Bad News Bears [2005]

If you were to pick anyone to take the role Walter Matthau played in the 1976 original Bad News Bears you’d be hard pressed to make a better choice than Billy Bob Thornton. While he’s playing a drunkard character (who has a much too rapid change of heart when all is said and done) similar to the one he played in 2003’s Bad Santa, he does a good job of it and actually plays well off all the kids – who are engaging in their own right.

While the original flick wasn’t a masterpiece it has managed to gain a hefty following over the years and should be credited with almost single-handedly creating the “rule book” most sports comedies tend to follow to this very day. It was also known for having youngsters spouting all sorts of off-colour language, which this remake retains. And since Hollywood has been on a sort of rampage to remake almost every movie and TV show in the past few years it’s no surprise Paramount chose to re-do the story and brought in School Of Rock helmer Richard Linklater (who showed his skill handling child actors in that film).

Morris Buttermaker (Thornton) is a wreck. He’s an alcoholic, he kills insects for a living, and his planned career in professional baseball just didn’t work out. In order to make a quick buck he agrees to coach a local little league team not knowing that it’s a ragtag group at best – and that they really have no talent or sense of the word “team”.

At first he’s still the rough, grouchy guy he always was showing little interest in the kids, he even goes so far as to bring in his ex-girlfriend’s skilled pitching daughter Amanda (Sammi Kraft) to at least try and bring the team some form of dignity. But once he sees how his bad attitude is affecting the team, and has to endure much abuse from anal-retentive fellow coach Roy Bullock (Greg Kinnear), Buttermaker decides to actually give it a go and lead the team to the championship.

Scripters Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (who also wrote Thornton’s Bad Santa) have updated Bill Lancaster’s original script to modern day while saying faithful to their source material. In fact, there are so few “new” wrinkles in the story, if you’ve seen the 1976 film you’ll be able to do a play-by-play of the movie as it goes along. This isn’t particularly a bad thing as it still contains a fair amount of chuckles, has a likeable cast (the kids all do their roles well), and is entertaining.

About on the same level as the Michael Ritchie directed original, Bad News Bears is a decent way to waste away an evening and despite the fact it runs on a bit too long for its own good, at least it never seems to feel dragged out.

2.5 out of 4

Directed by Richard Linklater. Written by Glenn Ficarra, John Requa, Bill Lancaster. 113 minutes. PG-13