Ladybugs

Can be rented on Amazon Prime

Runtime: 1 Hour and 49 Minutes

Rated PG-13

Chester is working hard to get promoted at work to create the perfect life so he can marry his fiance. After sucking up to his boss and his boss’s wife (with a few lies) he ends up being put in charge of the company’s girls soccer team. After a horrible first game Chester comes up with a deceptive plan to dress his fiance’s son up as a girl and put her on his team. The team starts getting better, but the secret gets harder and harder to keep.

Themes:

Dating, soccer, sports, teamwork, coaching, promotions, failure, winning, gender norms, lying, engagement, step fathers, embarrassment, learning, getting better, confidence in oneself, change, growing, love, confidence, believing in yourself, the best, sacrifice, friendship, and love.

Language:

A*s - 10 B*stard - 2 B*tch- 2 D*mn - 1 Hell - 5 Sh*t - 3 Religious Exclamations - 7

The words crap and sucks is used a few times.

Stuff to be aware of:

Race - One person tells another that “black people are better at sports.” A white person argues by naming a bunch of odd sports that are traditionally played by mostly white people. This scene is played for laughs. A woman confuses a white man and a black woman as getting married. She gives a speech about how their relationship is great and we are all God’s children.

Religion - Rodney says a comical prayer and then takes it back when his team starts winning and he jokes, “I might not need ya.”

Sexual Jokes - Rodney Dangerfield is witty and throws quick one liners. Many at the beginning are sexual in nature. There is a teen buy watching girls dance around in a music video. The video zooms in on their bottoms and Rodney says, “don’t sit too close you’ll stange your eyes, or something else.” One female sings about men only wanting one thing, but they aren’t getting it from her. A woman tells her husband that, “you know we both like to do things that makes each other happy.” Rodney says when he played soccer he pulled his groin and then makes a joke about how it was exciting.

Rodney mentions that you should be careful with a book about positions (the reference is to soccer plays) because you’ll end up in traction. A man grabs his wife’s butt. A guy imagines a girl running into his arms and she is wearing a bathing suit. There is a woman that talks about making out. One man makes a joke about the people being under him at work are all women. A guy looks at a woman bending over. The woman is wearing a tennis skirt and underneath the skirt is briefly seen when she bends over. A character tells another that he “dressed his girlfriend’s son up as a girl and talked him into playing with him.” Another joke is, “the only thing quicker than that is when I have sex.”

Obviously, you have a guy dressing up as a girl so there are some odd situations that go along with that. He tries on a dress. One guy puts balloons in his shirt like he has breasts. There is a scene where a grown man is helping a teen boy try on a dress. They say several things that would be normal for trying on clothes but a woman listening outside misunderstands the situation for an adult having inappropriate relations with a teen. At one point all the girls on the team go skinny dipping. They are all seen briefly in towels. There is no nudity.

Other - There is a motivational speaker that tells everyone they are losers. One scene takes place in a bar. A coach yells, “I want that player tested for steroids.”

Overall:

As I kid, I watched this movie on cable tv. It surprised me how much language and how many sexual jokes are actually in this movie. They were likely edited out in on cable. The sexual jokes are usually quick one liners and may go over kid’s heads, but they are in there none the less. Rodney Dangerfield, is known for this.

This is your typical 80s movie that was likely targeted at families, but had a lot of jokes that went over kid’s heads. Is it a great movie? No, but it will have you laughing (if you don’t take today’s political landscape to seriously). This movie could not be made today, but it does show how at one point we understood there were physical differences between men and women which is why there are women’s sports teams.