Bad News Bears
By Michael Rechtshaffen

Hollywood Reporter, CA
July 15 2005

Bottom line: Not bad, but this Billy Bob Thornton-Richard Linklater
remake falls short of News-worthy.

There’s good news and not-so-good news about “Bad News Bears,” the
new take on the beloved 1976 Michael Ritchie-helmed comedy starring
Walter Matthau as a beer-soaked Little League coach who finds himself
managing a ragtag team of foul-mouthed underachievers.

First, the good news: With Billy Bob Thornton and his “Bad Santa”
writers on board and on-a-roll Richard Linklater (the critically
acclaimed “Before Sunset” and the audience-acclaimed “School of Rock”)
calling the shots, there was sufficient cause for hope that the picture
would emerge as something else than yet another pointless remake.

Fortunately, Thornton, playing an only slightly less caustic version
of his ill-mannered department store Kris Kringle, remains in fine
inappropriate form and Glenn Ficarra & John Requa’s respectfully
faithful script and Linklater’s typically unforced directing style
combine to generate many moments of laugh-out-loud comedy.

But somehow those moments never add up to a fully satisfying viewing
experience. There’s a momentum-killing, start/stop quality to the
sequences that prevents this underdog story from rounding the bases
and sprinting for home with the spirited energy of a Jack Black in
“School of Rock.”

Without that crowd-pleasing boost and with an assault of potty language
that gives that PG-13 rating a run for its money (at the risk of
shutting out the younger kids), the Paramount Pictures release likely
will land more closely in the “Kicking & Screaming” ballpark rather
than going “The Longest Yard” distance.

For those with a scorecard, the first “Bad News Bears” inspired a
pair of inferior follow-ups — 1977’s “The Bad News Bears in Breaking
Training” and 1978’s “The Bad News Bears Go to Japan” — neither of
which featured Matthau or were directed by Ritchie.

The new version is definitely better than the two sequels,
with Thornton bringing his own curmudgeonly irreverent spin
to the role of Coach Buttermaker, here a former pro baseball
player-turned-exterminator who spent all of a couple of innings in
a big league game.

Coaxed into taking on the hopelessly inept team of misfits by a
high-maintenance attorney with her own agenda (Marcia Gay Harden),
Buttermaker makes a half-hearted go of it, occasionally locking horns
with Ray Bullock (Greg Kinnear), the self-satisfied coach of the Bears’
longtime rivals, the Yankees.

Aside from injecting some of that meaner-spirited, but admittedly funny
“Bad Santa Jr.” dialogue, writers Ficarra and Requa stick very close
to the original Bill Lancaster script, while adding a few characters
who better reflect the contemporary cultural landscape.

Joining the brat and the nerd and the angry fat guy, there’s now an
Armenian, a kid in an electric wheelchair and a Mark McGwire-smitten
black kid, and, true to its comic roots, the movie proves to be an
equal-opportunity offender.

But Buttermaker’s lackadaisical approach to life seems to have
rubbed off on Linklater’s direction, which really could have a shot
of adrenaline to move things along, particularly in the late innings.

Given that a number of the young newcomers were cast first for their
athletic ability over previous acting experience, the juvenile
performances are pretty uneven, especially when held up to the
original’s lineup led by Tatum O’Neal and Jackie Earle Haley.

Behind the scenes, taking a cue from the ’76 version, composer Edward
Shearmur uses Bizet’s “Carmen” to underscore the game sequences,
but somehow what came across as inspired three decades ago just feels
odd and rather out of place today.

Bad News Bears Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures presents a Media
Talent Group production in association with Detour Filmproduction
A Richard Linklater film Director: Richard Linklater Screenwriters:
Bill Lancaster and Glenn Ficarra & John Requa Based on “The Bad News
Bears” written by: Bill Lancaster Producers: J. Geyer Kosinski,
Richard Linklater Executive producer: Marcus Viscidi Director of
photography: Rogier Stoffers Production designer: Bruce Curtis Editor:
Sandra Adair Costume designer: Karen Patch Music: Edward Shearmur
Cast: Coach Morris Buttermaker: Billy Bob Thornton Coach Roy Bullock:
Greg Kinnear Liz Whitewood: Marcia Gay Harden Amanda Whurlitzer: Sammi
Kane Kraft Kelly Leak: Jeffrey Davies Tanner Boyle: Timmy Deters Mike
Engelberg: Brandon Craggs Toby Whitewood: Ridge Canipe Timmy Lupus:
Tyler Patrick Jones Prem Lahiri: Aman Johal Matthew Hooper: Troy
Gentile Garo Daragebrigadian: Jeffrey Tedmori Ahmad Abdul Rahim:
Kenneth “K.C.” Harris Miguel Agilar: Carlos Estrada Jose Agilar:
Emmanuel Estrada MPAA rating: PG-13 Running time — 114 minutes