This movie was a bit odd in that it was enjoyable from a family perspective - that is to say the kids enjoyed it and it wasn't too bad for them to watch it - but it didn't really fit together all that well. It starts off well enough, with Will Ferrell falling short of his father's expectations (played well by Robert Duvall).
And the laughs start in right away, but then he starts falling into a bit of a funk as his son is benched on the dad's championship team. You know where it's going, and that isn't a big deal, really, but it's how it gets there that leaves you wanting a bit. It's no surprise that the dad uses the ringers to get the team all the way to the finals. It's no surprise that he comes around in the end and the team pulls together to win.
But that they do so in the last half against the best team in the league, when they've been completely hapless all along and somehow make it work? It just doesn't quite work for me.
It would have been better if the team hadn't ridden the coattails of the ringers all the way to the final, though the writers would have had to fill more time that way, and the movie would have been shorter than it already was.
I'm a fan of movies that the kids can watch, and I played soccer for a while myself. It's just that the whole thing didn't go together as well as, say, Little Giants, where it was one game and done. While one team can beat another on any given day, I don't think that it would have worked out this way.
Rated PG for thematic elements, language and some crude humor.
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