Let me quickly put one thing out there, and you can feel free to agree or disagree: Will Ferrell is an incredibly funny guy.

I know, he has his detractors. But, if you think about it, all the great screen comedians – the Marx Brothers, Jerry Lewis, Chevy Chase, uh, Rob Schneider – had ‘em, too, and that didn’t stop any of them (well, maybe Schneider) from still doing everything in their power to make people laugh, even if some folks just simply refused to ever find them funny. There’s an art to what guys like Ferrell do, and of everyone working in comedy today, he’s one of the most charismatic and naturally talented guys out there.

Of course, that’s just my opinion, but it’s one that I stand behind without hesitation – the still-funny SNL “cowbell” sketch and the entire movie Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy have made me laugh as hard as anything I’ve ever seen. And this week, I’m very much looking forward to catching Ferrell in Semi-Pro, which is looking more and more like an R-rated throwback to the great raunchy sports comedies of yore – a Slap Shot or Longest Yard for our generation, but with more bear-wrestling and orgy gags. Chances are it won’t live up to those classics, but if the raunchy-sports-comedy genre has taught me anything over the years, it’s that a beer-guzzling underachiever like me can dream, at least, can’t he?

One thing the film has in its favor is that Ferrell is a sports-comedy veteran by now, having taken on everything from NASCAR racing to figure skating in the last couple of years. My favorite Ferrell sports comedy, however, is a movie that had no business being as entertaining as it was: the formulaic and derivative, yet somehow still hilarious, PG soccer comedy Kicking and Screaming.

Executive produced by Judd Apatow – before he was quite the movie-comedy wunderkind he’s become – the movie wraps a pile of bad news kiddie sports comedy clichés around some choice Ferrell bits aimed squarely at his adult audience. It’s ostensibly a family film, and there is plenty in it for the elementary school set to enjoy, but its sense of humor is ruder and more in line with Ferrell’s SNL/Funny or Die-type material than you’d ever expect. And, hey, it’s got Mike Ditka in a supporting role – you can’t not love that.

Ferrell stars as a pushover family man whose father (Robert Duvall, enjoyably slumming it) is one of those hardass, uber-competitive guys who’s made life a living hell for his never-good-enough son. Ferrell’s own young son Sam (Dylan McLaughlin) warms the bench on the undefeated peewee soccer team his grandpa coaches; tired of seeing his boy suffer the same athletic humiliations his father inflicted on him, Ferrell ends up coaching Sam when he’s traded to a ragtag, last-place team.

The tykes on the team are cute enough, and cover all the usual kiddie sports flick clichés (you know, the fat kid, the diminutive Asian kid, etc.), but Kicking and Screaming is savvy in the way it shifts its focus to Ferrell, who starts out as one of those “winning isn’t everything” kind of guys, then gets nastier and more competitive as the film goes on – at one point, he even flips out on Ditka (playing himself, as Ferrell’s celebrity assistant coach) in a rant about juiceboxes that’s easily the highlight of the movie.

The plot grunts and strains under the weight of its well-worn premise – you just know Ferrell’s team and Duvall’s are going to meet up for the “big game” in act three – but it’s the unexpected edges (like the caffeine addiction Ferrell’s character develops after Ditka buys him his first-ever cup of coffee) that make it a lot more fun than it should be. I’ve got to give Duvall some props, too, since he rarely appears in anything this frivolous – unlike his Godfather co-star James Caan – but seems to have a blast playing a pompous jerk that makes his browbeating character from The Great Santini seem like a pretty easygoing guy.

If, essentially, Kicking and Screaming is nothing but a Bad News Bears remake with a wackier star and a touch more political correctness, then so be it – again, it’s funnier than it has any right to be, and works best as a vehicle for Ferrell to explore his various forms of inspired goofiness.

If you hate the guy, this isn’t the movie that’s going to warm you up to him (try Stranger Than Fiction for that), but if you feel the same way I do, the laughs are definitely there.