Tagline: All his life, Phil Weston has dreamed of being on a winning team. Phil… your time has come.
Will Ferrell (“Elf,” “Old School”) and Robert Duvall (“Secondhand Lions,” “A Civil Action”) star in a lively comedy about the cutthroat, hyper-competitive world of little league soccer. Ferrell stars as Phil Weston, an average Joe who’s had to put up all his life with his overly competitive father, Buck (Duvall). When Phil decides to coach his 10-year-old son’s soccer team, he goes head-to-head for the league championship against Buck, who coaches his own young son on the preeminent team of the league. Old scores come into play as Phil and Buck find themselves going to extreme measures to win the championship trophy.
Welcome to that cutthroat, hyper-competitive, do-or-die sport of … little league soccer, a world where kids and their victory-crazed suburban parents find themselves on a high-stakes collision course — all in the name of good, clean, athletic fun.
At the epicenter of this overzealous world is Phil Weston (Will Ferrell), a gentle, New-Agey vitamin salesman who, by default, ends up coaching his sweet 10-year-old son Sam’s (Dylan McLaughlin) last-place team, the Tigers.
This would be tough enough for the super-supportive Phil, who truly believes it’s not whether you win or lose but if your soul gets nurtured. But when he’s pitted against his gung-ho, relentlessly competitive father Buck (Robert Duvall), who coaches his own young son Bucky’s (Josh Hutcherson) top-ranked team, the Gladiators, a lifetime of putting up with Buck’s overbearing ways finally takes its toll on Phil and, well…the balls hit the field.
Eventually, as Phil and Buck go head-to-head for the soccer league championship, the pair’s past and constant rivalry spins wildly out of control, forcing each to stop at nothing to ensure a winning season. This includes a now-maniacal Phil recruiting the world’s best assistant coach, the legendary Mike Ditka (played by none other than Mike Ditka), as well as two young Italian soccer prodigies who become the Tigers’ secret weapons.
Can father and son put their rocky past behind, do what’s best for their own children and realize that soccer is just a game? Not a chance! May the best coach win.
These production notes provided by Universal Pictures.
Kicking and Screaming
Starring: Will Ferrell, Robert Duvall, Mike Ditka, Kate Walsh, Jim Turner, Jarrad Paul
Directed by: Jesse Dylan
Screenplay by: Leo Benvenuti
Release Date: May 13th, 2005
MPAA Rating: PG for thematic elements, language, crude humor.
Studio: Universal Pictures
Box Office Totals
Domestic: $52,842,724 (94.2%)
Foreign: $3,227,709 (5.8%)
Total: $56,070,433 (Worldwide)