#310: Ladybugs

Release Date: March 27th, 1992

Format: Streaming (Tubi)

Written by: Curtis Burch

Directed by: Sidney J. Furie

1.5 Stars

A nostalgic childhood favorite for some, I’m sure, but Ladybugs is mostly just a lazy re-tread of The Bad News Bears (#48). 

I have no idea how this paper-thin kid’s soccer flick warranted a reported budget of $20 million. It’s a cheap, strange looking movie. Shot in the greater Denver area, every scene seems to take place during perpetual daylight in a public park or modest suburban home. I would say that Canadian director Sidney J. Furie was in the twilight of his career and just collecting a paycheck, but as of 2023, he’s still out there directing films (the man is 93-years-old).

In addition to Furie’s cheap visuals, writer Curtis Burch can’t pin down a tone. Rodney Dangerfield provides a few laughs, despite being miscast, and his co-star Jackée is fun too, but this film has a strange, sexually deviant undertone. It’s sad and weird to say this, but it might be the only remarkable thing about Ladybugs. There are multiple jokes and misunderstandings about intercourse and oral sex, a few of them involving pre-pubescent children. There is also a gratuitous slow-mo shot of an underage girl running in a two-piece bathing suit, and another scene in which the Ladybug soccer team wants to go skinning dipping in the middle of the afternoon at somebody’s house. It’s strange, borderline uncomfortable stuff to watch, despite its disarming PG-rating.             

Maybe they figured, “Hey, while we’ve got Rodney, we might as well add a bit of sexual raunch to this nice story about girls soccer.”

Weird.

Postscript: The movie is about a boy who wears a wig so he can play on a girl’s soccer team, which the movie tells us is wrong. How ironic is it that the film’s soccer scenes are littered with boy actors in bad wigs, playing the Ladybugs’ girl opponents? In one brief shot you can see a player’s pigtails falling off his head.