What Parents Should Know
Parents need to know that this PG movie includes repeated scenes of physical violence against children. Though this is staged as humor -- specifically, a function of the immaturity and insecurity of perpetrators Phil (Will Ferrell) and his father Buck (Robert Duvall) -- it's also annoying and even startling (Phil kicks his own 10-year-old son, Buck pushes another child into a pool). The soccer game scenes are mostly fun, but do include a few rough action sequences. A couple of characters are slapped, punched, and kneed in the groin, adults smoke and drink (Phil becomes addicted to coffee, and very jittery). In one scene, the kids' team emerges from a van covered in blood (following an afternoon chopping meat in a butcher's shop), and so intimidate their opponents into forfeiting the game. Phil instructs his team members to bay at the moon like dogs. One child on the team has lesbian parents, who make Phil nervous, though he does his best to be "correct."

Families who see this movie can talk about the basic lesson it offers: that playing fairly and having fun are more important than winning. Though the movie spends more time on the cheating and excessive investment in competing, you might talk about how kids can play games to practice skills and enjoy each other's company. The film also demonstrates the lingering effects of an emotionally abusive parent, so you might discuss the best ways parents and children can communicate needs, praise, and affection. As well, the presence of adopted child Byong Sun (Elliott Cho) might encourage discussion of how you define families.

Common Sense Media Review
KICKING & SCREAMING begins at the beginning of Phil's life. His cute infant face appears on screen as he explains in voiceover, "I was born a baby, a blank slate, thinking I was in control of my own destiny." The film concerns his journey from this moment to Ferrell's version of adulthood, meaning, not very adult at all. A poor athlete as a child, Phil is traumatized by his dictatorial father Buck, a hypercompetitive sporting goods salesman whose local commercials run the much-repeated and unfunny tagline, "He's got balls." A vitamin salesman as an adult, Phil can't win his father's respect.

Phil's decision to coach the Tigers, his son Sam's (Dylan McLaughlin) little league soccer team, puts him into direct competition with Buck, who coaches the rival Gladiators (which includes Buck's own 10-year-old son, Bucky [Josh Hutcherson], born to a second, sexy, young wife after Phil's mom divorced Buck). Though Phil's wife Barbara (Kate Walsh) does her best to help him keep the season in perspective, he devotes himself wholly to beating his father ("I'm like a torpedo of anger," he insists). Phil enlists the help of Mike Ditka (playing himself, smoking cigars, and apparently just as glad that he didn't run for Senator from Illinois), who in turn finds two Italian boys -- great soccer players whose butcher uncle insists they keep their priorities straight: soccer is secondary and (repeated like a mantra by the team), "Meat comes first!"

With the gruff "encouragement" of Ditka ("I eat quitters for breakfast and I spit out their bones") and the skilled Italians -- Gian Piero (Francesco Liotti) and Massimo (Alessandro Ruggiero) -- on the field, the Tigers win, leading them at last to the championship match with the Gladiators. By this time, Phil has become overly invested in the competition with Buck and lost sight of the reason he started coaching, which was to help Sam play the game for fun. Now he's acting like his dad, and Sam is so upset he doesn't even want to suit up. When he sees that good kid Sam remains generous and eager to love him, Phil finally comes to his senses. The film, however, remains a series of annoying episodes, disconnected and obnoxious.

Families who enjoyed this movie might want to see School of Rock, a more nuanced and funnier movie about kids and a childish adult learning life lessons together. They might also look for other Will Ferrell movies, including Elf or Anchorman, in which he plays similarly immature males, or another, more serious version of Duvall's performance as the overbearing dad, in The Great Santini.

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