Bad News Bears

: "For the original 1976 movie starring Walter Matthau, Tatum O'Neal and Chris Barnes, see The Bad News Bears."Infobox Film
name = Bad News Bears

---

caption = film poster
director = Richard Linklater
producer = Richard Linklater
writer = Bill Lancaster
Glenn Ficarra
John Requa
starring = Billy Bob Thornton
Greg Kinnear
Marcia Gay Harden
music = Ed Shearmur
distributor = Paramount Pictures
released = July 22, 2005
runtime = 111 min.
country = USA
language = English
Spanish
budget = $35 million
gross = $35,323,292.50
preceded_by = "The Bad News Bears"
imdb_id = 0408524

"Bad News Bears" is the 2005 remake of the 1976 comedy film "The Bad News Bears", produced by Paramount Pictures. It is directed by Richard Linklater and stars Billy Bob Thornton, Greg Kinnear, Marcia Gay Harden, and Sammi Kane Kraft. The writers are also the writing team behind another Thornton movie, "Bad Santa".

Plot

Morris Buttermaker (Billy Bob Thornton) is a washed-up alcoholic minor-league baseball player who was kicked out of professional baseball for attacking an umpire. He works as an exterminator and is a crude womanizer. He coaches the Bears, a children's baseball team with poor playing skills. They play their first game and do not even make an out before he forfeits the game. Amanda Whurlitzer (Sammi Kane Kraft), a skilled pitcher, is the 12-year-old daughter of one of his ex-girlfriends. At his request, she joins the team. Kelly Leak (Jeffrey Davies), a local troublemaker, also joins the team, and the Bears start winning games. After their first victory, Buttermaker takes them to Hooters. The Bears eventually make it to the championship game. In the middle of that game, the Bears and Yankees fight. Later, Buttermaker changes the lineup, putting the benchwarmers in and taking out some of the good players. The Bears lose the game 8 to 7. After the game, Buttermaker gives them non-alcoholic beer, and they spray it all over each other. Although they did not win the championship, they have the satisfaction of trying, knowing that winning is not so important.

Cast

*Billy Bob Thornton as Morris Buttermaker - Ex-baseball playing, alcoholic, crude, and exterminator coach of the Bears
*Greg Kinnear as Roy Bullock - Arrogant coach of the Yankees
*Marcia Gay Harden as Liz Whitewood - City councilwoman
*Kenneth "K.C." Harris as Ahmad Abdul-Rahim - A black Muslim who plays first base and idolizes Mark McGwire
*Emmanuel Estrada as Jose Aguilar - Miguel's older brother; doesn't speak English.
*Carlos Estrada as Miguel Aguilar - Jose's younger brother; doesn't speak English either; so short that the strike zone is non-existent.
*Timmy Deters as Tanner Boyle - Short-tempered infielder. After suffering a horrible loss on their first game, he picks a fight with the entire sixth grade from his school (and loses). Curses more than the others.
*Brandon Craggs as Mike Engelberg - An overweight, out of shape boy who plays catcher; a great hitter, his jabs at rival pitcher Joey Bullock (Carter Jenkins) ignite a rivalry.
*Seth Adkins as Jimmy Feldman - Plays second base.
*Jeffrey Davies as Kelly Leak - Local troublemaker who drinks and rides a dirt bike, which he uses to pick up older women; also the best athlete in the neighborhood. He has a crush on Amanda.
*Aman Johal as Prem Lahiri - An intelligent boy, who is only playing baseball for his college transcript, but proves his worth in the championship game.
*Jeffrey Tedmori as Garo Daragebrigadian - An Armenian-American boy who just wants to hit the ball instead of the ball hitting him.
*Tyler Patrick Jones as Timmy Lupus - A "booger-eating spaz" considered to be the worst player on the team, but surprises everyone in the final game by making a key play. Says things that have almost nothing to do with a conversation.
*Ridge Canipe as Toby Whitewood - A polite boy; son of councilwoman Liz Whitewood.
*Troy Gentile as Matthew Hooper - The right fielder, confined to a wheelchair.
*Sammi Kane Kraft as Amanda Whurlizer - Twelve-year-old who is a good pitcher.
*Carter Jenkins as Joey Bullock - The Yankees pitcher who throws Tanner in the mud and picks on Timmy.

Reception

Critical reaction to "Bad News Bears" was mixed. The film holds a rating of 45% on Rotten Tomatoes [ [http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/bad_news_bears/ Bad News Bears reviews] , Rotten Tomatoes] and a score of 65 out of 100 on Metacritic [ [http://www.metacritic.com/video/titles/badnewsbears Bad News Bears reviews] , Metacritic] .

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three stars out of four, praising Thornton's performance in particular, saying: "The movie is like a merger of [Thornton's] ugly drunk in "Bad Santa" and his football coach in "Friday Night Lights", yet [he] doesn't recycle from either movie; he modulates the manic anger of the Santa and the intensity of the coach and produces a morose loser who we like better than he likes himself." [ [http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050721/REVIEWS/50712002 Bad News Bears review] , Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times, July 22, 2005] James Berardinelli of ReelViews also gave "Bad News Bears" three stars out of four, calling it "an entertaining motion picture" that "won't make fans forget the original, but it's not so feeble that it disappears into the earlier movie's shadow." [ [http://www.reelviews.net/movies/b/bad_news.html Bad News Bears review] , James Berardinelli, ReelViews, 2005]

Giving the film two stars out of five, Don R. Lewis of Film Threat said that it has "a few laughs" but that it "just trudges on, going through the motions of the original with no spark" and that it "suffer [s] from the unbearable, crushing weight of political correctness." [ [http://www.filmthreat.com/index.php?section=reviews&Id=7774 Bad News Bears review] , Don R. Lewis, Film Threat, July 24, 2005] Paula Nechak of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer called the film "simply another in a long line of utterly unnecessary remakes that, having nothing new to say, clutch at crassness and dumbness," [ [http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/movies/233504_bears22q.html Bad News Bears review] , Paula Nechak, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, July 22, 2005] while Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle said that while "the screenplay [...] makes the most of Thornton's dry, skewed humor, [...] nothing happens here that would distinguish this film from other sports movies." [ [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/07/22/DDG9JDR30E1.DTL Bad News Bears review] , Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle]

Differences from the first version

* In the first film Buttermaker was a pool cleaner. He is depicted now as an exterminator and a crude womanizer, whereas that is not so clear in the 1976 original.
* There are several new players, including Matthew Hooper, who is confined to a wheelchair, Prem Lahiri, and Garo Daragebrigadian.
* The character of Ahmad Abdul-Rahim played outfield and idolized Hank Aaron in the original; in this version, his hero is Mark McGwire.
* During the championship game in the original version the Yankees pitcher was slapped by his father after trying to hit the opposing player. After that a ball was grounded to him and he held onto it, causing an inside the park home run. In the 2005 version, he is pushed to the ground by his father, and then gives up a pitch for a home run.
* Amanda's job in the original version was a map vendor at the side of the road. In the 2005 version, she is now a clothing vendor in a market warehouse.

Trivia

* When looking for a local business to sponsor the team Buttermaker tries a business called "Chico's Bail Bonds," which had sponsored the team in the original. The sponsor he does find is Bo-Peeps Gentleman's Club.
* Despite the remake having a higher MPAA rating than the original (PG-13 versus PG), the ratings board would not allow the remake to feature Coach Morris Buttermaker drinking alcoholic beer in the dugout as he had in the original. The board, however, permitted him to spike his non-alcoholic beer with hard liquor.
* The remake's title is slightly different than the original. The original was called "The Bad News Bears", whereas the remake omits the word "the" in the title and is simply called "Bad News Bears".
* The baseball bat In the trailer that displays the film's title is imprinted with "Est. 1976". This was the year the original film was released.

References

External links

*
*
*