adults and kids would enjoy.All in all, not Will Ferrel's best movie, but definitely not horrible.
If there would of been better props, we could say this movie could equal Little Giants(1994), another good comic sports film.Between a one two ten, I give a seven and a half thanks to the director's effort to bring in Mike Ditka to help out..
But in most movies, Wills best moments are making others seem funny when they play off of him.In this movie where the Bad News Bears do soccer in a way, Will Ferrell makes Mike Ditka look good.
If You're a Member of a Soccer Family, You'll Love It. If you're a parent with kids in AYSO soccer, or a kid that plays(ed) the game, then you'll love this mindless, uplifting comedy about a coach going to the extreme to help his Tigers soccer team win.
Kudos especially to Robert Duvall and Mike Ditka who really played their parts well and added a lot of variety to the movie so that it is not completely saturated with Will Ferrell (who also balanced his father/son roles well).
You may be surprised to learn that rather than just being another overly silly Will Ferrell movie, Kicking & Screaming is actually a brilliantly poignant exposé on the foibles of the human condition.
While a movie like Crash chooses to tackle the heavy issue of human relationships within a racially diverse atmosphere, Kicking & Screaming goes a different direction and touches the soul of two topics that are near and dear to my heart: sports competition and coffee addiction.I don't know about you girly girls, but all us manly men are well-rehearsed in sports competitiveness.
Whether it be Robert Duvall (a real man who says the only daily vitamin he needs is a steak) going toe-to-toe against Will Ferrell in a passionate game of tether ball or Duvall and Mike Ditka constantly trying to outdo each other or Will Ferrell becoming so addicted to coffee that he installs a cappuccino machine on the bench and forces Ditka to resign as assistant coach, the chemistry just works.It's a chemistry that is hard to accurately depict in writing.
When Duvall starts to taunt Ditka because he's been reduced to coaching little league soccer, Ditka responds by holding his hand out and saying, "I couldn't hear ya; my Super Bowl ring was making too much noise." The self-referential tone works perfectly.The kids can get a little too cutesy at times, which will play well with soccer moms, but they do have some genuinely funny moments.
Sure, I didn't care for some of the cutesy kid stuff, and things *do* get predictable and silly, but what are negative elements for me will be looked upon more favorably by younger audiences and sappy parents.To find a movie that will keep adults consistently laughing throughout without resorting to material that'd make you squirm if you're sitting next to mama or the kids, you usually have to look for the Pixar label, so I tip my hat to Kicking & Screaming for succeeding.
But not Will Ferrell, he only improved his career after his goodbye to SNL, with great comedies like Old School, Anchorman, and even, Elf. Whenever you go see a Will Ferrell film you have the strong expectation of it being really good.
Yes, those thinking 'Kicking and Screaming', would be the next great Will Ferrell movie are sadly mistaking.
I was one of those people, and that's why I left the theater so incredibly disappointed.The movie is a little league soccer flick, and it circles around the all-too-familiar plot of the dipstick son trying to live up to his non-supportive father.
He owns a vitamin store, and is always trying to gain the respect of his father, Buck Weston (played by Academy Award Winner Robert Duvall), who owns a chain of sporting good stores and viciously coaches a little league soccer team, which Phil's son is a part of.
By the end of the movie, you really don't care anymore, and you're looking at your watch frantically to see how much of this waste of film is left.It isn't so much 'Kicking and Screaming' is a horrible movie, it's just not a good one by any stretch of the imagination.
He tries different plays with his team, even though they are not the best.Will Ferrell gets back at his dad for being such a stuck-up person and then realises quite near the end of the film that he is acting like his dad was to him.Will Ferrell is quick to act and explains that he was an idiot to the team and finally puts his son in.
will Ferrell is very funny, and you can see how a lot of his stuff is ad libbed, and that might be a certain type of comedy only appreciated by certain people, but I enjoyed it, and will continue to do so as I got the DVD and there are some good outtakes and deleted scenes on that as well...Don't over analyze movies too much, that can take the enjoyment out of a lot of movies..
He starts coaching a kids' soccer team, but as they get closer to the championships, he finds himself turning into his manic father.The premise isn't exactly new and a movie like this one tends to be on the predictable side.
But this is still a movie about cute kids and life lessons.Phil Weston (Ferrell) has had to deal with his uber-competitive father (Duvall) all his life.
This is perhaps the first youth sports league in which players are actually traded, making it ideal for highlighting tropes about Doing Your Best and Just Having Fun.With the help of neighbor Mike Ditka as assistant coach, and his introduction to coffee, which he's never drunk, Phil indeed becomes a competitive monster.
There are a lot of jokes about his growing caffeine addiction, as well as the team's game strategy of always passing to the two soccer prodigy Italian immigrants, whose father lets them play only if they remember the mantra of the family butchery, "meat comes first!" Sadly, "Kicking and Screaming" seems largely stuck in a retarded stage of development in which immigrant caricature and mispronunciation of Asian names (Ditka refers to little Byung Sun as "Bing Bong") pass for laughs.
By the final game  you guess between which teams  the filmmakers seem to realize that neither side is worth rooting for, and abruptly force a moral epiphany on Ferrell as if it were a straitjacket.There's a lot of potential for sharp satire in the culture of sports parents, but its insistence on simplistic moralizing prevents "Kicking and Screaming" from being anything more than a kids' movie.
Sam is riding the bench on the best soccer team in the league, which just happens to be coached by Phil's father, Buck (Robert Duvall).
The Tigers start winning, and they get to play in the championship game against Buck's team.This movie is one of those stupid and funny types.
Will Ferrell (Phil Weston), Robert Duvall (Buck Weston) and Mike Ditka make a hilarious trio in this wonderfully entertaining film.
I'm only going to say it once, and probably never say it again, but Will Ferrell is an absolutely unfunny actor, regardless of what people think.OK, I'll let "Bewitched" and "Anchorman" aside, but this movie really shows how unfunny this man is.
Kicking And Screaming, is about Phil Weston, who works at a vitamin store and lives with his wife Barbara, and his son Sam. Phil's dad Buck Weston, is very competitive and owns a sporting goods store.
I wasn't bored at Kicking And Screaming, but I didn't laugh and didn't leave the theater thinking it was a great movie.
Radical things can come in many different packages and this time it comes in the form of a goofy family comedy.Keep in mind I have a five year old son, so i am sometimes forced to sit through some horrendously boring or obnoxious movies.
Every once in a while a movie comes along that a parent can enjoy just as much as their kid, this is one of those times.Wil Ferrel plays an overly sensitive goofy dad who must take over the coaching duties of his son's pathetic soccer team.
As in any sports movie, there is a rival team which in Kicking and Screaming is Wil Ferrel's overly competitive and overbearing dad played by Robert Duvall.
In order to beat his dad Ferrel gets the help of neighbor Mike Ditka who plays himself and a couple of little Italian kids.It follows the path of any sports movie marketed towards kids.
My son was laughing just as much when Wil Ferrel became addicted to coffee and started getting caffeine rages or when Wil Ferrel started kicking a ball as hard as he could around his house and blamed it on the kids.Seriously check it out if you are the slightest Wil Ferrel fan, have a kid or just like goofy comedies..
Then I saw the clip on Conan and decided I was going to see it."Kicking and Screaming" is a movie about Phil Weston (Will Ferrell) whose son plays on his father's (Robert Duvall) soccer team, the Gladiators.
In his last few movies (old school, elf), Will Ferrell whines and just seems kinda clueless--and after awhile---this is not funny.I think the producers should have developed Will's son character a little more and the relationship between Will's son and Will's father's son and Will.
For some reason, kids and competition often spells disaster for their middle aged parents, and it is this phenomenon which forms the premise for master comedian Will Ferrell's latest film, "Kicking and Screaming." Ferrell plays Phil Weston a mild mannered drug store owner who never excelled at sports despite being pushed by his over-competitive father, Buck Weston, (Robert Duvall) who perennially coaches a top little league soccer team.
Once he assumes the coaching position, Phil can't avoid his competitive urges and recruits Mike Ditka, who happens to be Buck's disgruntled neighbor, and a few Italian soccer phenoms to help turn around the abysmal Tigers.The weak point of "Kicking and Screaming" is that it really offers no insight into the world of youth league sports (any film that has Mike Ditka assistant coaching youth league soccer has obviously strayed from the realm of reality).
The kids are great and generate some laughs on their own, but the parents are given minimal screen time.The film's center piece is Ferrell, who delivers another fantastic performance.
Phil Weston (Ferrell) has never been good at sports and his father is a succesful children's soccer coach.
Phil faces a challenge, but not by himself, he asks for help to his father's neighbor and rival, real-life former American football player/coach Mike Ditka.Overall it's an entertaining film, carried almost entirely by Will Ferrell, although the scenes featuring the new additions to the team, the italian butcher-trainee kids are a joy to watch.
Kicking and Screaming marked the first sports movie that Will Ferrell starred in.
Will Ferrell stars as Phil Weston, a loving dad who wishes that his son would get more playing time in recreation league soccer.
The cast was decent, the kids were very funny specially the little Chinese, the two Italian boys great soccer players, Will Ferrell begins with a decent and moderated performance but as the movie continues he began to transform in the same Ferrell that screams and makes faces and that mostly of the time is very funny, but in this movie I feel that he exaggerates, he looks so overacted and even annoying.
An average film is Kicking and Screaming and only because of Will ferrell.the movie is a pretty funny film with lot's of sequences with Will freaking out on the kids.Will Ferrell plays a similar character to Greg from T.V's Yes,Dear.He's a sensitive sissy who decides to show his father just how good of a guy he is when he decides to coach a losing soccer team.It's your typical father acts like a jack@$$ then realizes he's being a jack@$$ and learns a valuable lesson movie.The only unique thing and the only thing keeping it away from the crap o meter is the comical genius Will Ferrell.The film is full of corny touchy feely situations and lines not to mention an extremely cheesy final game but for the most part it's pretty entertaining.It is a family film that is pretty much the same as Bad News Bears,or The Big Green, but it isn't unbearably horrible like the three ninja's movies.Up and comer Josh Hutcherson who is snatching all the roles lately gives a great performance as does Robert Duvall but Steven Anthony Lawrence is brutally unfunny and extremely annoying.His lines are always weird but not funny weird just plain bizarre.The little Asian boy was funny just because half the movie your thinking "jeez that kid is tiny".Will Ferrells over the top goof ball acting that seems to have left Jim Carrey is what keeps this soccer flick a good movie..
Mike Ditka plays Buck's neighbor, who teams with Phil to help coach.Will Ferrell was good in this, but he's played this character before.
well what a surprise was this, i found this in a bargain bin at the local video shop.got it for the kids but it was me who laughed and enjoyed this little movie.the coffee jokes were brilliant and will farrell has great comic timing.
it looks like robert duvall had great fun makin the movie and was good to see him in an other comedy.
As has happened with most such films before it (many helmed by directors far more adept than Jesse Dylan), the result is an empty movie orphan which satisfies neither audience.And it doesn't help that the film looks like it was directed by a 12-year-old -- with spare change, on a Saturday afternoon -- who has never even WATCHED soccer before.It's tough to call this a truly awful movie, because there are a few laughs scattered here and there, mostly because Ferrell is able to mine one or two golden nuggets from the mostly barren script.
I expect more from executive producer Judd Apatow, who scored a slam dunk with his cast for the TV show "Freaks and Geeks." I guess he used up all of his casting inspiration on that show, because this is perhaps the least memorable kid cast ever.As you probably know by now, Ferrell plays Phil Weston, an over-his-head youth soccer coach saddled with a sad-sack team who feels he's a disappointment to his father (Robert Duvall), also a coach, but more successful.
Oddly, Ferrell is able to get some help from a guy who hates Duvall even more....coach Mike Ditka--who is pretty funny in this very off-beat role.The first 75% of the film is pretty conventional.
Will Farrell decides to coach his son's youth soccer team with mixed results in "Kicking & Screaming", an admittedly hilarious but somewhat mediocre family comedy which basically works best as a time-passer and nothing more.
The filming of the soccer was well done -- in other words, realistic.Robert Duvall is 74 years old in this movie but doesn't look a day over 60.
Will Ferrell, love him (which I do) or hate him (which a lot of people do) you can't ignore him, which is probably due to the high volume of films he has appeared in recently the past couple of years you'll have seen the grinning idiot in 'The Wedding Crashers', 'Starsky And Hutch', 'Anchorman', 'Elf' and 'Old School' to name but a few, and here he appears as Phil Weston who takes on the coaching of a kids 'soccer' team, but soon his Father's competitive edge starts to usurp.Every cliché in the book is rolled out in this rather average, but ultimately, rather enjoyable comedy flick.Ferrell is manic as usual, though there is some good support from Robert Duvall, and a great turn from NFL coach Mike Ditka as Duvall's warring neighbour.The kids too are pretty charismatic, the film ends exactly as you would expect but it's still a solid 90 minutes of sports comedy cheese..
The acting is poor, Will Farrell and Robert Duvall who are both usually great actors are anything but good in Kicking and Screaming.
Kicking and Screaming is more of a family movie with lessons to be learned (by people of all ages!), but fans of Will Ferrell will not be disappointed.
Kicking & Screaming tells the story of a loving father and husband,Phil Weston, (Will Ferrell) and his obstacles with the local children's soccer league.
His son, Sam (Dylan McLaughlin) played on the team coached by Phil's father, Buck (Robert Duvall) until he was suddenly traded to the athletically-challenged Tigers.
His son, Sam (Dylan McLaughlin) played on the team coached by Phil's father, Buck (Robert Duvall) until he was suddenly traded to the athletically-challenged Tigers.
Now Phil is the coach of the worst team in the league and tries to have fun with the game, but loses his sense of mind when he became addicted to coffee and winning.Will Ferrell should stay away from kid friendly comedies (Bewitched, Elf).
I was kicking and screaming for this film to be over.The kids are nowhere as funny, cute, or good at anyone from the Big Green.
In the movie, Ferrell's son gets kicked off his soccer team-by his own grandfather!
(The latter was played by Robert Duvall.) He actually gets traded to another soccer team which Ferrell winds up coaching.