Kicking & Screaming

Released 2005
Stars Nicolas Cage, Joaquin Phoenix, James Gandolfini, Peter Stormare, Christopher Bauer, Anthony Heald, Catherine Keener
Directed by Joel Schumacher

Will Ferrell stars as Phil Weston, an adult who still feels like a kid when his dad Buck (Robert Duvall) is around. Buck is a version of Bull Meechum, the character Duvall played in "The Great Santini" (1979), where he was trying to run his family like a Marine unit. Buck coaches in the local kids' soccer league, and as the movie opens, he trades his grandson -- his own grandson -- because the kid is no good. That makes Phil mad: He was always told he was a loser, and now his own kid is getting the same treatment from Buck.

The movie is pure formula from beginning to end, and it doesn't pay as much attention to the individual kids as it might have -- especially to Byong Sun (Elliott Cho), the smallest member of the team, who seems to have something really going on down there among the knees of his opponents. There is also the usual thankless role of the hero's wife, played here by Kate Walsh; her job is to talk sense to Phil, which is never much fun. Buck's wife is a sexy bombshell played by Musetta Vander, but she turns out to be sensible and sane, which is a disappointment. Still, "Kicking & Screaming" is an entertaining family movie, and may serve a useful purpose if it inspires kids to overthrow their coaches and take over their own sports.

Summary by Roger Ebert

"Kicking and Screaming" is the latest version of "The Bad News Bears," but it succeeds in being an entertaining family movie. Mostly because Mike Ditka cracked me up. Having his uncompromising personality around little leaguers was pretty funny, and he made the movie for me. The other thing that made it work was that the Robert Duvall character, Buck, wasn't a cartoon. He was so fiercely competitive that he would crush his own son in any activity possible, but he also loved his son. That was never in question, and it raised the material above the silly level I expected. It's still silly, but it's better than I expected. I definitely wouldn't watch this movie as an adult if there weren't any kids around, but it's solid family entertainment. --Bill Alward, November 25, 2005