Home Team

I watched Apocalypse Now for the first time and it sort of messed me up so I needed a light watch to follow. Enter "Home Team."

My expectations were low coming into this film. Was it a cinematic masterpiece? No. Did I still have a good time? Yes. Was it a PR stunt for Sean Payton and the Saints? Probably. Did I care? No.

The 1990s brought us a bunch of fun sports movies for kids like "The Sandlot," "The Mighty Ducks," "Rookie of the Year," and "Angels in the Outfield." This movie shares some of that DNA. While it doesn't reach the heights of the best of the kids sports movie genre, I had a good time watching this movie. If there's anyone that's itching for a feel-good, kid-friendly sports movies, "Home Team" will scratch that itch.

If You Like Kevin James, you will like this film. If you don't like Kevin, you may STILL like this film, which has the usual cliches, but also several scenes that really work (funny and moving).

Don't know how accurate the story is to fact, but it's engaging enough, despite a few odd ball dumb characters you would expect in a "Billy Madison" production (e.g. Adam Sandler's buddy Rob Schneider once again playing a way out in left field character who is just strange w/o being funny, whose character is married to Sean Peyton's (Kevin James) ex-wife (played by Adam Sandler's real life wife Jackie Sandler who was introduced to Adam by Rob Schneider...whew!).

Anyway, if you don't follow the NFL, the real Sean Peyton (again, played by Kevin James in this film) just retired from coaching the NFL's New Orleans Saints the day the film was released - No doubt planned timing for promoting this Netflix Original film.

Recommend viewing if you're looking for nice family safe comedy with positive messaging (adults can like this too - I did).

First being a Happy Madison production you pretty much know what to expect. Silly over substance. But here you have some sliver of real life in that it "kicks-off" from an actual event in which New Orleans Saints coach Payton was suspended for a year from his NFL job. Weaving a story of hardship into a connection with his son brings our coach back to coaching on an entirely different level. Since one doesn't expect a warts and all soul searching documentary this is made into pure entertainment. With modest expectations it succeeds and is fun to watch. It's slight in a good way so I'd say if you want a feel good family flick with a few laughs this qualifies.

I didn't expect this film to be as funny as it was. The last couple Happy Madison films were pretty bad. This one had me busting up laughing over and over. I'm glad I gave in and decided to give this film a shot. 6 stars.

If you enjoy Kevin James movies then you'll enjoy this. It's a good family sports movie, Rob Schneider is great in it. The kids are funny, it's worth the watch for a comedy or football fan.