Good news for people who like "Bad News Bears": the year's first knockoff, "Kicking and Screaming," is a good one.

"Kicking" borrows the oft-imitated "Bad News" formula: A ragtag team of loser kids is taken over by an unlikely coach (Will Ferrell), who somehow turns them into champions. In this case, the "somehow" has to do with caffeine - the overserved Ferrell spends most of the movie with a serious java monkey on his back-and with former Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka, who signs on as Ferrell's assistant soccer coach and chief juice-box jockey.

I'm reluctant to say this because it'll make my dad mad at me, but Ditka is a hoot, gleefully making fun of his Type-AA image. "I eat quitters for breakfast and spit out their bones," he tells his 8-year-old players and their horrified parents.

The kids are also adorable but not cutesy, and Ferrell is reliably hilarious. As in the recent "Melinda and Melinda," he shows that, unlike some comics, he knows how to fit in with an ensemble without begging us to notice how funny he is.

"Kicking and Screaming" manages the difficult job of being a family comedy that will appeal equally to children and their elders. Ferrell's just-barely-adult behavior gives the movie an edge most PG films lack (the real people/outrageous situations tone is similar to "Meet the Parents"), but the language and innuendo are actually tamer than they were in the 30-year-old "Bears."