Python Hyena
Little Giants (1994): Dir: Dwayne Dunham / Cast: Rick Moranis, Ed O'Neill, Shawna Waldron, Sam Horrigan, Devon Sawa: Recycled comedy about the smaller factor that achieves certain victory or acknowledgment. It is one of the countless rip-offs of The Bad News Bears. Misfit football team go through odd training so that they may challenge and defeat the team that rejected them. Puh-lease! Can anyone sense the bile? Rick Moranis plays the typical widowed father who brought his daughter up on sports and doesn't know how to approach her from a feminine standpoint. Ed O'Neill plays his rival brother in a variation of his Married...With Children role. They compete and eventually arrive at the predicted outcome. Shawna Waldron plays Moranis's daughter who can handle herself against the tough male competition. She tries out the feminine outlook but will realize that kicking butt on the football field is her thing. The worst performance goes unfortunately to Sam Horrigan who plays the embarrassing secret weapon player Spike who is a moron who speaks in the first person. Waldron will obviously send him flying on the field. This is also an early appearance of Devon Sawa. Dwayne Dunham does fine directing with a few visual elements but the film reworks tired themes such as teamwork and friendship that seem distant in this dying genre. Score: 3 ½ / 10
Electrified_Voltage
I was a kid when this family sports comedy was released, eight years old to be specific, so it's a film I could have seen as a kid, only I never even heard anything about it back in the 1990's. I never knew it existed until sometime within the past couple years, and even then, I still wouldn't have discovered it if it hadn't been for now retired Rick Moranis playing the starring role here. I certainly wasn't expecting "Little Giants" to be too hilarious or original, judging by what I had learned about it, but since I knew it was more popular than probably a number of other films like this, there was a chance that I could at least find some good moments in it. However, that didn't happen, and the movie turned out to be even weaker than I could have imagined! Danny O'Shea is the younger brother of Kevin O'Shea, and both of them live in Urbania, Ohio. The arrogant older brother is a former Heisman Trophy winner, and currently the coach of the Urbania Cowboys, the town's little league football team. Becky is Danny's daughter, and is the only girl trying out for the team. She is their best player, but during the try-outs, her sexist uncle still rejects her. Obviously not happy about this, she forms a new children's football team with the other rejected Cowboys. This new team is called the Little Giants, and Becky convinces her father to coach them. However, the rule is "one town, one team," so it is decided that the two teams will go head to head in a playoff game, and the winners will be Urbania's little league football team, so Danny gathers more children for his team and begins to prepare his players for the competition. The younger O'Shea has always been living in the shadow of his brother, and this might be his chance to put an end to that, but the Giants' chances of winning the game are threatened by several problems! Needless to say, this movie certainly does have a predictable plot, and one that sure bored me! If anything here grabbed me at all it was very brief. It didn't help that none of the characters really meant anything to me, so I couldn't really root for anybody. Like most other movies I've reviewed recently, this one is also a bad comedy. I wouldn't have been surprised if I had found SOME laughs in the movie, even if they were sporadic, but I didn't even find one! Not only that, the only time I can remember even smiling was during the part where Danny calls the police on Kevin and Butz while they're spying on his team! Whenever any of the kids in the film are supposed to be funny, they always fail, and more notable than the rest in this regard is probably Rudy Zolteck. The gags involving this character's eating habits and his flatulence are always lame, and none of the other kids help, either (it's never fun watching their conflict, which is one of the problems), especially not Jake Berman, with his snot blowing.I watched this movie just days after watching "Ed", another cheesy family sports film, but one which is generally considered to be much worse than this. After watching "Little Giants", I wouldn't say it's quite as bad as the 1996 flop starring Matt LeBlanc, but as much as a lot of people might be disgusted by me saying this, I honestly fail to see how this 1994 little league football movie is THAT much better! Well, regardless of what others may think of these movies, I'd better not watch any more films like this anytime soon, as this has gone far enough! I know there are many films like this out there which I've never seen, but most of them are probably not worth watching. Rick Moranis has often made me laugh, with his "SCTV" appearances and in "The Adventures of Bob & Doug McKenzie: Strange Brew" (featuring two very famous characters from "SCTV" played by Moranis and Dave Thomas respectively), but even he isn't funny in this movie, and it has to be the worst one I've ever seen him in. If you're an adult, then unless you just love these kids' sports flicks, this is not a must-see.
mtr0118
Watching this comic film about two brothers facing each other on the football field as coaches was very humorous, especially Ed Oneal's Kevin Oshea. His attitude nearly resembled a combination of Mika ditka and Tom Landry. No wonder why Rick Moranis' Danny told him off, "Who the hell do you think you are? Vince Lombardi? These are kids." That was probably the line that lay-ed out the plot of the picture. The Ice Box was nearly cute as she had her crush on her own QB. It was very nice to see Hall of Famer John Madden do a cameo appearance as he got lost on his way to Canton, Ohio.If the action on the field would of been filmed as detailed as in Bend in on Beckham(2004) Little Giants would have been really for everybody's enjoyment especially since this film is most possibly aimed at younger audiences. But I still give it a seven out of ten for its good effort to represent rivalry on a pee wee field. Spike stole the scene as a Dick Butkus like kid.
stars19
When I was little, this was one of my favorite movies. Now I'm watching it like 10 years later, and I still enjoy it. I could really relate to Becky and her struggles. I had a crush on Junior the cute quarterback. I could really see Danny and Kevin as brothers. I laughed at everything. I also love football. But make sure when you watch it you don't watch it on TV because they cut so much out of the original movie. This is a great film about the struggles of growing up with some comedy. I highly recommend it. It's a great film for everyone. It taught me to have hope and to believe I could achieve anything. Rent it, buy the DVD, just go watch it!!
