L. KENT WOLGAMOTT / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Thursday, July 21, 2005 7:00 pm
For every good movie remake, there are four or five disappointing rehashings of perfectly good pictures. "Bad News Bears" is one of the latter.
It's particularly disappointing since it comes from director Richard Linklater, who makes great small movies like "Before Sunset" and had an entertaining hit with "School of Rock." Plus it stars Billy Bob Thornton, fresh off his turn as a football coach in "Friday Night Lights."
But Thornton seems like he wants out of the movie for good reason.
The story here is very similar to the original. Thornton plays the Walter Matthau role of Buttermaker. This time, Buttermaker's a drunken exterminator rather than a pool cleaner. But he's still hired to coach a bunch of rejects from other teams because he had part of an inning in the big leagues.
Thornton, who half-heartedly kicks into his "Bad Santa" persona, provides some laughs here and there. But this "Bad News Bears" has almost none of the charm of the original.
Part of that is likely because this basic story loveable losers turn into winners has been made at least a dozen times since 1976, most notably in the wretched "Kicking & Screaming" that hit screens earlier this summer. To say it's tired is an understatement.
But it is also because "Bad News Bears" is several notches cruder than its predecessor. The team is sponsored by a strip club. Buttermaker takes the kids to Hooters to celebrate. Everybody cusses.
That may be a statement on how society has changed in the last 30 years. But it sure doesn't make the movie any better to watch a bunch of 12-year-olds singing along to "Cocaine" an unlikely occurrence in real life (kids today likely aren't classic rock fans) but that's how low this "Bad News Bears" stretches for its humor. The movie is rated PG-13 and it earns every bit of that rating.
The kids aren't all that memorable either. Sammi Jane Kraft, who plays pitcher Amanda, and Jeffrey Davies, who plays rebel Kelly, are good baseball players. But they don't have much to offer as actors and neither do the rest of the Bears.
Greg Kinnear is smarmy as the coach of the rival Yankees, but he's not nearly as hateable as Vic Morrow was in the original.
I could go on and on, but you get the point.
"Bad News Bears" doesn't measure up to the original. As remakes go, it's probably not horrible. But redoing a classic is a trick that's almost impossible to pull off. Gus Van Sant failed when he tried to do "Psycho." Now Linklater has fallen into that trap with "Bad News Bears."
Reach L. Kent Wolgamott at 473-7244 or kwolgamott@journalstar.com.
Bad News Bears
*1/2 (out of four stars)
Director: Richard Linklater
Stars: Billy Bob Thornton, Marcia Gay Harden, Greg Kinnear, Sammi Kane Kraft
Rated: PG-13 (for rude behavior, language, some sexuality and thematic elements)
Now showing: Edgewood, the Grand
The reel story: Thornton plays the Walter Matthau role in this crude, disappointing remake of the 1976 kid baseball comedy classic.