Bad News Bears (2005)

Director:

Richard Linklater

Writers (WGA):

Bill Lancaster (screenplay) and
Glenn Ficarra (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

22 July 2005 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Sport

Tagline:

Disorganized. Disrespected. Dis summer.

Plot:

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

Plot Keywords:

Coach | Baseball | Alcoholic | Little League | Portable Toilet

Awards:

1 win & 2 nominations

Cast

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

MPAA:

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

Runtime:

113 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Spanish

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Netherlands:MG6 | Sweden:Btl | Argentina:13 | Brazil:16 | USA:PG-13 (certificate #41880) | Finland:K-7 | Singapore:PG | Iceland:12 | Australia:M | South Korea:12 | Italy:T | USA:PG-13 | Canada:14A (British Columbia) | Canada:PG (Ontario) | Canada:G (Quebec) | UK:12A | Ireland:12A

Filming Locations:

Barone's Famous Italian Restaurant - 13726 Oxnard Street at Mammoth Avenue, Van Nuys, California, USA

Company:

Detour Filmproduction

Trivia:

Despite the remake having a higher MPAA rating than the original (PG-13 verses 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. Strangely enough the board was fine with him spiking his non-alcoholic beer with hard liquor.

Goofs:

Continuity: When the girl is selecting a pitch she has her glove in between her arm and her side. But in the next shot she has her glove on and ready to pitch.

Quotes:

Tanner Boyle: [hearing a man reading "Casey at the Bat"] What a fag!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Crossover (2006)

Soundtrack:

Na Wesele Witosa (At Wito's Wedding)

Rock 'n roll update--not all that different, but dispiriting...

Unskilled, belligerent group of young boys on a losing Little League baseball team get an alcoholic coach who eventually cleans up their act--and his own. Any film-buff well acquainted with the 1976 Michael Ritchie film "The Bad News Bears" will watch this remake in a perpetual state of deprivation. For every new ingredient added (a kid in a wheelchair, Hooters waitresses on the sidelines, a skateband interlude), there's a classic sequence dropped, funny lines omitted, a bracing sense of importance missing, and uncharismatic, non-plussed child actors who walk through their roles colorlessly. Of course, Billy Bob Thornton is a terrific substitute for Walter Matthau, but Matthau didn't carry the original film all by himself, and Thornton isn't fully in-character anyway (he's just breezing through). The whole early morning feel of Southern California Little League is missing, and the urgency of the original is gone, too (those kids had something riding on these games). Director Richard Linklater obviously was fond of the 1976 version, but he knows the notes without hearing the music; he supplies updated comedic touches without seeing the relevancy, and his tone and narrative are doggedly straightforward (except for the strange opening sequence, which immediately gets the picture off on the wrong foot). A sad botch. *1/2 from ****