Movie Review: Kicking & Screaming
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 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.
A poor athlete as a child, Phil (Will Ferrell) was traumatized by his dictatorial father Buck, a hypercompetitive sporting goods salesman. 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. 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 -- Gian Piero (Francesco Liotti) and Massimo (Alessandro Ruggiero). The Tigers begin to win, leading them at last to the championship match with the Gladiators.
KICKING AND SCREAMING is essentially a series of annoying episodes that are disconnected and obnoxious. Phil is one of Ferrell's characters in which the immaturity isn't outweighed by his natural appeal, and the film ends up feeling clunky and, frankly, unfunny.
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Member Comments On...
Movie Review: Kicking & Screaming
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As a conservative catholic parent (keep that in mind), I liked this movie. However, because of the lesbian parents and the what 60 year old ? marriage to a 30 year old.. I'd actually wait on showing this until my child is in high school, yeah, fourteen. Sorry. That's how I feel.
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