As children, the O'Shea brothers were night and day: one a geeky little wimp and the other a popular football player. As adults, the trend continued and the football player was now a popular coach with a successful car dealership. But when the wimp's daughter gets rejected from her uncle's football team, the brothers must face off: wimps versus jocks. It's an underdog story!
I watched this film on Christmas 2007 with my best friend Chelsea, who freely admits to loving underdog kid sports films (which is evident if you know her love for "The Sandlot" and "The Might Ducks", as well). I don't really have that strong of an attachment, but they're fun if nothing else, and this one is definitely one of the more amusing ones, if for no other reason than the rampant stereotypes and solid cast.
Rick Moranis is the wimp brother, Danny O'Shea (not far from his role in "Honey I Shrunk the Kids") and Ed O'Neill is football star Kevin O'Shea (sort of like his role on "Married With Children"). The daughter/niece is Becky "Icebox" O'Shea, played by Shawna Waldron (who went on to appear in "The American President") and her love interest is Devon Sawa, playing quarterback Junior Floyd. Sawa is how I got "tricked" into watching this film, after his name was dropped during one of our many "Casper" conversations...
There's nothing really surprising about this film. I won't give it away by telling you the plot, but I will say it's a team of wimps against a team of quality players. You can probably guess how this works out, because all underdog sports movies basically work the same way. And you'll get the stereotypes here: tomboy who struggles with becoming a woman, fat kid who must be eating (and passing gas) in every scene... weakling with the overprotective mother. You can take away points for creativity, but you have to grant them that they've covered all the expected bases.
With the possible exception of one twist (which is predictable if you see the opening credits) and the presence of Harry Shearer with some great announcements ("Mr. Moe Mentum has a new address!") this is what you'd expect, and if you want what you expect, you'll love this film. I found it very fun and light-hearted (a good way to wind down Christmas). Would I watch it again? Yes.
