Ladybugs

Summary

“If you took her to a dog show, she’d win!”

Yesterday I decided to take a chance on a 1992 comedy starring Rodney Dangerfield called Ladybugs. I had never seen the movie, but it looked like a Bad News Bears style comedy for the soccer crowd and I was in the mood for some lighthearted fun. Paramount had just given the film a Blu-ray release (on MOD BD-R) so I decided to give it a spin with my two sons. We had no idea what to expect from the film, so we went in with no expectations, just a hope for some laughter as a family.

As the film begins, Chester Lee (Rodney Dangerfield) attends a motivational seminar in which he learns essentially to kiss his boss’s ass to succeed. Chester is a salesman for Mullen Indistries and the next day he is meeting with his boss Mr. Mullen. He brings some roses to his girlfriend Bess (Ilene Graff,) whose son Matthew (Jonathan Brandis) has a strained relationship with him. Chester plans to marry Bess soon, but he really wants to land that promotion first. Right before his meeting with Dave Mullen (Tom Parks,) Mrs. Mullen informs Dave that their daughter Kimberly (Vinessa Shaw) needs a new soccer coach. Mullen Industries supports a soccer team each year and Dave has a case showing off all of their championship trophies. Seizing on Dave’s enthusiasm for soccer, Chester explains that he used to play. Dave enlists Chester to coach the team, and Chester sees this as a stepping stone to the big promotion. The only issue is that Chester knows absolutely nothing about soccer. He enlists his assistant Julie Benson (Jackee Harry) to help, and he figures that the kids must be pretty good to have won all of those trophies. Unfortunately, it’s a rebuilding year. Only one kid on the team has ever played soccer. The team is flat out terrible and filled with goofy kids. The other issue is that Chester jumps the gun and tells Bess that he landed the promotion. Chester learns that because Matthew got bad grades, Matthew got kicked off all his sports teams including soccer. Chester decides to have Matthew help him by looking over the team at practice. Matthew is infatuated with Kimberly. He takes in all the bad moves made by the team. Matthew explains to Chester that if he was on the team as a center he could help the inexperienced players. So Chester puts a blonde wig on him and introduces him to the team as a new player named Martha. Will they be able to beat the undefeated Beavers? Will Chester get his promotion? Will Matthew win over Kimberly? All these questions and more will be revealed in the most obvious way possible.

First off – this is not a very good movie. Many jokes fall flat and the plot is totally ridiculous. That said, sometimes I find myself in the mood to watch something where I can truly turn my brain off. There are a couple things I liked about the movie – first off, Rodney Dangerfield puts a smile on my face even when he is delivering some of his weakest material. Secondly, this is the most 90s movie imaginable. I mean, big bold colors, floral prints, drum and bass music such as “Pump Up the Jams.” It reminded me of visiting Universal Studios back then or something. Also – there’s a montage where Rodney Dangerfield and Jackee sing “Balls of Fire.” So there is that! There is also one sequence that I did find very funny where Martha/Matthew has an unexpected visit from Kimberly and is forced to perform a number of quick changes. I thought that sequence was really well done and pretty funny. There is no fault really in Sidney J. Furie’s direction. It would be impossible to overcome that the script is completely paint-by-numbers and the jokes are hit or miss. The film’s script is also tinged with some material that will make adults cringe such as a sequence where Matthew fantasizes about Kimberly, or a scene played for laughs in a changing room between Matthew and Chester where people assume “Martha” is being sexually abused. Those scenes just don’t play well at all in 2025, but my kids did not even seem to notice. Ladybugs is a pretty bad movie, but that doesn’t stop it from pleasing young children while summoning the occasional laugh from the adults. While it is by no means good, I had fun watching it with my kids, and the kids laughed at it, even though there are definitely a few jokes that went over their heads that were a little lewd.

Video

Ladybugs has been released by Paramount onto Blu-ray (it is an MOD BD-R) in the aspect ratio of 1.78:1 in 1080p. This is essentially a rerelease of Lionsgate’s 2010 Blu-ray. The transfer is totally adequate. I have read reviews that gave the transfer pretty rough marks, but I found it to be just fine. This isn’t some great work of art, and I can’t imagine fans being upset with it.

Audio

The DTS-HD MA 5.1 track was given extremely low ratings on several sites. It definitely lacks the oomph of modern movies, but I didn’t find the track to be as awful as those reviews indicated. The sound design doesn’t have a lot to show off, but fans will probably be fine with its lack of immersion.

Supplements:

• Theatrical Trailer

Overall Scores:

Video: 3.5/5

Audio: 3/5

Supplements: .5/5

Overall – 3/5

Ladybugs is a pretty bad movie, but that doesn’t seem to stop children from enjoying it. I was in the mood for this type of shallow entertainment, so I enjoyed watching the film (despite some sequences that were absolutely cringe worthy.) I have a soft spot for Rodney Dangerfield even when he is delivering some of his weakest material. I imagine that the only people that are going to buy this movie have a nostalgic bent towards the picture, and for those folks, I appreciate that Paramount has given fans of the film (who probably saw the picture as children) a chance to own it on Blu-ray. The Blu-ray features adequate enough technical specs and a theatrical trailer.

The film can be purchased at www.moviezyng.com.