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Chester Lee (Rodney Dangerfield) is desperate for a promotion at work and some respect from his boss. To impress his boss, he claims to have been a good soccer player in his youth and is badgered into coaching a girls' team called the Ladybugs. Dragging his assistant Julie (Jackée Harry) along as assistant coach, Chester figures the gig easy as the Ladybugs, sponsored by his company, are a dynasty, having dominated previous seasons. If he can get this team to a championship, he will get the promotion. Unfortunately, only one player has returned for the new season. The new team, which includes the boss' daughter, Kimberly (Vinessa Shaw), are clueless, make a dreadful start to the season and the boss is less than impressed.
In his personal life, Chester is engaged to Bess (Ilene Graff), who has a son, Matthew (Jonathan Brandis), from a previous marriage. Matthew just happens to be a great athlete, but poor grades get him kicked off the soccer team. Chester invites Matthew to watch the Ladybugs practice and to get some tips. Matthew has a crush on Kimberly from school, which partly inspires Chester to persuade him to dress like a girl and play for the team as "Martha". With only Chester, Matthew and Julie knowing Martha's secret identity, the team rallies through the season to reach the championship game. Kimberly befriends Martha, not knowing "she" is in fact Matthew.
Just before the championship game, Bess finds out that Matthew has been dressing as a girl to play. Furious with Chester, she forces him to drop Matthew from the team. Kimberly, who has not been playing well, is also dropped at the request of Chester's boss.
The Ladybugs trail 3-0 in the first half. At halftime, Matthew reveals his true identity to Kimberly and the rest of his teammates. His honesty fires the team up and with Chester's encouragement, Kimberly scores the winning goal on a penalty kick. As the Ladybugs win the championship, Chester gets his promotion. Bess and Chester get married while Matthew and Kimberly begin dating. Chester is now managing the company's girls softball team, where the entire team are boys dressed as girls. After his boss congratulates him on his success, Chester says to the audience, "I finally got some respect!"
Sidney J. Furie became involved with directing Ladybugs when producer Andre Morgan ,who'd previously worked with Furie as a producer on The Boys in Company C, told Furie of a project he and Albert S. Ruddy were working on that was similar in concept to The Bad News Bears.[6] Furie accepted the directing job more out of a desire to work than anything else and claimed it was one of the best paid jobs he'd ever had working in the industry.[6] For the casting of the character of Matthew both Jonathan Brandis and Leonardo DiCaprio auditioned for the role with the producers ultimately deciding to go with Brandis as DiCaprio looked too convincing in drag which they felt killed the joke.[6]
Shooting took place from July through September 1991 in and around Denver, Colorado.[7]
Release
Paramount struggled with how to market the film and considered changing the title, as it clashed with Dangerfield's image as a profane comic.[2] The film grossed almost US$15 million in the US and Canada, while Warner Bros. and Morgan Creek International obtained the foreign distribution rights.[8]
Reception
Ladybugs was panned by critics.[2] On Rotten Tomatoes holds an approval rating of 16% with an average rating of 3.6/10, based on 19 reviews.[9] Audiences however polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.[10]
Michael Wilmington of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the film flip-flops on its themes and "has the stale, slick, worked-over look of standard studio product".[11]Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote: "Even when the material is feeble, as it is here, Mr. Dangerfield can sometimes be funny."[12]
