Bad News Bears (2005)

A grizzled little league coach tries to turn his team of misfits into champs.

Director:

Richard Linklater

Writers:

Bill Lancaster (screenplay), Glenn Ficarra (screenplay)

Stars:

Billy Bob Thornton, Greg Kinnear, Marcia Gay Harden

1 win & 4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Billy Bob Thornton	...	Morris Buttermaker
Greg Kinnear	...	Roy Bullock
Marcia Gay Harden	...	Liz Whitewood
Sammi Kane Kraft	...	Amanda Whurlitzer
Ridge Canipe	...	Toby Whitewood
Brandon Craggs	...	Mike Engelberg
Jeffrey Davies	...	Kelly Leak
Timmy Deters	...	Tanner Boyle
Carlos Estrada	...	Miguel Agilar
Emmanuel Estrada	...	Jose Agilar
Troy Gentile	...	Matthew Hooper
Kenneth 'K.C.' Harris	...	Ahmad Abdul Rahim
Aman Johal	...	Prem Lahiri
Tyler Patrick Jones	...	Timmy Lupus
Jeffrey Tedmori	...	Garo Daragabrigadien

Storyline

Morris Buttermaker, an alcoholic pest removal worker and former professional baseball player (for a very short time), is recruited to coach and train a failing baseball team of 12-year-olds which is about to be thrown out of the league.

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Plot Keywords:

team | coach | baseball | alcoholic | little league | 

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Taglines:

Disorganized. Disrespected. Dis summer.

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Genres:

Comedy | Sport

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for rude behavior, language throughout, some sexuality and thematic elements

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

22 July 2005 (USA)

Also Known As:

Los osos de la mala suerte

Filming Locations:

Skatelab Skatepark, 4226 Valley Fair St, Simi Valley, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$30,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$11,382,472, 24 July 2005, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$32,868,349

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$34,252,847

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures,Media Talent Group,Detour Filmproduction

Technical Specs

Runtime:

113 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In the trailer, the baseball bat with the film's title on it says, "Est. 1976", this was the year the original film was released.

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Goofs

At the end when the kids are given the non-alcoholic beer, Tanner opens his and starts drinking it in the dugout, but as they walk out you can see Tanner open his bottle again.

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Quotes

Morris Buttermaker: [after hitting Ahmad with a pitch] It's all right, kid. You had a helmet on. Imagine if you didn't. You know what I'm saying?

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Connections

References Field of Dreams (1989)

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Soundtracks

Muscle of Love
by Michael Bruce and Alice Cooper
Performed by Alice Cooper
Courtesy of Warner Bros. Records Inc.
By Arrangement with Warner Strategic Marketing

User Reviews

Further redundant proof that movies, among other things, were better in the Seventies.

Along with others who were born in the late Sixties, I felt that seeing the new *Bad News Bears* was somehow mandatory, if only to indulge in the guilty pleasure of nostalgia. We all knew it would suck, didn't we? -- but we had to see it anyway.

Let it be said at once that Billy Bob Thornton as Coach Buttermaker is quite a come-down from the immortal Walter Matthau in the same role. Since the script of this new version is quite identical to the original, much of the degradation displayed here must be put at the feet of Thornton, a notorious ad-libber. None of us, young or old, need to be subjected to exclamations such as "You guys look like the last s--t I took." Or to hear copious references to Greg Kinnear's family jewels.

But whether through the script or through Thornton's egregious improvising, director Richard Linklater reveals a complete lack of control. Evidently, the best that he feels he can do with this material is to allow it to subside deeper into crassness than the original. The whole enterprise becomes a dreary exercise in upping the ante: Matthau's Buttermaker was a pool cleaner; Thornton's Buttermaker is a rat-exterminator . . . in the '76 version, the Bears are sponsored by Chico's Bail Bonds; in the 2005 version, they're sponsored by a strip-club. Get the idea? What had been a gritty, rather incisive look at everyday Americana has become merely an exercise in crudity. This degeneration of standards can legitimately be argued away as the eternal complaint of the old, but the feeling persists that the original *Bad News Bears* was still made for KIDS, despite the more realistic dialog, situations, and characters. (And Matthau was never a scene-stealer; Tatum O'Neal shone just as brightly as he did. And rightly so.) The Little Leaguers in this film are sadly subordinate to the leering Coach -- guess who the intended audience is? (Hint: not kids.)

By the way -- speaking of come-downs -- the iconic role of bad-boy Kelly Leak as portrayed by the super-iconic Jackie Earl Haley has been utterly neutered, here. The new Kelly is played by some incipient Calvin Klein model pretending to be a skate-punk. Pee-yew, man. Hey Jackie Earl, wherever you are: your status as the preeminent prepubescent bad-ass is, like, totally safe.

1 star out of 10.