Kicking & Screaming DVD Review:

It seems that Will Ferrell is here to stay, and the greatest piece of evidence to prove that fact are the films he is still making despite the recent bombs. Although Kicking and Screaming didn’t suffer the same failure as Bewitched, it also did not bring with it the charm of Elf or the raunch of Old School. Instead, Kicking and Screaming doesn’t seem to be trying very hard at all, simply hoping that the presence of Ferrell alone will save a mediocre script.

When calm and well mannered soccer dad, Phil Weston (Will Ferrell) is stuck with the task of coaching his son’s losing team, he is forced to face the competitive nature of his father. Phil’s father always pushed him to succeed and although he was never very good at sports, this didn’t matter when Phil’s father had another son, at the same time as Phil. Suddenly Phil finds himself facing off with his father as another soccer coach, and the competition is too much for him. When winning and a new coffee addiction gets to his head, he soon becomes a madman, losing all sight of what the game is about.

This film almost follows familiar territory into the underdog and misfit team becoming champions, but instead the focus remains on Ferrell, which may or may not be a good thing. While this definitely insures more humor, it also makes for a rather one dimensional film. The children in the film are great and they are never really focused on because they can’t compete with the likes of Ferrell. It’s ironic considering the film is about competition, especially the way that Robert Duvall tries very hard to be funny.

If one thing can be said about Kicking and Screaming, it is definitely one of the better films for kids today, teaching them that winning is not the most important thing. Then again, films have been saying that for years and it doesn’t change the fact that nobody likes to lose.

The DVD has a menu which is soccer themed, with clips being shown inside different sections of a rotating soccer ball, and the special features are titled according to soccer terminology. The deleted scenes are red flags, and they are lumped into one lump of footage. The deleted scenes are shown in order and some of them are rather funny, but the ones that aren’t are quick so it isn’t a chore to watch them. The best deleted scenes seem to come from Ferrell’s improvisational scenes. The yellow cards are outtakes, which are filled more with mistakes by the kids or sound problems than anything else. Fortunately Ferrell usually has a good response to the sound problems making it funny, but there is not nearly as much material as you might expect from a Ferrell comedy. There are even a few scenes in which Ditka can’t seem to get his words out and Ferrell seems a bit frustrated. Oddly enough the alternate takes have no alternate title, but they are a lot different than the actual takes thanks to the humor of Ferrell, as with everything else on this DVD. The other special features include Kicking it with the Kids, in which the kid actors talk about making the film, Soccer Camp which is about the soccer choreography and the two weeks of soccer camp, From Rome to Hollywood which is about the two Italian kids who are soccer prodigies, and a Making of featurette.



Ryan Izay