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Review:
 Phil
Weston(Will Ferrell) and his father Buck (Robert Duvall) seemed to
have hated each other all of Phil’s life. The expression of this
fury plays out to comic effect in this light comedy, which is
allegedly for children, but actually only uses them for props.
Phil and his beautiful wife Barbara(Kate Walsh) have a cute son
named Sam(Dylan McLaughlin), who “plays”, okay sits on the bench
on the kiddie soccer team run by his grandfather, who adds insult
to injury by kicking him off the team and sending him to the worst
one in the league.
Like I said, this isn’t actually for kids. When the team’s coach
resigns offstage, our hero takes over, and with Mike Ditka(himself)
by his side, they go off to do the impossible: take a bunch of
useless children S(teven Anthony Lawrence, Jeremy Bergman, Elliott
Cho and some others) and turn them into a championship team and
beat Buck and his obnoxious son by another marriage Bucky (Josh
Hutcherson), who’s star of the league.
How do they do it? They get a couple of ringers who’re
apprentice butchers and we get to see Will Ferrill begin to go
nuts. That’s why he gets the big bucks after all. It’s not about
the kids or sportmanship or anything like that, it’s about HATE
and REVENGE, and as a comedy of such it works quite well. The kids
are just window dressing.
To repeat: Ferrell’s great, Duvall is ALWAYS great, and the
kids are pretty good too. Nothing much else, but so what. It’s a
good way to waste a couple of hours.
Eric Lurio
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