| Overall Grade: |
B |
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| Story: |
C+ |
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| Acting: |
B |
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| Direction: |
B+ |
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|
| Visuals: |
B+ |
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|
A Solid Vehicle For Ferrell
by KISSman (movies profile)
Dec 19, 2006
47
of
79 people found this review helpful
Hands down, the best thing about this film is Will Ferrell. If you are a fan of his, you should not be disappointed. The film itself isn't amazing, but I found it to be filled with enough laughs to get you through a rather predictable storyline.
While Will Ferrell is supposed portray a dad trying to do good for his son, it still doesn't get in the way of him being over-the-top. There are plenty of glimmers of his former SNL-self.
With its PG rating, I was concerned that Kicking & Screaming would be sanitized to the point where it would come off as too cheesy. Luckily, with the inclusion of hard-nosed guys like Robert Duvall and Mike Ditka, they helped keep it from getting overly sentimental. In fact, I would say that I am a little surprised that it wasn't rated PG-13. It's certainly closer to PG-13 than it is to a G-rating, but it's probably fine for any kid who is age is in the double-digits.
Since it's a 90-minute movie, the focus was more about Ferrell entertaining us within that time frame than spending a considerable amount of time getting overly involved with the plot. The ending is predictable and generic, but that's expected from a PG movie that is geared to entertain kids as well as adults. While I'm a not a parent and probably would have ended it a little differently, I don't completely fault it for going for the happy-ending-by-numbers approach.
Overall, this film is mostly carried by the comedic talents of Will Ferrell and for the most part, he succeeds. Mike Ditka is also very good considering the fact that he has a considerable role in the film. Robert Duvall gives the movie some additional clout and provides a worthy opposition to Ferrell. Kicking & Screaming isn't a comedy classic, but it still is a fun movie with a lot of decent laughs. When considering what is in the theatres right now, you could do a whole lot worse. |
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