Kicking & Screaming - 6

Will Ferrell is generally hilarious, but especially so in this film. Since it is rated PG the jokes are less crude and actually more funny. The basic premise of the film is that Phil (Ferrell) grew up being pressured by his father (Robert Duvall) to be good at sports which he was always subpar at. Then he and his father have a son on the same day and as they deal with the sports that there kids will play, Phil starts out being a good father and trying to make sports fun for his son. He soon finds himself the coach of a team, and with Mike Ditka as assistant starts to morph into the worst and most obsessed coach/parent ever. In the end, he realized his errors, apologizes and his team even beats his dad's team. It is actually a film that captures some of the reality of sports obsessed parents in American culture. The kids are always on the losing end of the deal, and I think has a lasting effect on society as these kids get older. Reducing life to sports not only makes sport into something it is not, it makes other important parts of life like family and work seem like trivial activities, which only leads to broken relationships. The film does a good job of showing how life needs to be seen in a long-term perspective than the present and the remaking and nostalgia of the past. The plot is not new, the underdog comes back to win the whole thing, but it is very hilarious in the process.