'Kicking & Screaming' shoots just wide of the goal

Friday, May 13, 2005

By WILLIAM ARNOLD
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER MOVIE CRITIC

The emerging idea in bad Hollywood comedy is to take a popular contemporary star like Ben Stiller or Jennifer Lopez, and cast them in generational opposition to an iconic '70s star like Robert De Niro or Jane Fonda, with an emphasis on de-mythifying the latter.

MOVIE REVIEW

KICKING & SCREAMING

DIRECTOR: Jesse Dylan

CAST: Will Ferrell, Robert Duvall, Mike Ditka

RUNNING TIME: 87 minutes

RATING: PG for thematic elements, language and some crude humor

GRADE: C

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In the children's soccer comedy "Kicking & Screaming," the elements of this formula are Will Ferrell and Robert Duvall, and if it's not much better than "Meet the Fockers" or "Monster-in-Law," it's certainly no worse, and Duvall at least manages to keep his dignity.

Ferrell plays Phil Weston, an athletically uninclined vitamin salesman who has grown up in the shadow of his overbearing father (Duvall), a sports equipment retailer and fanatic weekend soccer coach who kept his son benched throughout his entire coming-of-age.

When Phil finds his shy young son in the same relationship with his grandfather, something in him rebels and, through a series of circumstances, he becomes the coach of a team of rejects that he soon whips into shape to take on his father's championship team.

It never quite takes off: The script is weak and predictable, the direction by Jesse Dylan ("American Wedding") displays little comic flair and the gimmick of casting football great Mike Ditka as himself in a major role falls flat -- he's just not an actor.

On the other hand, in the interest of a PG rating, the movie is a lot less crude than your average Hollywood sports comedy, and Ferrell has one good extended sequence in which an addiction to coffee suddenly turns him into Vince Lombardi on speed.

Duvall doesn't have much to do and spends most of his scenes denigrating Phil with his signature low-key, cynical chuckle. Contrary to the flamboyance of the character, he underplays the part -- perhaps more than he should.

P-I movie critic William Arnold can be reached at 206-448-8185 or williamarnold@seattlepi.com