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Two months before Richard Linklater’s remake of Bad News Bears hits theaters comes . . . a knockoff of Bad News Bears. In this version, Will Ferrell is Phil Weston, a youth soccer coach embroiled in an Oedipal struggle with his cutthroat father and fellow coach (Robert Duvall). Phil promises to be a kinder, gentler leader, but the thrill of winning soon has him treading in his father’s cleats, benching his own son in favor of two soccer-savvy Italian lads. The plot has begun to curdle by the time Mike Ditka joins the squad as assistant coach, playing himself. Director Jesse (son of Bob) Dylan has painful trouble establishing a uniform cinematic style; Reservoir Dogs–esque slo-mo and an actor-attached Doggicam (as seen in Mark Romanek’s music videos) come across as catchpennies. But this comedy dies the way the bad ones do: from cloddish jokes and sloppy timing. Writers Leo Benvenuti and Steve Rudnick (The Santa Clause) clutter their script with a diminutive Asian kid with two mommies and a coffee-addiction subplot. It’s only the 20 priceless minutes near the end — when Ferrell breaks out of the wimpy-dad routine and outruns director and writers to gloriously over-the-top heights — that elevate this film from dreadful to mediocre. (95 minutes)
BY MATTIAS FREY
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