The Comebacks

NEW YORK (CNS) -- Satire takes the field in "The Comebacks" (Fox Atomic). But there's not much joy in Mudville as this absurd sports comedy, like mighty Casey, strikes out.

At the request of his admiring colleague, Freddie Wiseman (Carl Weathers), perennially losing coach Lambeau Fields (David Koechner) returns from retirement to try to lead a college football team, the Comebacks, to victory. His wife, Barb (Melora Hardin), objects, fearing that he will once again become so absorbed in his work that he will neglect his family, while his daughter, Michelle (Brooke Nevin), manages to capture the hearts of two of the coach's players, Lance (Matthew Lawrence) and Trotter (Jackie Long), creating more than a little dissension.

Director Tom Brady's broad, bawdy comedy is as much slapdash as slapstick, lurching incoherently from one gag to the next. The bathroom and bedroom are ransacked for jokes, and the visual comedy is often ridiculously far-fetched. Thus the coach has only to say of a player on the field "Nothing can stop that kid!" for him to be promptly run over by a bus.

Like a rookie, "The Comebacks" swings at anything, scoring a few hits here and there, but more often than not missing the ball.

The film contains pervasive sexual and scatological humor, nongraphic sexual activity, a same-sex kiss, some crude and crass language, five uses of profanity, adultery and drug references, and a transvestite character. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 -- parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

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Copyright (c) 2007 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops