Sometimes an actor, through sheer force of personality, can power a film to the next level.

Will Ferrell is that actor. "Kicking & Screaming" is not that movie.

	Will Ferrell's character goes to poor sportsmanship and back in "Kicking & Screaming." Click photo for larger image. "Kicking & Screaming" Rating: PG for thematic elements, language and some crude humor. Starring: Will Ferrell, Robert Duvall. Director: Jesse Dylan. Family Film Guide review of 'Kicking & Screaming'

S till, it has moments that should ring true for soccer moms and dads who know there's no "I" in team but there is one in "win," to quote the screenplay.

It stars Ferrell as a gentle vitamin salesman, husband and father named Phil Weston, who believes soccer is not about the win-loss column. His hyper-competitive father, Buck (Robert Duvall), who owns sporting goods stores and coaches soccer, believes winning is everything. Buck even benches and then trades his own grandson, which leads Phil to become the coach of the boy's new hapless team.

The release of "Bad News Bears" is still a couple of months away but Phil's all-boy team has its share of misfits, including a player who eats worms, another who is a wisenheimer and one who is a shy, tiny tyke.

Phil soon succumbs to the addiction of winning and the siren call of coffee (some of the movie's funniest moments) and starts to crave victory as much as a row of espressos. To try to beat Buck, Phil asks Buck's neighbor and enemy, Mike Ditka as himself, to serve as his assistant coach.

Ditka gets Phil hooked on caffeine but, more importantly, introduces him to two Italian boys who are soccer sensations. With their help, the last-place Tigers advance in the standings, putting them on a collision course with Buck's top-ranked team.

Phil becomes so obsessed with winning that he begins issuing sideline advice such as, "Play dirty if you have to, but don't get caught."

That, of course, sets Phil up for the teachable moment when he has to decide what sort of coach and father to his 10-year-old son (Dylan McLaughlin) he wants to be.

"Kicking & Screaming," directed by Jesse Dylan ("How High," "American Wedding") and written by the pair behind "The Santa Clause" movies and "Space Jam," plays like a series of skits loosely stitched together. It's as if the writers used that thread designed to hold jacket pockets closed but that you can easily rip or snip out.

Ditka brings his offscreen intensity and Super Bowl ring to the movie. After the Great Santini, Buck Weston is a breeze for Duvall, who must toss off lines such as, "What do you call that when you almost win? Yeah, losing." Ferrell is an enormously funny guy but even he can only do so much to rescue a limp script and you can almost sense the ad-libbing.

His character goes overboard, however, when Phil actually pushes a young opposing player to the ground. Not to worry, however, since Phil goes from the dark side back to the light.

The kids, no doubt, will like it. And they might even learn a few soccer strategies -- like eating worms.