'Kicking and Screaming' scores laughs, lesson

But I’m a klutz.

When I was in third grade, I tried out for The Red-wings.

Those of us who didn’t make the cut got to form another team, which was dubbed “The Blue Raiders.” I made up that name, and I got to be the catcher and sometimes right fielder.

In the back of my mind I always knew, because I didn’t make The Redwings, I was a “loser.”

I thank the powers that be that this was in Springfield in the 1960s. Parents and players didn’t seem to take it so seriously then.

We were playing baseball.

Things have gotten weird since then.

From the Texas cheerleader-murdering mom to the fights at little league games, the insanity has always come from the parents who were trying to live vicariously through their kids.

A number of films have explored the insanity of “organized” sports. Anthony Perkins played Jimmy Piersall in the biopic “Fear Strikes Out.” “Semi-Tough” looked at pro football.

On a lighter note, Walter Matthau coached “The Bad News Bears,” a misfit little league baseball team, in the film of the same name.

The intensity of little league athletics – in which soccer seems to be the most predominant sport – is the heart and soul of Jesse Dylan’s film, “Kicking and Screaming.”

Will Ferrell plays Phil Weston, who, as a kid, fell short of his athletically inclined and very macho dad’s expectations.

Phil’s dad, Buck, is played by Robert Duvall doing a comedic reworking of his role as Bull Meechum in “The Great Santini.”

Buck coaches a little league soccer team and does so with the intensity of Mike Ditka.

Ditka, by the way, plays himself in a decent nonacting role as Buck’s antagonistic neighbor and Phil’s assistant coach.

Winners & losers

As the soccer season begins, Buck trades his grandson, Sam, to the “loser” team, The Tigers.

In Buck’s world, there’s a word for “almost winning.” That word is “losing.”

Phil tries to tell young Sam the game is all about having fun.

Added conflict

When Phil, by default, becomes the coach of The Tigers – and coincidentally discovers coffee – things change.

Phil and Ditka find a pair of soccer-savvy Italian kids, and conflict between Bull and Phil get kicked up another notch.

Remember that Phil has issues with his dad and has just recently discovered coffee.

As a noncaffeinated person, I found this part of “Kicking and Screaming” the most funny.

Phil’s new obsession is an addiction, and coffee changes his entire being. I recognized a few coffee-loving friends in this part of the character.

Child actors

Ferrell and Duvall are great together, but it’s the kids who are going to entrap most viewers.

They’re all endearing.

There’s the little Oriental guy who has two moms, the wisecracking long hair, the two Italian soccer wizards and every other culture/class stereotype that comes to mind.

Stereotypes aside, none of these kids overact. This makes them even cuter onscreen.

Director Jesse Dylan pulls off the cliched plot with amazing grace. There’s no doubt in any schooled moviegoer’s mind about what’s going to happen. But that doesn’t really matter.

Dylan and his team of actors make it all work.

It’s corny, but “Kicking and Screaming” is a film where you’ll find yourself laughing – and sometimes feeling sad – in spite of the cynicism instilled by years of TV viewing.

Ebert says

Critic Roger Ebert made a fine point when he wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times, “Kids should run their own teams. … The whole activity would look a lot more like a game and less like a ‘sporting event.’”

“Kicking and Screaming” is good, dumb movie fun, but it presents a lesson as well. That lesson is – attention parents – calm down. More importantly, let the kids have fun – which they will while watching this movie.

Jim Wunderle owns Wunderle Sound Services and is a Springfield free-lance writer and musician.

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