Bad News Bears (2005)

My Review

“Bad News Bears” is the story of a disgraced former MLB player hired to coach a children’s baseball team with poor playing skills. Producer-director Richard Linklater (“School of Rock” 2003) instilled this sports comedy with plenty of laughs, maybe going overboard a bit when the coach supplied the players, who are minors, with beer after a big loss. For the most part, though, Linklater and screenwriters Glenn Ficarra and John Requa kept the comedy and drama in good taste, balanced with baseball action.

At the top of the cast is Billy Bob Thorton as ex-ballplayer Morris Buttermaker, a Seattle Mariners pitcher kicked out of professional baseball for attacking an umpire. Thornton is perfect in this role, probably one of the best of his career. Marcia Gay Hardin appears as the owner of the team, and mother of one of the players. Greg Kinnear plays a manager of a rival team. The Bears were played by Ridge Canipe, Troy Gentile, Kenneth “KC” Harris, Aman Johal, Tyler Patrick Jones, Timmy Deters, Carlos Estrada, Emmanuel Estrada, and Jeffrey Davies.

The watchable “Bad News Bears” is a good remake of the 1976 movie “The Bad New Bears,” but only broke even at the box office in 2005 for Paramount Pictures.