Kicking & Screaming

I really wanted to like this film, because I find Will Ferrell so tremendously charming. Unfortunately, he seems to have run out of charm, as here, he just does a half-hearted Will Ferrell impression. It’s hard to blame him: He has no material to work with in this incredibly hackneyed script about a man who has had to live in the shadow of his extremely competitive father (Robert Duvall). Since his dad is a soccer coach, he finds an opportunity to finally best him by becoming a soccer coach himself. After that, everything happens exactly as it does in every other sports movie, and it happens at exactly the time you expect it to. This wouldn’t be so bad if there were a few more laughs in the script, but all the jokes get used up in the first 20 minutes, and then it’s a long slog to the inevitable ending. On the upside, this is the first film to come out strongly against coffee, which I think is the most horrid drug in our over-medicated society of addicts. Ferrell’s character is mild-mannered and kind until he starts drinking the devil’s brew, when he turns into exactly the kind of asshole who, well, drinks coffee all day. You know who you are, you Starbucks-addled, short-fused caffeinated freaks!