the home team movie review

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The Happy Madison deal with Netflix has reached a very unusual stop on its journey through the history of the streaming giant. Adam Sandler ’s company often alternates vehicles for the superstar like “ Hubie Halloween ” (one of their better movies) with offerings that center one of his BFFs like David Spade or Kevin James . The latter gets to lead the abysmal “Home Team,” a new entry in the bottom tier of the production company, a tone-deaf dramedy that’s allegedly based on the true story of Sean Payton’s suspended year after Bountygate although that would imply that there’s a single manipulative beat of this movie that feels “true.” I’m not one to judge a film based on concept—it’s always about the execution more than the premise. However, turning one of the NFL’s most violent and notorious scandals into a family film about getting to love football again challenges this belief. Could a good film have come out of this narrative kickoff? Maybe, but it has a high degree of difficulty, and it sure isn’t “Home Team,” one that starts with a bad taste in your mouth that only gets more rancid.

James plays the legendary New Orleans coach, who, of course, is introduced on the fake sideline as he wins the Super Bowl in 2010. “Home Team” introduces Payton as a soft-spoken genius with a driven desire to win. All he does is win games and chew gum. He may value the sport more than he should but that’s his only flaw and the film you’re going to watch will basically make him perfect, right? Of course, almost every detail of Bountygate is quickly dispensed or ignored, including the fact that it was reportedly taking place during that 2010 season. The quick version is that the New Orleans Saints were paying bounties to defensive players for causing injuries to members of the other team. Roger Goodell suspended the Defensive Coordinator indefinitely and sent Sean Payton home for a season. While he denied involvement, and the film has the nerve to give him a “but the buck stops with me whether I knew or not” speech to stay at least a little neutral, the league determined through an investigation that Payton did know about the system, which he steadfastly denied.

Listen, “Home Team” doesn’t have to be a " Moneyball "-style expose about Bountygate but setting it up as image rehab for one of its major players gives it a shaky, uncertain foundation from the beginning. James’ Payton returns to his North Texas hometown and reunites with his son Connor ( Tait Blum ), discovering that the boy is on one of the worst football teams in the region. Being a sports animal, Payton can’t just watch the horror unfold, and ends up coaching the team to a successful season, learning how to prioritize relationships and people over winning. “Home Team” is the story of a man who turned a punishment into a learning lesson, but it never feels more than superficially interested in the very idea that that man had to be caught (or at least accused of) breaking the rules to spend any time with his own son.

It’s a complex idea in a family sports movie structure that avoids complexity by its very nature. In an early scene, Payton tells the boys one obvious defensive play, they score their first TD of the season, and Payton smiles like he’s feeling the joy of sports for the first time ever as the music soars. Really? It’s almost a parody of bad sports movies, which is harmless enough unless you consider the allegation that it’s all true. NONE of it feels true. 

Ignoring everything that NFL fans bring to “Home Team,” the real problem is that it’s just poorly constructed on its own terms. Pretend it’s not a “true story” and it’s still a shallow representation of sports, parenthood, and comedy, with almost no laughs. Minor struggles are easy to overcome, characters are given one characteristic to play poorly, and the often-charming James is forced to capture the dull stoicism of the “head coach” in the most bland manner possible. And then there’s the Rob Schneider character, a cartoon counterpoint to Payton who is now with the coach’s ex-wife, a character designed to be the most broad comic relief. Schneider touts vegan ice cream, wears a Snuggie to the game, and sports a man bun. He’s a walking list of a writer’s idea of “the opposite of any NFL coach” and it’s just insultingly unfunny.

As the film reaches its thin climax, there’s a scene in which the whole team that Payton is coaching ends up projectile vomiting during a game. I felt similarly nauseous but for different reasons.

On Netflix today.

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

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Film credits.

Home Team (2022)

Kevin James as Sean Payton

Taylor Lautner

Rob Schneider

Jackie Sandler

Gary Valentine

Lavell Crawford

Chloe Fineman

Maxwell Simkins

Jacob Perez

Bryant Tardy

Manny Magnus

Christopher Farrar

Merek Mastrov

Isaiah Mustafa

Jared Sandler

• Charles Kinnane
• Daniel Kinnane
• Chris Titone

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Common sense media reviewers.

Feel-good comedy has nice messages, also language, drinking.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Winning isn't everything. A good attitude, practic

Middle school boys support each other, demonstrati

Main character is a White man, but there's racial

Adults and kids get beaten up on the football fiel

A joke suggests a man mistook men for women on an

"Hell," "damn," "ass," "punk-ass," "butthole," "su

Pro football teams including the New Orleans Saint

It's suggested an assistant coach has an alcohol p

Parents need to know that Home Team is based on the true story of New Orleans Saints' head coach Sean Payton (Kevin James), who was suspended for a season due to an investigation related to the team's bounty scandal (players were allegedly paid to injure opposing players). During his leave, Payton helped…

Positive Messages

Winning isn't everything. A good attitude, practice, and hard work can lead to greatness. Adults can learn positive life lessons from kids. There's a stereotypical portrayal of a hippie.

Positive Role Models

Middle school boys support each other, demonstrating teamwork on and off the football field. Coach Payton (who's a complicated role model in real life, given his alleged involvement with the Saints' bounty scandal) learns humility, to put others (including his estranged son) before himself, and that winning isn't everything. Beth supports her son having a relationship with his absentee dad; her new husband is depicted as a stereotypical New Ager. Parents sometimes live vicariously through their kids.

Diverse Representations

Main character is a White man, but there's racial diversity among teammates and their families. Focus is on male characters, both adults and tweens. A kind, supportive stepdad is (gently) mocked for his New Age sensibilities.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Adults and kids get beaten up on the football field. Coach Payton is accused of paying players to injure opponents on the field. A character jokes about "ending it all" with a toaster and a jacuzzi. A lantern sets a tree on fire and the tree falls on a parked car. People projectile vomit.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

A joke suggests a man mistook men for women on an Asian backpacking trip. A man shows another man an explicit picture of his wife birthing their baby (picture isn't shown on screen). A mother flirts shamelessly with a man in front of her child, who suggests the man run away when he can. A middle school boy has a crush on a girl; he serenades her, and in another scene, she blows him a kiss.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

"Hell," "damn," "ass," "punk-ass," "butthole," "suck," "heck," "stupid," "crap/crappy," "jock itch," "wussy," "son of a…," "Oh my God." The English subtitles replace "butthole" with "a--hole."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Pro football teams including the New Orleans Saints, NFL, some car brands glimpsed in scenes, ESPN, Best Western, and sports brands like Reebok, Adidas, Nike, and Wilson.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

It's suggested an assistant coach has an alcohol problem (he drinks too much "coach juice") and has lost his license. Adults drink alcohol in other scenes. Song lyrics mention meth and beer.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Home Team is based on the true story of New Orleans Saints' head coach Sean Payton ( Kevin James ), who was suspended for a season due to an investigation related to the team's bounty scandal (players were allegedly paid to injure opposing players). During his leave, Payton helped coach his tween son's underdog football team, which the film portrays as a ragtag team of nice, diverse kids who try hard and always support one another. Even once they start winning, the team doesn't lose sight of more important priorities, teaching Payton lessons in humility and compassion . Expect some strong language, including "hell," "damn," "ass," "butthole," (which Netflix's English subtitles replaced with "a--hole"), "suck," "heck," "stupid," "crap," "son of a…," and "oh my God." A character who's known to have an alcohol dependency is often the butt of jokes. Someone jokes about "ending it all" with a toaster and a jacuzzi, and there's an accidental fire that torches a tree and a car. A really gross scene involves mass projectile vomiting. One man shows another an uncensored picture of his wife giving birth, though the photo isn't seen on screen. A middle school boy has a crush on a girl; he serenades her, and later she blows him a kiss. Football is depicted as a violent game, but one with benefits for its players. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Community Reviews

• Parents say (1)
• Kids say (9)

Based on 1 parent review

What's the Story?

Pro football coach Sean Payton ( Kevin James ) is put on administrative leave while under investigation by the NFL in HOME TEAM. He decides to go home to small-town Texas to visit his estranged son, Connor (Tait Blum). Initially planning to stay just a few days, Sean starts to take an interest in Connor's ragtag middle school football team, the Warriors. Their coach, Troy ( Taylor Lautner ), asks Sean to help them out. Connor isn't too sure about his dad's sudden presence in his life, but his mom, Beth ( Jackie Sandler ), and stepdad, Jamie ( Rob Schneider) , welcome Sean into the fold, and the kids on the team are excited when they finally start winning games. What's uncertain is what will happen if and when Sean is allowed back to his pro job in New Orleans, and whether that will come before or after the Warriors' season ends.

Is It Any Good?

Popular actors, a cast of lovable tween boys, and a wholesome tone make this feel-good comedy a natural audience pleaser. Home Team starts with a compelling (but ultimately glossed over) true story and mixes in a slew of goofy secondary characters and situations. The production also feels like a family affair, with siblings, spouses, and other relatives of producer Adam Sandler and star James in various roles. There's definitely some verging-on-tasteless, Sandler-style humor in this film, including making steady fun of a character who is an alcoholic and a torrential bout of projectile vomiting.

But other bits are very funny, like Schneider's stereotypical hippie stepdad (who brings his special tea to games and "makes his own lavender soap"), an inept hotel manager, and the tween team's jubilant celebration party at the hotel pool ("this is what it feels like to win"). As a Super Bowl-winning coach down on his luck, James exudes the confidence of a successful man who knows his game. Lautner is his ideal counterpart, letting him take center stage both as actor and character. The boys on the team are portrayed as adorably innocent middle schoolers who keep a positive attitude in the face of total defeat and maintain their values even once they start winning. A scene where they all go as wingmen to sing back-up when one of their teammates serenades a girl he likes is memorably cute.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about why Connor is so unwelcoming of his dad at first in Home Team . Why would he feel uncomfortable with his dad coaching his team?

How do the boys on the Warriors team show teamwork on and off the field? Why is this such an important character strength?

What lessons does Sean Payton learn from his son and the other boys during his time on forced leave from the Saints?

The film is based on a true story. Where could you go for more information about Payton and the controversy surrounding the bounty program that got him suspended? Do you think the film does a good job explaining the controversy and Payton's role in it? Why or why not?

Movie Details

• On DVD or streaming : January 28, 2022
• Cast : Kevin James , Taylor Lautner , Rob Schneider
• Directors : Charles Kinnane , Daniel Kinnane
• Studio : Netflix
• Genre : Family and Kids
• Topics : Sports and Martial Arts , Friendship
• Character Strengths : Compassion , Humility , Teamwork
• Run time : 97 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG
• MPAA explanation : crude material, language and some suggestive references 
• Last updated : February 17, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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Home Team Reviews

Home Team is full of feel-good and hilarious moments that show a relationship between a father and son being mended. Unfortunately, the film suffers from glossing over the major scandal that serves as the reason why Payton even went back home...

Full Review | Original Score: 7.5/10 | Jan 21, 2023

Home Team is The Waterboy without the charm or Henry Winkler.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Nov 2, 2022

An entirely unnecessary sports comedy.

Full Review | Jul 25, 2022

An Adam Sandler type Kevin James comedy. Bizarre characters but not as funny and lovable as James is capable of being

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Feb 23, 2022

Besides signing pretend quarterback Taysom Hill to a four-year, 140 million contract, the worst decision Sean Payton ever made was agreeing to turn his year of exile into a Netflix sports comedy starring Kevin James and Kevin James' older brother.

Full Review | Feb 11, 2022

Home Team obviously won’t be remembered the same way Remember The Titans and Moneyball are, but it is vastly better than a lot of the usual, trashy sports movies we’ve seen in recent years...

Full Review | Original Score: 3/10 | Feb 10, 2022

Home Team is occasionally able to move the ball, but ultimately, the movie fails to find the end zone.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Feb 9, 2022

Home Team’s tonal balancing act between wholesome family comedy and disturbing real-life context is quite jarring.

Full Review | Feb 7, 2022

It's wild that the "disingenuous apology biopic" is a thing that exists now, and even wilder that it's delivered in the form of a Bad News Bears-style family comedy. Points for boldness, I guess.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Feb 7, 2022

What couldve been a fascinatingly complex drama wound up in the wrong hands and become a senseless comedy.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Feb 6, 2022

It fails to make anything sympathetic about the character no matter how likable Kevin James is in it.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Feb 5, 2022

It's football and pizza. It doesn't have to be amazing to be good enough. Neither the highs nor lows of Home Team are too dramatic to strike up strong emotions, but its a fun little diversion.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Feb 4, 2022

The problem is with the script, which is just simply too vanilla and too limp to cash in on that great story.

Full Review | Feb 2, 2022

The movie is not good, but it’s not completely unwatchable for fans of lazily written, formulaic sports movies designed to please crowds of early adolescents.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/10 | Feb 2, 2022

I laughed once.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4 | Feb 2, 2022

A true story that shies away from the truth.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Feb 2, 2022

You can really tell that Happy Madison changed its approach to humor and storytelling: A kid saying "My butthole" is used as a punchline just three times, not nine.

Full Review | Original Score: D | Feb 1, 2022

This film is better than anticipated, but it cannot get past being a familiar and cliché-filled football film.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Feb 1, 2022

Kevin James turn as controversial football coach Sean Payton blocks its punt through shallow storytelling and its frankly loathsome protagonist.

Full Review | Feb 1, 2022

The facts have been rejiggered to fit the Sandman's formula: Our hero is a seething screw-up, and everyone else is even worse.

Full Review | Original Score: C-+ | Jan 31, 2022

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‘Home Team’ Review: Fumblecore

Kevin James plays the complicated N.F.L. coach Sean Payton in an uncomplicated Netflix family flick.

• Share full article

By Amy Nicholson

Last week, the N.F.L. head coach Sean Payton — the most successful coach in the New Orleans Saints’ franchise history — both announced his retirement and, for the extra point, had a cameo in a slapstick family flick about the time when the league suspended Payton for his role in a bounty program that gave cash bonuses to players who made opponents leave the field on a stretcher .

“Home Team,” directed by the filmmaking brothers Charles and Daniel Kinnane, plays Payton’s punishment as a sincere tragedy. The comic actor Kevin James, as Payton, stares at his sunken eyes in a mirror. Violins swell. There’s an inspirational tickling of piano. Cut to the cornfields of Argyle, Texas, among which Payton will seek redemption by leading his estranged 12-year-old son’s (Tait Blum) ragtag peewee team to a championship.

This actually happened, more or less. But “Home Team” is a product of Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison Productions, so the facts have been rejiggered by the screenwriters Chris Titone and Keith Blum to fit the Sandman’s formula: Our hero is a seething screw-up, and everyone else is even worse. It’s yet another comedy of indignities — sorry, make that inanities. Payton’s players puke on the field, his hotel clerk (Jared Sandler) steals all the bagels at the breakfast buffet and his moronic assistant (Gary Valentine) passes out drunk on the bus. Blondes are dumb. Fat people love pizza. And, in a fascinatingly meanspirited subplot that merits its own behind-the-scenes saga, Payton’s ex-wife (Jackie Sandler) has married a loser (Rob Schneider) who eats vegan ice cream, does yoga to get in touch with his feelings and whines that football teaches the wrong lessons about “violence and conflict resolution.” Hey, hippie! A grown man showing emotion is a 15-yard penalty.

Home Team Rated PG for kiddie cussing and quasi-comic alcoholism. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes. Watch on Netflix.

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• DVD & Streaming
• Biography/History , Comedy , Drama

Content Caution

In Theaters

• Kevin James as Sean Payton; Taylor Lautner as Troy Lambert; Rob Schneider as Jamie; Jackie Sandler as Beth Payton; Tait Blum as Connor Payton; Gary Valentine as Mitch Bizone; Jacob Perez as Marcos; Jared Sandler as Eric; Bryant Tardy as Dennis; Manny Magnus as Harlan; Maxwell Simkins as Paulie; Lavell Crawford as Gus the Bus Driver; Isaiah Mustafa as Porcupine Coach; Sean Payton as Lionel the Janitor

Home Release Date

• January 28, 2022
• Charles Kinnane; Daniel Kinnane

Distributor

Movie review.

It’s 2012, and the world is ending. At least, it is for the New Orleans Saints Head Coach Sean Payton.

Three years after leading the Saints to their first Super Bowl victory in 2009, Payton is suspended for the entire 2012 National Football League season due to his alleged involvement in the “Bountygate” scandal.  Players on the Saints were allegedly being paid bonuses to target and injure players on opposing teams.

Now, Sean Payton’s face is all over the news … and he’s unexpectedly got a year off.

But things aren’t all bad: The extended vacation Sean’s received gives him time to visit Argyle, Texas. There, he reconnects with his 12-year-old son, Connor, who lives with his mother and Sean’s ex-wife, Beth. But Sean’s been away too long for Connor’s liking, and the boy would love nothing better than for his workaholic dad to take a hike.

However, there’s one neutral zone where Sean can reconnect with Connor. The teen plays for the hometown football team, the Warriors … and they’re a total mess. It’s standard practice for their team to lose via mercy rule, for instance. When one team gets 40 points ahead, the game automatically ends.

With nothing better to do and a relationship to rebuild with his son, Sean steps in as the team’s offensive coordinator.

But it isn’t easy for an NFL coach to suddenly tackle middle school football. It also doesn’t help that Sean’s desire to win can steamroll everyone in his way. Oh yeah, and don’t forget that everyone has something negative to say about Sean’s decisions.

With all that against him, there are a lot of things Sean is scrambling to fix. Is it possible to save the Warriors? Can he ever restore his standing with the NFL? And, most importantly, can he redeem his relationship with his son?

Or will he fumble it all away again?

Positive Elements

Home Team offers a lovely look into humility in leadership. Sean is an effective leader, and his plans almost always work. But the same can be said of a tyrant and a dictator, which Sean—given his eyes set on the win—can easily morph into. Yes, it’s Sean Payton , and everyone’s going to listen to him. But in time (and after a much-needed rebuke by his son), Sean humbles himself, which allows others to experience the growth they need—even if it may mean that they don’t win.

Team Coach Troy Lambert stands as the antithesis of Sean. He wants the kids to have fun and enjoy the game, but he can’t seem to mesh those ideals with a winning strategy. This contrasts well against Sean’s no-nonsense-all-work-and-no-fun strategy, and we come to realize that there is value and merit in a combination of both approaches. We should strive to enjoy what we do and have fun, but we should also be willing to recognize when necessary changes need to be made and work needs to be done.

The players on the football team itself also provide the audience with positive messages. They’re supportive of each other, and they’re not afraid to help one another out with their personal struggles. Though they’re not afraid to poke fun at one another, they always maintain a cohesive unity that shows the value of having like-minded friends there to support you. As Proverbs 27:9b reminds us, “The sweetness of a friend comes from his earnest counsel.”

Spiritual Elements

Two New Orleans Saints football fans are dressed like Catholic priests. One player makes the sign of the cross and thanks God that they don’t have to play a certain team again.

Beth’s new husband, Jamie, practices “transcendental meditation” with candles, incense and a recorder. We also see him sitting in the classic Eastern meditation pose with his legs crossed.

We hear a song (more on that below) with lyrics that reference angel choirs. In addition, Blake Shelton’s “Boys ‘Round Here” plays, and we hear a reference to prayer.

Sexual Content

One of the young players on the Warriors has a crush on a girl at school. He’s constantly distracted during games, looking at her up in the stands. At one point the entire football team joins him to serenade the girl with the fun. song “We Are Young.”

Jaime talks about backpacking through Asia with people he thought were women but turned out to be men—a story his wife interrupts and stops as he’s telling it to Connor. and he references a time when he went into a bathhouse with sumo wrestlers who “prune everywhere.” In one scene, Beth wears a somewhat revealing dress.

A hotel staff member named Eric asks if can swim in his underwear. Eric also shows Sean a photo of his baby “mid-birth,” and Sean comments that Eric’s wife wouldn’t appreciate him showing others that photo.

A woman whose son is on the team makes several thinly veiled and suggestive passes at Sean (which he declines).

Violent Content

Even though this is a football movie that focuses on kids, you can still expect to see plenty of rough hits and tackles. This is particularly true whenever the Warriors have to face off against the Porcupines, the movie’s antagonists.

Coach Mitch says he’ll snap the neck of whoever threw Sean’s hat. Mitch forcibly grabs and drags his nephew by the neck while calling him “an embarrassment to the family tree.”

Troy kicks an older assistant coach named Mitch for laughing at a player falling down. The team accidentally sets a car on fire with a paper lantern.

Crude or Profane Language

Three uses of “a–” are heard, as are three variations of “crap.” There are two uses of “d–n,” and there are six uses of “h—.” The s-word is used once in a background song. God’s name is misused seven times. Twice, kids use the vulgar expression “suck it.”

Throughout the film, one player continues to get hit in the backside with the football, loudly exclaiming “my butthole” each time.

Drug and Alcohol Content

Sean drinks throughout the film. He and Troy bond over beers, a woman offers Sean wine, and Eric gives Sean a drink at the hotel bar. Additionally, Sean references drinking a scotch.

It is revealed that Mitch is not allowed to drive due to a drinking problem. We see Mitch drink alcohol out of his water bottle at a football game, and another character must help him walk to get water.

The song “Meth Lab Zoso Sticker” by 7horse plays in the background. Also, the song “Boys ‘Round Here” by Blake Shelton references drinking beer and chewing tobacco.

Jaime references going to get hemp ice cream.

Other Negative Elements

A bus driver complains about “severe jock itch.”

In a particularly gross scene, the entire team ingests homemade food made by Jamie, which causes them to projectile vomit on the field and their opponents. They use this to their advantage, barfing on defenders in order to score a touchdown. Many other characters throw up upon seeing the team members lose their collective lunches all over the field.

The comedy about the underdog sports team with the initially-angry-but-softens-up-over-time coach isn’t a new trope. But to my knowledge, this is the first time projectile vomit has been used as an essential plot device … I’m not sure how I feel about that.

Then again, this movie was produced by Happy Madison Productions, the company founded by Adam Sandler known for Grown Ups, Pixels, Paul Blart: Mall Cop and more. As such, viewers of Home Team can expect to see humor similar to those movies.

However, Home Team ’s humorous bits are a bit more low key compared to many other movies on Kevin James’ resume. Its main goal is to try to tell a story of Sean Payton’s ultimately redemptive relationship with his son Connor, which is sweet and quite difficult to make humorous.

Thus, most of the jokes here come from other side characters or quick one-liners. Throughout, the story dances on the line between Adam Sandler-style humor and serious fatherly redemption. This leaves us in an awkward place where we unfortunately don’t get to receive the full benefits of either genre. For instance, many of the issues the individual characters face don’t ever feel like they are truly resolved—in fact, one character who struggles with the fear of tackling and being tackled is simply forgotten about halfway through the film, and overcoming this struggle is simply never mentioned ever again.

But even if the movie struggles to decide which genre it wants to be, it still delivers some solid messages about failure, fatherhood and second chance. The story itself hinges on uncovering what Sean’s true motivations really are: Does he simply want to redeem himself with the NFL and leave the first chance he gets, or is he truly there to better his relationship with his son?

Ultimately, the audience knows what Sean should choose, but it’ll take the struggling coach and father a bit of time to recognize it. Along the way, we’ll meander through poignant moments and puke-filled ones in equal measure in a story that gently encourages struggling dads to hang in there and keep trying.

Kennedy Unthank

Kennedy Unthank studied journalism at the University of Missouri. He knew he wanted to write for a living when he won a contest for “best fantasy story” while in the 4th grade. What he didn’t know at the time, however, was that he was the only person to submit a story. Regardless, the seed was planted. Kennedy collects and plays board games in his free time, and he loves to talk about biblical apologetics. He thinks the ending of Lost “wasn’t that bad.”

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‘Home Team’ review: ‘Bountygate’ sports biopic finishes bottom of the league

One of America's biggest football scandals becomes a movie – but it's no touchdown...

‘B ountygate’ didn’t really make the news outside of America, but back in 2012 it became one of the biggest scandals in the history of the NFL. An investigation into the New Orleans Saints accused Head Coach Sean Payton of paying his team bonuses for bad tackles – a game-rigging system that paid bounties for knockouts (and paid even more for “cart-offs”), reportedly helping the Saints win the Super Bowl in 2010.

Payton was suspended from the league and banned from coaching, but that didn’t stop him from unofficially managing his 12-year-old son’s school team instead. As true-life sports stories go, Payton’s seems ready-made for an inspirational movie – maybe just not for a leaden, unfunny kids’ comedy starring Kevin James.

Adapted by Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison Productions, Home Team casts Sandler’s friend James as Payton, alongside Sandler’s wife and Sandler’s son in a film that could have probably benefited from actually having Adam Sandler in it. Looking slightly uncomfortable imitating Sandler’s angry pessimist schtick, James plays Payton as a sullen red-cap bully – a man more interested in team tactics than he is at reconnecting with estranged son Connor (Tait Blum).

Redemption comes later, of course, but it’s hard to care too much about the arc of a guy who still weighs everything by sports. Returning home to his son and ex-wife Beth (Jackie Sandler, from every Adam Sandler movie since Big Daddy ), Payton finds himself a big fish in a very small pond. The Warriors are the worst team in the local league and current coach Troy (Taylor Lautner) can’t work out how to inspire them. Coming in with a notebook full of millionaire NFL ideas (mostly just pep talks and position swaps), Payton slowly turns the team around just in time for a big slow-motion finale set to Fun ’s ‘We Are Young’.

Directed by the Kinnane brothers (best known for making a few shorts starring James, keeping things firmly in the Sandler friendship circle), Home Team spends as much time on the pitch as possible – pushing Payton’s family troubles out of the story whenever it can throw in another team huddle instead. The jokes are kept low-key too, suddenly remembering that it’s supposed to be comedy during one weird group-vomit scene, but otherwise aggressively red-blooded throughout. Rob Schneider shows up as Beth’s new-age partner, but he’s more punching bag than comic relief, made up to look like Thom Yorke for jabs about vegan ice cream.

Driven by big-truck energy and lumbered with tired sports clichés and flat jokes, Home Team feels like its target audience is bad dads who don’t like spending time with their sons. Failing at life is bad enough, but failing at football is unforgivable.

• Director: Charles Kinnane, Daniel Kinnane
• Starring: Kevin James, Jackie Sandler, Taylor Lautner
• Release date: January 28 ( Netflix )
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The Vanity Biopic Takes Another Bizarre Turn In ‘Home Team,’ Netflix’s Kids Comedy About Saints Coach Sean Payton

Home Team , Netflix’s new release starring Kevin James as former Saints coach Sean Payton, is first and foremost an attempt at a family comedy, so before we get into the details I should note that my eight-year-old stepson declared, upon his second viewing in two days, “I love this movie.”

Certainly appealing to children is a low bar, but on balance Home Team does seem preferable to the rest of Netflix Kids’ programming, which consists mostly of old Disney and Nickelodeon sitcoms , in which the kids are all wearing five layers of neon clothing that looks fresh from a rack at Pac Sunwear, are styled within an inch of their lives, and shout-sing their lines as if they’re going to be beaten with bamboo canes if they fail to enunciate. I can sense when a 9-year-old has headshots. Few things more offputting. At the very least, the kids in Home Team look reasonably like actual kids , an achievement that sadly bears mention.

That being said, Home Team is one of the most conceptually-strange cinematic ventures I’ve ever seen, an image management exercise disguised as a scruffy kids comedy. The film opens with Sean Payton’s win in Super Bowl XLIV in 2010, the first and only for New Orleans, just five years after Hurricane Katrina. It made Payton such a hero that he released a book called Home Team: Coaching the Saints and New Orleans Back to Life just four months later and it became a bestseller .

This, however, is just an opening frame for a movie that takes place entirely in 2012, the year that Payton was suspended for an entire season over his role in the Bountygate scandal . What is the Bountygate scandal, you ask? It was a story in which Payton and his assistant coaches were implicated in a plot to pay out bonuses for Saints players who injured opposing players. Even after two consecutive watches, my stepson was still pretty fuzzy on this point, and it’s hard to blame him. After a cursory five-second headline montage in the beginning, the most Home Team ever explains Bountygate is when Payton’s son Connor asks him why he got suspended. To which Payton responds, “It’s complicated, but I’m the head coach, so I have to take responsibility.”

Ah, well. Case closed!

But perhaps we’re getting ahead of ourselves. What Home Team attempts is a Bad News Bears -esque comedy about the year Sean Payton became the offensive coordinator for the Liberty Christian Warriors, his son’s sixth-grade team in Argyle, Texas.

The Vanity Biopic industry has been exploding in recent years, beginning with subject-friendly depictions of musicians, which makes sense, given that it’s virtually impossible to make a musician biopic without permission to use the subject’s music — as 30 Rock so memorably skewered in “Jackie Jormp-Jomp .” The public first started to note this cozy subject-filmmaker relationship with Bohemian Rhapsody , which Rocketman managed to take to an even cozier level with a subject who was still alive. Sports got in on the action in The Last Dance , a Michael Jordan-sanctioned docuseries about the Michael Jordan-led Bulls of the ’90s, and took an even more propagandistic turn with King Richard , a fictional film “based-on-the-true-story” of Richard Williams (played by Will Smith) and his tennis-playing daughters — executive produced by the Williams family.

Home Team takes it even further, and weirder , positioning Sean Payton as the lead of a family comedy ostensibly about his biggest scandal, with a script co-written by Payton’s daughter’s boyfriend, Chris Titone . Home Team ‘s other writer is Keith Blum, who has the same last name as Tait Blum, the actor who plays Payton’s son, though it’s unclear whether they’re related. It was produced by Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison production company and directed by Charles and Daniel Kinnane, part of an eight-brother production team of former carpenters from Rhode Island who Kevin James had hired to make shorts for his YouTube channel.

That Hollywood is a nepotistic place and the NFL even more so isn’t news to many people, but even accepting that, the movie itself is a strange piece of content. Happy Madison movies have long consisted of rough frameworks that more or less write themselves (rich kid has to go back to school as an adult, hockey goon becomes a golf pro, etc) fleshed out with Sandler’s unmatched capacity for filling space and goofing around. Part of the charm is that they aren’t trying very hard. In that sense, Home Team isn’t much different. Hotshot coach Sean Payton gets suspended from the NFL for cutting corners, humbles himself by coaching his son’s team of sixth graders, and in the process repairs his relationship with his kids and learns a valuable lesson about not being such an asshole. Or so you would think.

What’s shocking about Home Team is the degree to which it avoids Payton having to do even the most cursory soul-searching. For the most part, it’s a movie about how Sean Payton is an awesome football genius who cucks anyone who gets in his way. It’s a testament to the filmmakers that it still manages to come off as a reasonably-charming family comedy despite having the id of a serial killer. In an age when one of the most popular forms of Super Bowl ad is a corporation apologizing for a scandal and promising to do better, maybe it was inevitable that we’d eventually get a disingenuous apology biopic.

Following his suspension, Payton, played adequately by replacement-level chubby comedy man Kevin James, who effortlessly evokes ex-jock on account of he is one (rare in the acting world), returns to his former home in Argyle, Texas. It’s there he meets his ex-wife’s new husband, Jamie, who, wouldn’t you know it, is a new age hippie with a top knot in his hair. He likes to meditate atop the coffee table amidst clouds of incense and is played, naturally, by Rob Schneider, one of many old friends Adam Sandler seems to be single-handedly keeping employed. In one of Home Team ‘s signature gags, Jamie makes the team homemade “energy logs” with kale and tofu and they end up projectile vomiting, Family Guy -style.

The actress playing Payton’s ex-wife, Beth, meanwhile, has a face that positively screams “wife of someone in Happy Madison.” I would’ve bet my life on this while watching the movie, and when I looked her up afterward I discovered that she was Jackie Sandler, Adam’s wife. Madame Sandler, as it turns out, is also the sister of Home Team writer Chris Titone — the aforementioned boyfriend of Meghan Payton, Sean Payton’s daughter, and presumably the lynchpin of this entire enterprise.

Home Team has the plot developments you would imagine. Payton has to try to reconcile with a son who resents him for never being around, and turn around a struggling team without alienating its fanbase and coach. When Payton arrives, the Warriors have two coaches, the well-meaning nice guy head coach, Troy Lambert (Taylor Lautner), and his drunk comic relief assistant who has to ride his bike to games because of DUIs. This character is played by Kevin James’s brother, Gary Valentine, wearing a barely-trying fake mustache.

When Payton arrives, the townsfolk and even Troy want the bigshot Super Bowl man to get involved with the team, and maybe sprinkle some winner dust on their pitiable underdogs. Payton agrees to become the offensive coordinator over beers with Troy, and soon he’s revamping the offense, switching the star quarterback to running back, and eventually, after a phone call with ex-Steelers coach Bill Cowher, who seems to have agreed to be in this movie only if they could shoot his scene in his home office, even meddling in the defense.

There’s a natural expectation that Payton is going to go too far and have to learn that winning isn’t worth being such a prick. Which he does, but only barely. The angriest Troy Lambert ever gets about being coach-cucked is when he frowns a little (Lautner does a decent job looking like a Texas football coach, and his acting has improved some since his Twilight days, but he’s still not exactly Brando).

There is precisely one scene in which anyone pushes back on Payton’s new win-at-all-costs regime, taking place at halftime during the championship game, when Payton’s son Connor yells at him that he liked his team better before, winning or not. Payton’s realization that maybe he should be less of a dick is squeezed into one quarter of one football game, when he puts two benched players back in the game after benching him and lets their hapless kicker kick, even though it means a probable loss.

It’s a testament to the filmmaking that Home Team ‘s ending manages to thread a tight needle between believable, novel, uplifting enough, and mildly comedic. What’s shocking about it is how little introspection and acceptance of responsibility are permitted in this era of image management biopic. Granted, the sports superstar autobiography has been a staple of bookstore shelves for probably 50 years, and few have expected to find genuine vulnerability in one (let alone the athlete actually writing it). Even so, Home Team is essentially the story of how football genius Sean Payton returned to a small town and big dicked everyone, proving why he was better than them in the first place. One of his most humbling moments comes when he has to pay the kooky clerk at the hotel where he’s staying to photocopy his hand-drawn playbook for him (the guy accidentally photocopies his bagel! ha ha ha). Imagine, not having someone happily do your copy work for free. Yes, he’s a long way from the Super Bowl now!

Home Team feels like an old feature I used to read in Sports Illustrated For Kids , “My Worst Day,” in which an athlete would explain how they felt on a day they notably failed. The articles were always about fumbling in a crucial moment or calling time out the team didn’t have, never point-shaving or domestic violence or taking out an entire bus full of disabled kids while driving drunk.

The movie’s most endearing aspect is Adam Sandler’s unwavering loyalty to his inner circle, keeping otherwise radioactive pals like Rob Schneider and Allen Covert gainfully employed, doling out roles to old buddies like Kevin James and newish ones like Taylor Lautner (who was in Grown Ups 2 ) alike, and giving a shot to other blue-collar aspiring artists from New England (Sandler himself grew up in New Hampshire) like the Kinnane Brothers.

Sean Payton may be the subject of Home Team , but Sandler is the hero, a mafia racket unto himself generously sharing the spotlight and the riches with all his buddies, his wife, his brother-in-law, and anyone else who manages to blunder their way into his good graces. God bless the Sand Man. If there’s a lesson in Home Team , it’s that if Adam Sandler likes you, you never have to work a day in your life.

‘Home Team’ is currently available on Netflix. Vince Mancini is on Twitter . You can access his archive of reviews here .

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Home Team’ on Netflix, Which Builds A Kids Sports Comedy Out Of A Real-Life NFL Scandal

Where to stream:.

Kevin James is New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton in Home Team (Netflix), which plays off the infamous “Bountygate” scandal of 2011 and ‘12 and sends the disgraced Payton on a journey of personal redemption as the pee wee football team of his son, who he left behind in a divorce. There are lessons to be learned for everyone in this typical sports comedy, but since it’s a Happy Madison production, there’s also a helmet full of lowest common denominator humor. 

HOME TEAM : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: It’s two years on from the New Orleans Saints’ victory over the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLIV, and head coach Sean Payton (Kevin James) is slapped with a year’s suspension for his involvement in the team-wide bounty scandal that paid players to injure their opponents. Payton, who equates being an NFL head coach with going one hundred miles an hour 365 days a year, is suddenly stopped cold. Without a playbook, he wanders back to Argyle, the small Texas town where his ex-wife Beth (Jackie Sandler) lives with their son Connor (Tait Blum) and her new husband Jamie (Rob Schneider). The Warriors, 12-year-old Connor’s football team, are atrocious. Connor and Marcos (Jacob Perez) and a few other kids have talent, but commitment is lacking and focus is elusive. “Who did we lose to last week?” one kid asks Warriors head coach Troy Lambert (Taylor Lautner), and Troy can only wince and offer his encouragement.

It’s only a matter of time before Payton has been installed as the Warriors’ offensive coordinator and de facto head coach, and he starts to whip the rag tag bunch into some semblance of a functioning football team. Payton also makes a few cracks at repairing his relationship with Connor, who’s saddled with being a Super Bowl-winning coach’s son in a football-crazed Texas, even though he barely knows his dad. It’s even more awkward that his father has been publicly exposed as a bloodthirsty cheater, but Home Team doesn’t dwell on that.

Cue the sequences. Payton in his crappy hotel room, hashing out a new set of plays on a yellow pad. Payton standing firm against dads in the stands who are unhappy with his changes. And Payton leading the new-look Warriors through the “winning ways” sequence, as the kids put his blind side blitzes and speed formations into action to assemble a winning season. Finally, it’s all come down to one big game, the championship against their bigger and faster rivals. Can the underdog Warriors win out? Well, sometimes you have to sacrifice for the good of the team, which ultimately is a lesson that Coach Payton needs to learn, too. And sometimes, you just might barf your way to a championship.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of? This gridiron has been tread on before. From the 1994 kids, football, and coaches comedy Little Giants , to the Bad News Bears – choose your fighter with either Richard Linklater’s 2005 Billy Bob Thornton-starring remake or the 1978 original – or even to Six Pack , the 1982 comedy that saddled stock car racer Kenny Rogers with a plucky bunch of orphans. Oh, and Diane Lane.

Performance Worth Watching: It’s notable how much Kevin James – known more for his buffoonery – leans into the arrogance of his character, and the chip on his shoulder about where his decisions have led him. It’s a performance that helps sell Coach Payton’s inevitable rehabilitation in the third act, both as a coach and a father.

Memorable Dialogue: The Warriors have a new playbook courtesy of their new offensive coordinator, and Connor brings the play into the huddle. “Alright, 42 long, I-formation wide, something, something…” Nobody knows where to line up, and some aren’t even sure if they’re on offense. “Didn’t any of you study the plays?” asks the quarterback. And one kid summarizes how tough a road to hoe this is going to be. “My dad didn’t even understand these plays.”

Solution? Schoolyard. “Everyone just go long.”

Sex and Skin: Come on.

Our Take: Bountygate, where New Orleans Saints players and coaches were found to be operating a financial pool that rewarded hits and injuries on opposing players, resulted in some of the most severe sanctions in NFL history and got Saints head coach Sean Payton suspended from the league for a year. The main character condoning a hit list against his opponents feels like a weird jumping off point for a kid’s movie, but nevertheless, here we are. For the most part, Home Team simply softens the playbook that movies in Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison Productions tree have been using for years, everything from The Longest Yard remake to The Waterboy . Basically, a main character with something to prove wins out against considerable odds. But because this is a kid’s movie, the toilet bowl humor is in balance with the lessons learned.

The Happy Madison Players are also here for bench help. Rob “You can do it!” Schneider’s Jamie, the meditation and wheat grass-loving new husband of Payton’s ex-wife Beth (who is played by Adam Sandler’s real-life wife Jackie Sandler ), gets into the act with the pivotal contribution of some awfully potent homemade energy bars. And Gary Valentine – Kevin James’s older brother, and a regular in everything from King of Queens to the Paul Blart movies – is inept Warriors assistant coach Mitch Bizone. When the new plays aren’t sticking, Payton tells Coach Troy to trust him. “I know this is like building and airplane when you’re flying it.” And Valentine’s Bizone fills in the rejoinder. “Yeah, more like crappin’ in a rainstorm when you’re buildin’ an outhouse.” In typical Happy Madison fashion, it’s also a cross-section of ancillary characters who provide a steady trickle of broad gags and snarky commentary on the primary action. There’s the front desk clerk at Payton’s Best Western Plus with a penchant for hard boiled eggs and whose only solution for a gurgling room jacuzzi is to “send up a fan.” There’s also Gus, driving the team bus, who relives his glory days on the field where he scored mad touchdowns despite severe jock itch and a cavity. Throw in a few thinly sketched parents and fart jokes, and you’ve reached the red zone for the championship game, Happy Madison-style.

Our Call: STREAM IT, but you should expect that for kids, the bits based around bodily functions in Home Team are going to ring with more truth than any lessons learned.

Will you stream or skip the sports comedy #HomeTeam on @netflix ? #SIOSI — Decider (@decider) January 29, 2022

Johnny Loftus is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift. Follow him on Twitter: @glennganges

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Home Team Movie Review: A moderately entertaining sports drama that whitewashes the bigger issue

Rating: ( 2.5 / 5).

Sports dramas usually come with a certain dose of predictability. It's mostly either the journey of an underdog or an inspiring tale of a person/team hitting rock bottom and then peaking dramatically. Netflix's Home Team is an interesting mix of both. In fact, it has quite a few similarities to the Indian classic Chak De India , which is arguably a benchmark film in this genre. Unlike the goosebump-inducing Shah Rukh Khan film, Home Team is comfortable being a light-hearted comedy. While all the warmth and comfort emanating from the film is good, one can't really shake off the fact that Home Team is based on a true scandal, which conveniently gets swept under the blanket.

Director: Charles Kinnane and Daniel Kinnane

Streaming on: Netflix

Home Team  is based on the real-life story of New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton, and the core narrative kicks off with him being suspended by America's National Football League (NFL) following his involvement in a scandal. Once Payton (Kevin James) is ousted from the NFL, he returns to his now-estranged family.

During his desperate visits to try and bond with his son (Tait Blum), Payton observes that his son's football team, Argyle Warriors, is in a state of disarray. He realises that the kids have potential but lack proper guidance. Payton, who is seeking redemption, personally and professionally, joins the coaching team. Initially, it looks as if it's the team that needs his help but as the narrative progresses, we understand that it was Payton who needed the team's help.

The storytelling here is simple, straightforward, and generic. It hardly breaks any new ground but yet largely works in what it's trying to achieve. Where it gets problematic is that the film doesn't get into the 'Bountygate' scandal or its intricacies. For the uninitiated, the scandal was about Payton's players being paid bonuses, or "bounties," for injuring opposition team players. However, the film hardly has a mention of what the scandal was or Payton's role in the same.

Here, the focus is more on his coming-of-age and how he redeems himself by grooming his son's team. It is about Payton learning to prioritise relationships and his realisation that it's not always about winning. At one point, he says, "you play football for fun and fun comes from winning" but as the film wraps up we see how this theory is turned upside down.

It is quite clear that the makers didn't want to delve into the scandal angle. But even then, one cannot help but wish that the writing (Chris Titone, Keith Blum) explored more of Payton's personal side. He seems hardly bothered about the controversy. Although it was his longing to get closer to his son that made Payton take up the coaching offer, we don't really get to see any father-son bonding off the field. It's mostly a showreel for Payton, the genius coach.

Home Team  could've been so much more, but it seems like its makers, Charles Kinnane and Daniel Kinnane, were content with it being just a comforting sports film about a bunch of kids and their new coach.

For what it is, the film is entertaining and does spread a few smiles, but the whitewashing definitely leaves a sour aftertaste.

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Home Team Movie Review: A True Story About Sean Payton’s Greatest Season

January 28, 2022 By Ashley Leave a Comment

An underdog sports movie, Home Team  tells the true story of former New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton's greatest season. It does it all while gracefully sidestepping the real reason Payton had the time to help his son's team reach the championship. 

Home Team Movie Review

Home Team begins when Sean Payton (Kevin James) the head coach of the New Orleans Saints decides to return to his hometown after being suspended from the NFL due to the “bountygate” scandal. There, he attempts to reconnect with his 12-year-old son Connor (Tait Blum) by becoming an assistant coach of his football team, the Warriors. His presence helps the team's coach Troy Lambert (Taylor Lautner) rally the ragtag group of kids and turn them into championship material. But along the way Payton learns that having a relationship with his son is more important than any Super Bowl win.    

Although it plays out like your typical underdog sports outing, Home Team  is still worth watching even if you are not a Saints fan. It is a Waterboy- like story- a terrible team rallies together and turns it around all while someone tells them from the stands (and the sidelines) that they can do it. This one is something families can sit down and enjoy together while they wait for the big game in February. 

RELATED: Interview: Kevin James Talks Home Team and Sean Payton

James gets to play the straight guy while the supporting cast of kids and adults deliver the laughs. It was interesting to watch him play this side of the field but it worked well, as he grounded the comedy with his sighs and grunts. Those familiar with the real Payton, will appreciate James' take. Knowing he worked with Payton to learn about this greatest season of his career makes the portrayal even more believable. 

It is also apparent that directors Charles and Daniel Kinnane let the kids be themselves. The various scenes where the team comes together to play, practice, and hangout feel authentic, clearly this group had a good time on screen and off screen. Rob Schneider's Jamie, a zen-like reminder of his character Townie, plays the step-father to Connor and the cheerleader for the team. He does not say “You can do it” but he does hold up a sign that the adults will instantly recognize as a nod to that infamous line.

As far as camerawork goes, the games were shot well and added to the suspense of who is going to win and will the Warriors ever make it to the championship? Of course we know they will but it is always nice to feel as if there are some stakes even when the plot is predictable. However, there is one scene everyone could do without and honestly felt unnecessary, the puking. It is gross to watch and if you also hate being around even the thought of vomit, it is equally difficult to sit through. Maybe this happened in real life, maybe not, but regardless it did not need to have so much screen time.  

For those unfamiliar with “Bountygate,” Home Team is not the place to learn about it. The film itself gracefully sidesteps addressing the issue beyond a brief snippet from the news and Payton getting a call from the commissioner of the NFL telling him he was suspended. Essentially, several members of the New Orleans Saints were accused of paying out bonuses for injuring opposing team players and Payton was suspended for an entire season once it came to light. The film itself offers no opinion on the scandal and chooses to focus instead on Payton as a father whose only goal is to strengthen his relationship with his son which he accomplishes by using his coaching skills to help Connor's team.  

Some may grumble about this decision but truthfully, the implications and impact of the scandal truly have no place in this film. Home Team is meant to be a family-friendly outing that reinforces the lesson that anyone can be a champion if they work hard and believe in themselves. It is not here to be a documentary. The only major complaint here is that the father-son dynamic took a backseat to the team winning storyline. Perhaps with a slightly longer runtime they would have had time to flesh out their relationship more. Instead it is featured in only a few conversations between Payton and Connor. 

Home Team is about a bunch of tween underdogs who finally learn to be a team thanks to a Super Bowl winning coach and a father realizes his greatest accomplishments have nothing to do with the Vince Lombardi trophy or the National Football League. It is not the most groundbreaking sports movie ever, but it does deliver a family-friendly fare that will especially entertain the young football fan in your home. 

Home Team is rated PG for crude material, language and some suggestive references with a runtime of 95 minutes.

KEEP READING: Mixtape Review: A Musical Love Letter to Millennials

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• Home Team is a true story but takes liberties with certain elements of the Bountygate scandal, causing controversy among viewers.
• Sean Payton actually coached his son's middle school football team during his suspension from the NFL.
• The movie features real Saints plays that were used by the Liberty Christian Warriors but simplified for 12-year-olds.

Those who watched the Netflix sports comedy have wondered, "Is Home Team a true story?" The answer is yes but with all true story films, the movie made certain changes to heighten the drama and improve the narrative flow. That said, some of the things that remain true about the movie may be surprising to some viewers. Home Team follows the events immediately after the 2012 season suspension of New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton (Kevin James). This was due to the scandal known as " Bountygate," in which Saints players allegedly received bounties to purposefully injure opposing players.

The injured players included Minnesota Vikings star veteran Brett Favre and Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner. This scandal is why Sean Payton's net worth has been a hot topic among NFL fans. However, while these real figures in the Home Team true story play a central part in the story, there are elements to the drama that take liberties with the truth. The Home Team movie focuses on Sean Payton and his too-good-to-be-true story before he was brought back onto the Saints in the 2013 season.

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Home Team's Take On The Bountygate Scandal Caused Controversy

Being the first NFL head coach to ever be suspended for any reason, some believe Home Team glosses over the controversial Bountygate scandal too lightly. However, of all coaches to have serious scandals tarnish their career, like the " Spygate " and " Deflategate " scandals against Bill Belichick's New England Patriots, Payton had an especially unusual off-coaching story. For instance, while not being allowed to coach NFL football during his suspension, Payton returned to his family in Argyle, Texas, and coached his son's middle school football team, the Liberty Christian Warriors.

The all-star cast of Home Team portrays real people and events. However, it's easy to believe the film is more fiction than fact, as it plays fast and loose with certain elements of the Bountygate scandal, causing a fair amount of controversy. There are also non-Bountygate moments that were fictionalized. One example is that the entire football team didn't start collectively vomiting on the field after eating homemade " Super Logs." Nonetheless, there are plenty of shocking events from the Home Team true story that made the movie that deal with the present-day lives of the real main characters.

True - Yes, Sean Payton Really Did Coach His Son's Team

Lots of kids in football can claim that their dad is one of the coaches - but it's much less common for the coach to be a bonafide NFL celebrity. However, in this case, young Connor Payton benefited both from a familial bond and some genuinely world-class coaching. Although the Bountygate scandal alone merits the Home Team movie a " true story" credit, the scarcely believable middle school football coaching connection makes much of the movie a genuinely true story, as opposed to something just loosely based on a true story.

Change - Ex-Wife's Husband and Coach Troy Lambert

Beth Shuey did remarry to a man named Jamie, but no evidence indicates that he's anything like Rob Schneider's man bun-flaunting, transcendental meditating character. More notably, Payton and Shuey filed for divorce in June 2012, which was during Payton's suspension and when the Home Team movie takes place. The divorce wasn't finalized until 2014. Therefore, she wouldn't have been remarried during the movie's events. Rob Schneider is a longtime Adam Sandler collaborator , having worked on such Happy Madison movies as Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo and Grown Ups , so this was a way to get him in the movie.

Another notable character change for the Home Team movie is Taylor Lautner's Coach Troy Lambert. Lautner's character is greatly inspired by Brennan Hardy, who coached the Warriors during the 2012 season with Payton while he was studying at Texas Christian University. On the other hand, there's no proof of Gary Valentine's Coach Mitch Bizone being inspired by any real-life Warriors coach. With the character's dependency to " coach juice," one can only hope.

True - Using Simplified Saints Plays For Son's Team

The Saints won the Super Bowl in 2009 with Sean Payton, which is all the more understandable that the kids in the movie are as excited as they are to receive real Saints' playbook plays from their offensive coordinator. Even better is the fact that this is something that Coach Payton really did. If other football movies and shows like Friday Night Lights prove anything, it's the fact that football is king in Texas. Not only did the Warriors have Sean Payton's kid on their team to brag about, but they also used real Saints plays on the field - albeit, plays simplified for 12-year-olds to understand and remember.

Change - The Warriors Weren't As Bad As The Movie Makes Them

Movies need a conflict, which isn't provided with a dominating football team. In the Home Team movie, the Warriors celebrated for just putting something on the scoreboard with a "We got a touchdown" chant that reverberates throughout the film. When Coach Payton arrives on the team, single-touchdown games turn into full-on wins that lead to a championship with the formidable Porcupines. It's a classic underdog story that's seen in sports movies as varied as Miracle and Remember the Titans to Little Giants and The Mighty Ducks .

The real Liberty Christian Warriors weren't actually struggling that much. They were a pretty decent team, starting their season with a 30-0 win, but Sean Payton's arrival caused them to improve dramatically. The team in the Home Team movie regularly shut the scoreboard off, which is something that really does happen in middle school football after a certain amount of points.

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Change - Contacting Coach Bill Parcells, Not Bill Cowher For Porcupines Game Help

In what appears to be a comedic gag in the Home Team movie, Sean Payton calls former Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Bill Cowher to help him with an old formation called a " single-wing" used by the rival Springtown Porcupines. The Porcupines were a real team that played against the otherwise undefeated Warriors in the championship game, and Sean Payton actually called up a former head coach for help. Also in real life, the Warriors narrowly lost the championship to the Porcupines.

Sandler-produced movies aren't averse to using celebrity cameos for laughs, with pro golfer Lee Trevino in Happy Gilmore being a classic example. However, Cowher's cameo is used to represent Bill Parcells, Payton's mentor and the former head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, New York Jets, New England Patriots, and New York Giants. Considering that Parcells is 80 years old and hasn't worked since 2010, he was probably not up for the Home Team movie cameo . Bill Cowher, however, is still working and is a football analyst for CBS Sports' NFL Today.

Change - Sean Payton's Daughter Isn't In The Film

The Home Team movie shows Sean Payton returning to his ex-wife and son, played by Jackie Sandler and Tait Blum, respectively. Missing from the picture, however, is Payton's daughter Meghan. True story portrayals sometimes remove characters if they're not relevant to the narrative. At 24 years of age, Meghan Payton is a sports reporter based out of Los Angeles for Chat Sports. She didn't fit into the fictional version of the Home Team true story, so she ended up omitted completely.

Now - Sean Payton Is Back Coaching NFL Football

While Kevin James wants to join the Twi-Dads fan club after working with Twilight 's Taylor Lautner, the real-life Sean Payton announced on January 25, 2022, that was he done as the Saints head coach. Payton wanted to avoid the word retirement, and he joked that he had a retirement pact with Kevin James that suggested he'd retire when the movie came out to boost promotion. That lasted for one year. He worked as a sports analyst for Fox, but when the season ended, Payton returned to the NFL. He became the new head coach of the Denver Broncos, though he's already made some comments that many found controversial.

Now - What Connor Payton Is Doing Today

Connor Payton is now 21 years old. Not much is made public about his life, but after high school, he attended Texas Christian University (TCU) in Fort Worth, Texas, where he graduated in 2023 with a Bachelor's degree in Communication and Media Studies. He never followed his dad's footsteps into the NFL.

What’s Sean Payton’s Net Worth?

Sean Payton, who appears in the Home Team movie as Lionel the janitor , has an estimated net worth of over $24 million, which is based on his former role as the head coach of the New Orleans Saints, a contract that reportedly saw Payton earning around $13 million per year. Indeed, this is a conservative estimate as Payton terminated his New Orleans Saints contract even though it was slated to last until 2024. However, the Denver Broncos hired him as their new head coach in 2023, which saw them send a first and second-round pick to the Saints for his rights, and the Broncos acquired his contract.

As for his new contract, this will add a lot of money to Payton's net worth. The $24 million will go up exponentially because Denver is paying him around $18 million a year, making him the second-highest-paid coach in all of American sports, behind only Bill Belichick of the New England Patriots (via Sports Illustrated ). The contract is also a five-year deal, which would total out to $90 million by the time it is finished.

How Kevin James Became Sean Payton - In His Own Words

King of Queens and Grownups actor Kevin James stars as the real-life figure Sean Payton in the Home Team real story movie. According to The Ringer , Kevin James was completely unaware of the Bountygate scandal and Payton's involvement, despite being a lifelong Jets fan, until being asked to play Payton in the Home Team movie. Luckily Payton himself was on board with the movie, something that James refused to take part in if he wasn't. Payton and James met up a handful of times in New Orleans before filming the Netflix movie, where the actor got to see the drafting process in real-time at the Saints facility.

According to James, the actor had to wear a hairpiece so he "looked like Sean" and spent time focusing on the coach's mannerisms. For James, the hardest part of Sean Payton's character to nail down was the accent, with James commenting, "The accent was the toughest because it’s all over the place. There’s definitely a little drawl there, but it comes in and out, and it’s just hard to pinpoint where he is exactly from." The physical transformation that Kevin James had to go through to portray Sean Payton in the Home Team movie may not have been all that drastic, but it was hard work nonetheless.

• Home Team (2022)

‘Home Team’ Review: Kevin James Turns Around a Sixth-Grade Football Team’s Fortunes in a Stale Family Comedy

This forgettable Netflix filler oddly grafts details of NFL coach Sean Payton's life onto a wholesale knockoff of 'The Bad News Bears.'

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For a few minutes at the very outset, “ Home Team ” threatens to be more interesting than it looks. Announcing itself in the opening credits as based on a true story, Charles and Daniel Kinnane ‘s film opens on the New Orleans Saints’ victory in the 2010 Super Bowl — an unlikely triumph for coach Sean Payton that was tainted two years later by his suspension over the Bountygate scandal, which saw the Saints accused of paying out bonuses to injure rival players. It’s a morally murky context in which to introduce the protagonist of a family-friendly sports comedy, and you may initially be intrigued to see how “Home Team” resolves it — until it becomes quite clear that the answer is by ignoring it almost entirely. Instead, Payton’s fall from grace is merely the pretext for a shameless riff on the “Bad News Bears” formula, in which the coach returns home to train his 12-year-old son’s team instead, lessons are learned, and winning turns out not to be everything.

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Well, that’s to be expected. As yet another product of Netflix ‘s ongoing collaboration with Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison production outfit, “Home Team” — which shares a title but nothing else with Payton’s autobiography, written before Bountygate — aims for easy cheer with minimal complexity, and as such, young viewers with at least a passing interest in American football should find it perfectly serviceable. (The rest of us have to surmount an awful lot of poring over playbooks.) With Sandler staying behind the camera on this occasion (though a number of his family members fill supporting roles), Kevin James is at once the film’s most obvious brand signifier and its most surprising asset: As a heavily fictionalized Payton, his surly hangdog energy gives this corndog of a movie what flavor it has.

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After breezing swiftly through the circumstances of Payton’s suspension from NFL coaching for an entire season — and establishing his high-powered douchebag credentials via his dismissive treatment of wide-eyed PA Emily (Chloe Fineman) — the film sends him packing back to the small town of Argyle, Texas, where his ex-wife Beth (Jackie Sandler) lives with his estranged son Connor (the promising Tait Blum). That Connor himself plays football is essentially the last link the embittered kid has to his long-absent dad, though no NFL glory has rubbed off onto his failing sixth-grade team, the Liberty Christian Warriors. When Payton turns up to watch a game from the bleachers, a mortified Connor looks away while the rest of the town turns to gawk at the tarnished celebrity in their midst.

Among the admirers is the Warriors’ dedicated but dispirited coach Troy Lambert ( Taylor Lautner ), desperate to enlist Payton’s expertise to improve the fortunes of a ragtag team that hasn’t scored so much as a touchdown all season. Spying a chance to make amends with his son, the big man reluctantly agrees to serve as the boys’ defensive coordinator. Once his new plays and tactics start yielding improved results, it’s not long before the initially retiring Payton starts muscling in on Lambert’s authority with a more adult, aggressive coaching style — repeatedly benching weaker players and running the stronger ones ragged. Against all odds, the Warriors suddenly become viable contenders for the North Texas championship, but at what cost to the kids’ morale and teamsmanship?

Nobody’s who’s seen practically any underdog sports film from the last half-century will be surprised by where “Home Team” ultimately lands on this, but even so, it’s striking just how blatantly the film cribs the final play of “The Bad News Bears” — down to its “everybody plays” moral. It’s a good moral, after all, and it makes for a more satisfying narrative than Payton’s real-life coaching of the Warriors over a season that was marked by more victory than defeat.

It just doesn’t feel especially heartfelt in the context of a film that mostly plays as a checklist of scenes and tropes required from a Sandler-backed sports comedy, from half-hearted background pratfalls to extraneous comic-relief sideshows (Rob Schneider is notably unfunny as Connor’s new-agey beta-male stepdad) to at least one elaborate gross-out setpiece, where the Warriors lurch to victory amid a collective case of food poisoning. As for any less expected aspects of the story, they are swiftly waved away in Chris Titone and Keith Blum’s connect-the-dots screenplay — as when Connor point-blank asks his dad about the scandal that got him suspended. “It’s complicated,” Payton shrugs, before muttering some platitude about taking responsibility no matter what, and that’s about the end of that. Perky to the last, “Home Team” shows that there’s something to be said for winning, losing and even tying. Complication, however, is not in its playbook.

Reviewed online, Jan. 28, 2022. Running time: 95 MIN.

• Production: A Netflix presentation of a Happy Madison, Hey Eddie production. Producers: Adam Sandler, Kevin Grady, Allen Covert, Kevin James, Jeff Lowell, Jeff Sussman. Executive producers: Barry Bernardi, Todd Lewis, Judit Maull. Co-producers: Chris Titone, Joseph Vecsey, David Bernstein, Eli Thomas.
• Crew: Directors: Charles Kinnane, Daniel Kinnane. Screenplay: Chris Titone, Keith Blum. Camera: Seamus Tierney. Editors: Tom Costain, Brian Robinson, Scott Hill. Music: Rupert Gregson-Williams.
• With: Kevin James, Taylor Lautney, Tait Blum, Jackie Sandler, Rob Schneider, Gary Valentine, Chloe Fineman, Lavell Crawford, Manny Magnus, Isaiah Mustafa, Jacob Perez, Maxwell Simkins, Bryant Tardy, Jared Sandler.

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Home » Movies » Movie Reviews

Home Team review – it’s The Waterboy without the charm or Henry Winkler

This review of the Netflix film Home Team does not contain spoilers. 

Only an Adam Sandler production can take Bounty Gate and make the well-documented situation into a children’s comedy. Even worse, the entire script brushes over the subject as if it was a misunderstanding. Home Team is very loosely based on, even if it’s inspired by, a true story. It’s a comedy with zero laughs because it has absolutely no jokes. It plays out like a lame character study without any direction when you combine a total lack of discernible plot. This is like taking Koyla (1996) and watering it down into Big Daddy (oh) . That film is a classic compared to this.

The film’s subject is Sean Payton (played here by Kevin James), the Super Bowl-winning head coach of the New Orleans Saints. He was suspended for a year, and his defensive coordinator Greg Williams paid bonuses to injure opposing teams’ players. Payton heads home to Texas to see his son, who he hasn’t seen in a while. He arrives, wearing a Saints t-shirt, and checks into a hotel with a talking jacuzzi. (Not a long story, but not worth explaining). He ends up helping coach his son’s 12-year old squad as the team’s offensive coordinator. 

The film is filled with cardboard cutouts and actors from previous Sandler comedies. You have Payton’s ex-wife (Jackie Sandler), who is thrilled he is in town. She is remarried to Jamie (Rob Schneider), a hippy-vegan living off Payton’s money. He feeds a team’s snacks that cause a Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life stomach-turning scene. I’m sure kids will find this the funniest scene ever. It is time-tested but has been done a thousand times since that classic above.

James’s brother, Gary Valentine, plays a dull version of Farmer Fran. Sandler regular Taylor Lautner is the kid’s head coach and walks through the role. Even Allen Covert makes an appearance. The whole thing makes you long for the days of Peter Dante and Jonathan Loughran. Even the return of “tit-head” from Little Nicky.

Directed by Charles and Daniel Kinnane, the duo has done a handful of short films with James. Here, working with a script from Keith Blum and Chris Titone (another Sandler alum), the whole thing is uninspired and lazy. Even forget that they don’t offer a story of redemption for the scandal. That’s debatable. This so-called comedy fails to provide a redeemable story arc for Payton, which is sorely needed because he is such an absentee father in the first place. 

Yes, the primary theme is Payton discovering the joy of football again and reconnecting with his family. That is intentional. What is unintentional is revealing what a poor father he is. There is a scene where it is revealed his son has not only has never been to a game in New Orleans that his father was coaching, but he has never been to the Big Easy, even for a visit. 

However, that is all besides the point. These situations are embellished for effect to manipulate the audience. The fact of the matter is Home Team lacks any comic identity, for better or worse. It’s The Waterboy without the charm and Sandler alums with jokes to play with.

Where is Henry Winkler when you need him?

What did you think of the Netflix film Home Team? Comment below!

You can watch this film with a subscription to Netflix. 

Article by Marc Miller

Marc Miller (also known as M.N. Miller) joined Ready Steady Cut in April 2018 as a Film and TV Critic, publishing over 1,600 articles on the website. Since a young age, Marc dreamed of becoming a legitimate critic and having that famous “Rotten Tomato” approved status – in 2023, he achieved that status.

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Kevin James’ turn as controversial football coach Sean Payton blocks its punt through shallow storytelling and its frankly loathsome protagonist.

The 2012 Bountygate scandal  pushed New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton toward his son, as he spent the season he was suspended from the NFL on the sidelines of a sixth-grade football team. Briefly: “Bountygate” sprung out of a system that Payton, his assistant Head Coach, the Saints’ former defensive coordinator, and the team’s General Manager put into practice that paid players bonuses for injuring key members of opposing teams on the field.  Unfortunately, this is the true story at the heart of  Home Team , a trite  Kevin James  vehicle depicting the public suspension of Payton just two years after the Saints victory at Super Bowl XLIV. This isn’t a rise and fall story. It’s a continuous landslide, 95 minutes that reaffirm Payton as an unsupportive father, a way-too-intense football coach, and an all-around negative person to be around.  

A Happy Madison production starring James, Taylor Lautner as the sixth-grade head coach, Jackie Sandler as his ex-wife, and Rob Schneider as her vegan hippie of a husband,  Home Team  represents the worst pages of comedy’s playbook. Puking gags and vegan jokes fumble for laughs. Moreover, the cinematic Payton is not a flattering take on the man; he’s a selfish egomaniac. Given that Payton was involved enough in the project to make a small, strange cameo, the picture is as baffling as it is sour.

In  Home Team ’s   telling, Payton travels to Texas to see his 12-year-old son, who he hasn’t seen in years, in the wake of his suspension. He stays at a cheap local hotel run by an inept front desk employee. He ingratiates himself into the middle school team, becomes their offensive coordinator, and then their pseudo head coach, ultimately leading the kids to the championship game. There’s nothing inspirational or joyful in this accomplishment though. Payton rides his son and the team’s other best player. He benches other kids, yells at the team to sprint laps, and sidelines the other two coaches—one of whom has a severe and glossed-over drinking problem.  

Indeed, Payton seems most helpful when he’s hundreds of miles away and focused on yelling at grown men instead of middle schoolers, while his ex-wife’s new beau takes the kids to get vegan ice cream (which is better tasting than writers  Chris Titone  and  Keith Blum  think it is).  

Home Team  raises several questions. Does Kevin James look like Sean Payton? Maybe if the audience is squinting. Does Sean Payton wear a headband every single day? Apparently, yes. Can someone who paid his players to deliberately hurt others be considered inspirational? Be considered a hero? Definitely, not.  

The picture’s rare fragments of sweetness are found in the moments where the young actors fill up the screen. When singing a song to one player’s crush, the team comes together to support their friend. It’s one of the only times they look happy in the film and smiles flash across their otherwise resigned faces. These kids are playing football for all sorts of reasons, most of which aren’t related to their love of the sport. They’re more joyous when they get to lose as a team than they are winning individually under the tutelage of Payton. They’re playing to spend time with their friends, to appease their parents, to stay in shape. The championship is far, far less important to the players than it is to the movie. 

James takes a serviceable stab at nuance and dramatic work, but the dire material he’s working with does him no favors. The rest of the cast doesn’t get the development or dialogue necessary for the audience to build meaningful connections with their characters, stranding them in acting purgatory. Home Team fails to choose between its comedic aspects, its dramatic aspects, or a hybrid thereof. Kevin James has done funny work before, and football can be a rich source of dramatic material. Since the picture lacks a decent pregame or halftime speech, it instead tries to draw positivity from Payton’s decisions late in the picture, as he accepts that he’s a parent coaching his kid’s football team, not the head coach of a Super Bowl-winning professional organization. This ultimately leaves it a crummier version   of Will Ferrell’s  Kicking & Screaming , another sports misfire that at least boasted some genuine laughs.  

Directors Charles and Daniel Kinnane have made a film that evaporates from the mind even as it’s running, a paint-by-numbers family sports comedy that boasts neither the family nor the comedy. At the very least it isn’t dragged out. Charles and Kinnane zoom through games at a rapid speed, leaving the team’s wins told more than shown. With that said,  Home Team  ultimately succeeds more in tarnishing (unintentionally or otherwise) its protagonist’s reputation than in rehabilitating it. There is no soaring victory to be had here, no reason to break out the  Explosions in the Sky  tracks. Just bad jokes and baffling storytelling decisions. 

Home Team is now available on Netflix.

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• New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton coaches his son's 6th-grade football team while he is being suspended for the entire 2012 season as a result of his role in the Saints' Bountygate scandal.
• Two years after a Super Bowl win, a scandal, and a suspension, New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton returns to his hometown and tries to reconnect with his 12-year-old son by coaching his Pop Warner football team. Payton was suspended in 2012 for his role in the team's Bountygate scandal where bounties were allegedly being paid to players who would try to injure players from the opposing team.

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Home Team Parent Guide

The movie is a cliche, but it's a cliche with some budget behind it..

Disney+: After being suspended from the NFL, Coach Sean Payton decides to coach his son's 6th grade football team.

Release date January 28, 2022

Run Time: 95 minutes

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The guide to our grades, parent movie review by savannah sillito.

Suspended from the NFL in 20012 because of a scandal, Coach Sean Payton (Kevin James) is trying to figure out what to do with his life. With nothing else to do, he heads to Argyle, Texas, where his ex-wife and son live. While there, Sean becomes a coach for his son’s (Tait Blum) football team.

Have you ever seen a sports movie? It doesn’t even have to be a football movie, just any sport. If so, you’ve seen this one. This whole film is a cliché, from the characters to the story. You know exactly what’s going to happen, what the conflict is going to be, and what the ending is - all within the first five minutes. That said, Home Team is not poorly made. Yes, it’s a cliché, but it’s a cliché with some budget behind it. The acting is good, the production values are relatively high, and the story, though predictable, has some heart to it. One of the biggest disappointments, however, is a distinct lack of actual humor, though the writers do try to make up for that with its wide array of potty and vomit jokes. The boys are all around 11 years old, so I guess the writers wanted to try to appeal to that age demographic and their sense of humor.

My main concern from a content standpoint is the swearing. At over a dozen curse words, there’s too much here for me to recommend this for family viewing. On top of that there’s a running joke about a man being an alcoholic, which is a bit concerning. If you really like sports films, especially football underdog stories, you might enjoy Home Team. But for everyone else, and especially young audiences, it’s a fumble.

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Savannah sillito, watch the trailer for home team.

Home Team Rating & Content Info

Why is Home Team rated PG? Home Team is rated PG by the MPAA for crude material, language and some suggestive references.

Violence: There are lots of football tackles and hits of varying degrees. A man kicks at another man. Sexual Content: There are a few moments of mild innuendo. Profanity: There are about 10 mild profanities as well as six terms of deity. Alcohol / Drug Use: There’s a running joke about a man being an alcoholic, though that word is never used. A scene takes place in a bar where two men talk over drinks. A woman offers a man wine and drinks some herself.

Page last updated May 31, 2022

Home Team Parents' Guide

How does Connor feel about his dad coming back? How does their relationship change over the course of the movie?

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For more real-life underdog football flicks you can watch Rudy , Remember the Titans , American Underdog , and When the Game Stands Tall .

RETRO REVIEW: Spider-Man: No Way Home Is a Marvelous Must-See for Tom Holland & Spidey Fans

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Spider-Man: No Way Home opens exactly where the previous movie, Spider-Man: Far From Home, ended. Specifically, the mid-credits sequence where Peter Parker (Tom Holland) was publicly unmasked. Now exposed to public scorn and forced to make his loved ones forget who he is, this threequel unpacks the webslinger's cinematic legacy and introduces a volatile multiverse. Spider-Man: No Way Home is a master stroke that echoes the invention of Avengers: Endgame and allows Holland to step up, aided by his brothers in Sony-sized spandex, Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield. Unfortunately, with three times the responsibility comes three times the villainy. Cue the arrival of five fearsome foes who hunt down the three Spider-Men across the movie.

With a roll call of acting royalty including Willem Dafoe (Norman Osborn aka The Green Goblin), Alfred Molina (Doctor Otto Octavius aka Doc Ock) and Jamie Foxx (Max Dillon aka Electro) on screen, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) had every intention of making a landmark movie like no other with Holland's third solo outing. That this marks the moment Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) makes his first post-Netflix appearance on MCU soil is also important, because it’s a crossover fans never thought would or could happen. After the cancelation of Daredevil on Netflix, which featured some of the best casting in superhero history, this moment is almost worth the admission price on its own. However, Spider-Man: No Way Home never made it to a billion-dollar box office off the back of one cameo, so the question is what else does it have to offer?

Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield & Tom Holland Are an Unstoppable Force

Marvel's three spider-men made fan's wildest dreams a reality, no way home's legendary guest stars helped shape the epic spider-man team-up.

Spider-Man: No Way Home screenwriter Chris McKenna reveals how the film's guest stars had significant input on their characters’ storylines.

Honestly, audiences were only ever there to watch Spider-Man: No Way Home for that team-up. Then and now, fans hunkered down in cinemas to see Holland, Garfield, and Maguire slip back into character and make the movie really rock. Some were understandably worried that the third part of Holland's MCU series would be an overhyped disappointment that only relied on nostalgia. Thankfully, the movie exceeded all expectations, as all three Peter Parkers instantly gelled and seemed to revel in this rarest of opportunities.

It may take some time to pay off, but there is no doubt that having the back-up of two seasoned actors and previous Spider-Men onboard helped Holland up his game. With two Oscar nominations for Hacksaw Ridge and Tick, Tick, Boom under his belt since he last slipped into spandex, Garfield eagerly embraced his inner Spider-Man again, giving this threequel some extra juice. Maguire also pulled off his return with ease, relishing in the camaraderie of other actors across multiple scenes. Giving these actors an opportunity to interact created a unique dynamic where they forged a brotherly bond and built a cinematic bridge between different generations of Spider-Man movies. Spider-Man: No Way Home's multiversal crossover wasn't just a savvy storytelling technique that bumped up its box office numbers, but a recognition of a shared legacy between the stars and movie-goers as well.

In retrospect, Maguire remains the most impressive Spider-Man since his legacy as the first cinematic wall-crawler adds perspective. Two decades on, with the most iconic villains in his back catalog, Maguire clearly saw this as a chance to remind audiences how good he could be. Looking back, Garfield might have lacked the same level of onscreen villainy, but no one had more of a point to prove, even with two Oscar nominations in his rearview mirror.

Having been rudely re-cast without a conversation after The Amazing Spider-Man 2's lukewarm performance that was in no way Garfield's fault, being invited back must have felt like a serious case of karma and an opportunity for closure. On the evidence of his turn in Spider-Man: No Way Home , Garfield clearly had some unfinished business with Peter. In fact, this film might be the reason both Garfield and Maguire are rumored to be back for spin-off films in a separate Sony universe. But as amazing as it was to see Maguire and Garfield reprise their roles, Holland is still the Spider-Man who pushed this film to its billion-dollar box office take and will undoubtedly get audiences back in cinemas, both for this movie and his highly-anticipated MCU return in Phase 6.

Green Goblin & Doc Ock Made Their Mark on the MCU’s Multiverse

Only two of the movie’s six villains left a lasting impact on peter parker’s life, every spider-man movie villain teased in no way home - and why they're back.

The Spider-Man: No Way Home trailer confirms Alfred Molina's Doc Ock for the movie while also teasing several other familiar super-villains.

Not only did the MCU stack the deck with three generational Spider-Men, but for Holland’s next outing as Peter, they upped the ante in other ways. In particular, bringing back iconic villains for a battle royale that the MCU web-slinger could never hope to survive on his own. Not only that, their arrival hit him and audiences like a sledgehammer, testing the hero's mettle and that of his soulmates in spandex. Cue the returns of The Green Goblin and Doc Ock from Sam Raimi's original Spider-Man trilogy. Both conflicted men pulled into Peter’s world on a cosmic whim looking for payback with their respective Spider-Man, this might be the most inspired move writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers pulled off, since both Osborn and Octavious challenged this MCU Peter in different but integral ways.

For Dafoe, an opportunity to come back and play a different side of Osborn and the Green Goblin was a no-brainer. Switching seamlessly between personas and eliciting both empathy and apathy all the while, Dafoe went for broke in bringing this legendary supervillain back from the dead. Having been pulled in from a different dimension, his disarming puppy dog persona sidesteps expectations. At least that was before the Goblin resurfaced and systematically tore Peter's life apart piece by piece, leaving the young hero holding his beloved Aunt May’s bloodied body. This savage attack edged Spider-Man: No Way Home into darkness and compromised the MCU Peter, fuelling a bloody vendetta and almost pushing him to breaking point.

On the flipside was Doc Ock, who started out as a mentor and friend to his Peter in Spider-Man 2 . Having suffered a similar fate to Osborn (namely dying shortly after snapping out of his super villainy), he was also a man out of time filled with rage looking for an outlet. Molina may play second fiddle to Dafoe, but there is no denying his acting abilities as he conveys Doc Ock's irrational anger or his levels of humility when he experiences this movie's most powerful cathartic moment. Seeing Doc Ock reconnect with his Peter after all these years adds both an unexpected degree of pathos and heartfelt nostalgic to this franchise for diehard fans.

Unfortunately, Spider-Man: No Way Home failed to offer the other villains the same courtesy or screentime. Rhy Ifans (The Lizard from The Amazing Spider-Man ) was given little to do and ended up feeling like an afterthought rather than a genuine threat. Thomas Haden Church suffered a similar fate as Flint Marko (aka the Sandman) from Spider-Man 3 . Jamie Foxx returns as Max Dillon (Electro from The Amazing Spider-Man 2 ) and clearly had some fun, but he still ended up feeling like a third wheel. The fact that a drunk Eddie Brock's and Venom's (Tom Hardy) goofy cameo in the mid-credits scene is better remembered than anything The Lizard, Sandman and Electro did says it all. Thankfully, with the emotional one-two sucker punch of a truly heroic sacrifice made by the MCU's Peter in its final minutes, Spider-Man: No Way Home more than makes up for these shortcomings.

Spider-Man: No Way Home Is a Defining Moment for Tom Holland & the MCU

Tom holland hits another home run in his third solo spider-man movie, why spider-man: no way home still holds up - after all the hype.

Spider-Man: No Way Home was a smash hit thanks to the months of speculation about returning characters. But the film is about more than just cameos.

These days, Spider-Man: No Way Home is often unfairly and reductively dismissed for having too many camoes and prioritizing the MCU multiverse. This might have been the movie that prominently featured Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and re-introduced Daredevil, but it's also one of the strongest entries in Phase 4. Released in 2021 between Eternals and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness , Spider-Man: No Way Home remains an impressive movie and piece of superhero storytelling. The combination of top tier villainy, interdimensional Spider-Men, and Peter's gut-wrenching losses deliver one of the most satisfying finales since Avengers: Endgame . The case could even be made for it being one of the best Spider-Man movies to date.

Holland may be taking a break from the big screen by portraying Romeo in the latest stage adaptation of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet , but his career and future with Marvel are assured. Having been the best thing in all three movies, which already had some serious talent involved, Holland redefined Spider-Man for a new generation and made the beloved hero his own. He did this not only by reintroducing younger audiences to his cinematic contemporaries in Maguire and Garfield, but by making sure that his MCU record remains unblemished.

For those still hesitating about that trip to the multiplex for Spider-Man: No Way Home , let these words of wisdom allay any further fears. The MCU's Spider-Man remains one of the most crucial elements for the MCU going forward. Whispers of his involvement in Avengers: Secret Wars are rife and right now, the MCU could do with a win. Who knows, maybe Spider-Man will find his way back home after all.

Spider-Man: No Way Home is now available to own physically and digitally. The movie will return to cinemas for a limited time.

Spider-Man: No Way Home

With Spider-Man's identity now revealed, Peter asks Doctor Strange for help. When a spell goes wrong, dangerous foes from other worlds start to appear, forcing Peter to discover what it truly means to be Spider-Man.

• Tom Holland, Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield make the movie.
• Willem Dafoe and Alfred Molina deliver the goods.
• Writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers have crafted a landmark movie
• Electro, Sandman and The Lizard are short changed.

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