Okay...I got beef with this movie. Was this movie funny? Yes. Was Will Ferrell his awesome self in this? Yes.
So what's the issue? I feel that Josh was majorly underutilized in this film...and here's why:
At this point in our marathon, Josh has established himself as a capable child star. We've seen him portray main characters, cry on camera, do different accents, voice act, and work with some pretty major Hollywood stars. Personally, I feel he could've added even more laughs to this movie had he been given more screen time and time to shine.
In Kicking and Screaming, Josh plays Bucky Weston, a talented but sassy young soccer player. We see that sass come out in the few scenes where he has lines, like at the end when he tells Will's character to "just take the compliment".
While I appreciated the sassy Baby Josh moments, they were few and far between, and most of the scenes he was in were action shots on the soccer field. (Although - if that was all him and no doubles, I hope he had fun! I feel like this would be a blast to be part of as a kid...show up to film but just play sports with other kids? Josh was probably living the dream!)
I understand that Bucky was just not a major character in this film, and Will was really the star, but a few script tweaks could have been used to add more conflict between Bucky and Sam and also better taken advantage of Josh's talent.
The silver lining here? The end credits scene was adorable. We see Baby Josh dressed as a little prince. Too cute! Want to see for yourself? I bought this one using MoviesAnywhere, but I just found it for free with ads on YouTube at the time of this writing.
Peace and Joshperity,
G
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