Little Giants (PG, 1999)

Two adult brothers living in a small town -- returning football star Kevin (Ed O'Neill) and diminutive nerd Danny (Rick Moranis) -- coach opposing pee-wee football teams. Danny's team may be filled with outcasts, but they still give Kevin's team a run for their money and teach the brothers a thing or two about family and sportsmanship.

This is a formulaic yet good-natured football yarn for those who haven't seen the story of nerds triumphing over jocks many times before. The predictable big-game showdown, the bumbling practice antics, the coach falling for one of the team moms -- these are just some of the elements lifted directly from The Mighty Ducks franchise. Inconceivably, this project required the efforts of four writers. What could they have been doing? Watching and stealing from every movie in the genre? Of course, the reason we see this formula over and again is it seems to work -- audiences eat it up.

To be fair, there are some humorous bits in the movie. The no-neck Neanderthal Spike, who only refers to himself in the third person, is fun to watch, saying things like, "Spike is going to tear you apart!" The go-cart scene one-ups the rollerblading chase from D2. And Ed O'Neill's Kevin is just nasty enough to make you really dislike him. The movie's message, even if recited by rote, is a good one: Teamwork and inclusion are important.