Guy Lodge Film CriticFor 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.
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.
Read more on variety.com