{"id":18946,"date":"2022-01-28T06:10:31","date_gmt":"2022-01-28T11:10:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/?p=18946"},"modified":"2022-01-28T06:10:31","modified_gmt":"2022-01-28T11:10:31","slug":"review-home-team-on-netflix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2022\/01\/review-home-team-on-netflix.html","title":{"rendered":"Review: “Home Team” on Netflix"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here’s the latest from the crossroads of faith, media & culture: 01\/28\/22<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"Kevin
\n(Image: \u00a9 Netflix)<\/p>\n

Kevin James tackles a true story.<\/strong> In the family comedy Home Team<\/em> (dropping today 1\/28) on Netflix<\/strong>, King of Queens<\/em> <\/strong>star plays Sean Payton<\/strong><\/a>, the real-life former (and possibly future<\/a>) NFL<\/strong> head coach who, two years after helping lead New Orleans Saints<\/strong> franchise to its first Super Bowl victory in 2010, was suspended for the entire 2012 season for his role in the infamous Bountygate<\/em><\/a> scandal in which members of the team were allegedly paid bonuses for the unsaintly act of\u00a0 deliberately injuring players on opposing teams. The movie tells the redemptive story of how the scandal (a bad thing) became a blessing that helped the divorced Payton reconnect with his 12-year-old son as he ended up using the unwanted time off to coach his struggling ragtag Pop Warner<\/strong> football team<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As Kevin James said in our recent conversation<\/a>, “The message in this movie is that when something in life happens that really kind of closes a door on you, you need to really search and take a moment because there is<\/em> an opportunity. Opportunities are always given to turn things around in (some) way. They may not be so obvious all the time but this one, like I said, turned out to be the greatest season of coaching in his life. That’s pretty cool for a Super Bowl-winning coach. So, it’s about, you know, taking those down moments and turning them around. How they judge a champion is by how he reacts when he gets knocked down.”<\/p>\n

All that is true – and it certainly describes what works about the movie. Ultimately, however, Home<\/em> Team <\/i>is an uneven film that, though based on a true story, sometimes strains credibility – notably in a scene when, due to a bout of food poisoning, the entire Warriors team (Payton’s team) starts vomiting uncontrollably on their opponents near the end of an important game and the game is somehow allowed to proceed. I don’t know if that actually happened but it seems unlikely. If it didn’t happen, it certainly wasn’t worth making up.<\/p>\n

\n

On the plus side, Kevin James brings humor, gruff warmth and credibility to his role as Sean Payton. He deftly handles the dramatic scenes with his son. Those are among the best portions of the film and make it clear that he’s fully capable of handling more dramatic material than his most famous roles Doug Heffernan<\/strong><\/a> and Paul Blart <\/strong><\/a>might suggest.<\/p>\n

Also Isaiah Mustafa<\/strong> is impressively intimidating as the opposing coach who is out to prove he’s got the stuff by defeating the legendary, if scandal-scarred, Super Bowl champion. On the other end of the personality scale, Taylor Lautner<\/strong> is extremely likable at as the compassionate Warriors coach Payton works with.<\/p>\n

In any event, James, who has been developing a good creative relationship with Netflix, is definitely an asset to the streamer which I understand is in the midst of developing a new series for him. As I mentioned in Wednesday’s post<\/a>, I’m a fan and have always imagined him in a light Rockford Files<\/em><\/strong>-esque private eye series. Just a thought.<\/p>\n

The Bottom Line: <\/strong>Overall, though the script could definitely have used some tightening, the cast (led by James) pulls it out to score a modest victory in the end.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Encourage one another and build each other up – <\/span><\/em>1 Thessalonians 5:11<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s the latest from the crossroads of faith, media & culture: 01\/28\/22 (Image: \u00a9 Netflix) Kevin James tackles a true story. In the family comedy Home Team (dropping today 1\/28) on Netflix, King of Queens star plays Sean Payton, the real-life former (and possibly future) NFL head coach who, two years after helping lead New…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":225,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,24,29,31,1],"tags":[12748,12772,7593,4607,12775],"class_list":["post-18946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-humor","category-movies","category-sports","category-television","category-uncategorized","tag-home-team","tag-isaiah-mustafa","tag-kevin-james","tag-netflix","tag-taylor-lautner"],"yoast_head":"\nReview: "Home Team" on Netflix<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2022\/01\/review-home-team-on-netflix.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Review: "Home Team" on Netflix\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here’s the latest from the crossroads of faith, media & culture: 01\/28\/22 (Image: \u00a9 Netflix) Kevin James tackles a true story. 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Kennedy","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/e5d5ef9caeb6b01bcbf08ca6de6591c2","name":"John W. Kennedy","description":"John W. Kennedy is the founder and Dir. of Development of The Creative Universe Entertainment\u2122, a media consultation and development company focusing on the creation, development and support of high-quality mainstream entertainment that upholds positive timeless values, including trust in God. Current projects include \"Bryant Park\" (an uplifting romantic-comedy) and \"Photo Finish\" (an award-winning sci-fi TV pilot). He has written over 100 children's novels based on episodes of the Cartoon Network series \"Ben 10\", \"Ben 10: Alien Force\", \"Ben 10: Ultimate Alien\", \"Ben 10: Omniverse\" and \"Generator Rex\" among others. He also writes Beliefnet\u2019s \"Faith, Media & Culture\" blog. Previously, he has produced successful news and talk programming for CNN, Fox News, Pax TV and SiriusXM. Specialties: Script Writing, Movie\/TV Novelizations & Adaptations, TV Content Creation and Development, Creative Consultation, Producing and Booking News and Talk shows. He can be reached for writing, producing and consulting services at 516-640-1182.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/author\/jkennedy"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/225"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18946"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18997,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18946\/revisions\/18997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}