“How many sarcastic pills did you take this morning?” – Phil Weston
Number of Times Seen – 1 (2 Mar 2022)
Brief Synopsis – A man living in the shadow of his competitive father decides to coach his son’s soccer team which will rival his father’s own team.
My Take on it – This is a film that has some great merits to it, but ultimately falls flat due to the stereotypical way that the characters are presented.
They do a nice job with the overall story, but they stumble due to the way that Will Farrell and Robert Duvall play their characters.
The kids on the team and their families are all shown to offer more diversity, but it is used more for comedic effect than for anything more substantial which would have been better.
The film touches upon typical and normal tropes in stories about coaching (kids or adults) and fails to find a way to feel more unique in what it is trying to do.
Farrell is a great actor, but he has trouble reining in his characters so that they feel more restrained and this movie is a perfect example of how that hurts his films which is quite a shame.
Loved the way that this film utilized Mike Ditka as a (real) character since it makes things feel a bit more real even if it isn’t enough to help make this more enjoyable.
MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – Will Ferrell stated this is his favorite of his films, for sentimental reasons. Throughout the span of the shoot, his wife became pregnant with, and gave birth to, their first son. Ferrell said he filmed specifically imagining watching the movie with his child one day. (From IMDB)
Rating – BAFTA Worthy (6/10)
_______________________________________
Check out my *updated* movie stats here
To see my reviews of Oscar Winning Performances check out this link
To see my reviews of all Oscar Best Picture Winners click here (now complete)
Here is a link to my movie index A-Z
MovieRob 