Movie Review: Home Team

It's super bizarre that the at least somewhat true story of Sean Payton joining the coaching staff of his estranged son's pop warner team in Texas during his season-long NFL suspension for his role in the Saints Bountygate scandal back in 2012 got turned into an Adam Sandler-backed family comedy that stars basically all of his friends (Rob Schneider, Taylor Lautner, Kevin James-who plays Payton) and relatives (wife Jackie, nephew Jared, brother-in-law Christopher Titone) that are struggling to find work elsewhere now. In a development that shouldn't really come as a shock, Home Team really isn't any less weird in practice. Depending on the scene, the film is either a cheesy 90's sports movie a la The Mighty Ducks or The Big Green, a sort of sweet story about a father and son reconnecting after a significant amount of time apart or a below average Sandler/James/Schneider/Spade gross-out slapstick comedy from 2 decades ago with really lazy jokes that have aged as well as Ron Burgundy's cheese wheels. 

What's perhaps even weirder is that despite its jarring mishmash of genres and generally poor attempts at comedy is that Home Team isn't exactly a terrible product. James is at his most likeable as a version of Payton that is eager to reconnect with his son and get the opportunity to still coach football during his time way from the NFL, the kid actors do a pretty decent job of selling the goofball underdog dynamic and the actual sports sections of the story are reasonably compelling. Considering the messiness of its setup and how low the quality floor of a James/Schneider/Lautner project can go, Home Team materializing as an average film with multiple redeeming qualities should be viewed as a minor triumph akin to when a bad football team puts together a stronger than expected performance in a loss against a much better opponent. 

Grade: C