I watched The Bad News Bears last night and to tell you the truth I was disappointed in it. I mean on paper the movie looks like a smash. It has Billy Bob Thornton playing a role similar to that of the one he nailed in Bad Santa. It was directed by Richard Linklater who directed such films as Dazed and Confused and The School of Rock so you know that he can do a comedy up right. The original was great, although it probably hurt my rating of it seeing it not so long ago, as a fresh property I believe it would have scored higher.
You should be aware of the premise but if your not it is a sports movie + a drunken coach. So you have a team of the worst players imaginable (oh, yeah it is about baseball if you didn’t know) who the drunken ass coach must shape into a team that can expectantly make the playoffs and the championship game. Of course with the coach being a drunk the kids have to grow on him before he actually tries, such a heartwarming moment (well it would be if it wasn’t in this movie). Along the way the team picks up a couple of players (social outcasts of course) who can actually play and that helps. And of course there is the ending, which if you have seen the original is no surprise. No major changes were made from the original, the one that stood out to me was that “Chico’s Bail Bonds” was not the sponsor of the team, but they got an equally appropriate sponsor in it’s place.
As for the acting Billy Bob did a good job, I say good because I was thinking shades of Bad Santa when I went in but alas it does not live up to that. However it is still a good performance-I just can’t bring myself to say it was better than that. Of course Billy Bob is believable as a drunken womanizing worn down person, and that’s not making a personal remark on him either. The kids do fine, I never really see much in a child’s performance that blows me away. The crippled kid does do pretty well in his line delivery though; of course his comedic timing may be attributed to the director.
As for direction you know I really can’t think of anything good or bad to say about it. I didn’t see any of those tired ass sports movie cliché shots so I guess that was a bonus. The movie moved along at a nice pace and it had good music selections.
Overall it was a good movie that suffered because of “my baggage” going into it. They had Billy Bob playing a role that was close to something he had played before and by doing that associated themselves at least in my mind with it. In my opinion were inferior to it so that hurt them. I did love the attitude of the movie, as it was the same as the original, in fact it did stay pretty true to original in many respects. I wanted to like this movie more than I did but I’ll still give it an 80 B-.