Movie review: ‘Bad News Bears’ (2005)

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“The Bad News Bears” was ostensibly a “kids” film in 1976. It had all the trappings of bad kid comedy: kids playing ball, stereotypical youngsters, stereotypical adults and, initially, a stereotypical story. However, once the projector ran the first reel (that’s an old-fashioned term in this digital day and age), you quickly realized that it was actually a REAL motion picture with depth and solid acting that was worthy of (but didn’t receive) the critical attention it should. So, after all this build-up, I’ll be taking a look at its remake – “Bad News Bears” from 2005. I don’t know why they dropped the “the” in the title, but they did. Overall, it’s worth watching and has some nice updates from the original. In the end, though, it doesn’t hold a candle to the original.

‘Bad News Bears’
(2005; 113 minutes; rated PG-13; directed by Richard Linklater and starring Billy Bob Thornton, Greg Kinnear and Marcia Gay Harden)

THESE KIDS DON’T STRIKE OUT

(NOTE: I expanded this review with some more opinion, additional trivia and the updating of links on April 26, 2018. I again expanded the review on Feb. 20, 2025.)

I was impressed and enjoyed “The Bad News Bears” in 1976. So it was, of course, with trepidation that I awaited the remake when it came out in 2005. After all, they dropped the “the” in the title, so what else would they do? Actually, they updated it nicely with logical modernization and only a few name changes, mostly for the good. It is a watchable film with some solid acting, despite not measuring up to the original.

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Billy Bob Thornton reprised the Walter Matthau character “Morris Buttermaker” in “Bad News Bears” and does a good job, but it is Greg Kinnear and Marcia Gay Harden who do the really best work here. It took a second look at “Bad News Bears” for me to realize what Kinnear brought to the role as egotistical Little League coach “Roy Bullock.” After all, filmmakers renamed the character from “Roy Turner” and Kinnear will never be another Vic Morrow, who was the tough, child-slapping original, but he’s not Morrow’s “Turner” and that might be why the name was changed. As for Harden, she’s simply a terrific, accomplished actor who does great things even in a bad film. It was a stroke of genius casting her in this one (or managing to get her to sign on for the film).

After Kinnear and Harden, the work of Sammi Kane Kraft as “Amanda Whurlitzer,” who is the ringer girl pitcher brought in to help the team, is really up to the bar set pretty high by Tatum O’Neal in the original role – thankfully, they kept the same character name here – and it is truly a delight to have discovered that this oh-so-important role was filled properly. Plus, her work one-on-one with Thornton is impressive, too.

The updating in “Bad News Bears” is good and keeps practically everything in the original (introducing a physically-challenged boy to the equation is just one component updated logical and well) but manages to be today without drastically altering the original. One thing I did like is that Kinnear’s character just knocks a cap off his son’s head and pushes him as he criticized the boy in a game in front of everyone. In the original, Morrow actually slapped his own child. I’m no PC cowboy, but I guess that happened a lot more back then (and probably does today, too, if truth be told).

The story is this: a forceful businesswoman (Harden) successfully sues to get a team into a youth baseball league. They’re a bunch of misfits who didn’t make it on other teams and need their own team to be wedged into the league. The stereotype continues with the hiring of an alcoholic ex-minor league baseball player to coach them. They stink … they fail … but then they find themselves with the help of a girl who can pitch and an outcast boy who joins the team as revenge against a snotty, rival coach. Ultimately, of course and stereotypically, they succeed and reach the championship game. To the original filmmakers’ credit, the team loses the title game and I’m glad the remake didn’t change this key component of the film.

Here’s a look at the movie through some of the principal cast:

  • Don’t go with your first impression if you believe Oscar winner and two-time nominee (not for this one) Thornton isn’t the right fit for the role. He’s good here in a slightly different way than the lumbering presence of Matthau. I don’t believe Thornton is as good an actor as Matthau, but they bring different talent to different roles and Thornton is absolutely effective here. He’s the perfect choice to navigate all the wrong places (he gets a strip club to sponsor the team instead of the original film’s bail bond office) and comes off well as the lowlife who finally digs up enough pride to do something right for the team. I guess I graded Thornton down here for his reprehensible, execrable character (and performance) in “Bad Santa” (click here to read why it’s a putrid Christmas flick). He was much better in both “Pushing Tin” (click here to read my review) and “Primary Colors” than he is here, but somehow I believe he is perfectly cast as “Buttermaker.” Of course, he won his Oscar for writing “Sling Blade” and was nominated as best actor for it, too. His other nomination was for “A Simple Plan” and I really liked his work in a small role in the “Entourage” film (click here for my review).
  • An Oscar nominee (not for this one), Kinnear’s portrayal of the rival coach character is a bit different than Morrow in the original. Morrow was tough and narrow-minded and exuded a bullying toughness in the part while Kinnear does a wonderful job as the self-important, holier-than-thou somewhat-soft coach who is disgusted with Thornton and his ways. He reacts best in a couple of references to his too-tight sports shorts and this one should be a resume builder for him. Kinnear was good in “Little Miss Sunshine” and “You’ve Got Mail” (click here for my review). He was also in the creepy “Auto Focus” about TV actor Bob Crane’s creepy life and death was nominated for “As Good as It Gets.”
  • An Oscar winner and nominee (not for this one), Harden plays single-minded “Liz Whitewood” and updates the character from its original as a male politician. Harden develops a smoldering attraction for Thornton (another neat update that having the character a woman allows), but that facet doesn’t get enough screen time for the development such an accomplished actor could do. Harden looks to take command for any scene she’s in, but then it falls off since she doesn’t have the time necessary to do her best work. She is solid here, but not as good as she was in “Whip It” (click here for my review). She won her Oscar for “Pollock” and was nominated for “Mystic River.” Harden was also nominated for four Primetime Emmy awards.
  • Kane’s “Amanda Whurlitzer” is a neat update of the character from the original. Kane, who was 13 when the film was released, is in her first and only film here. She holds her own throughout “Bad News Bears” and is especially good in her scenes with Thornton – something that is not easily accomplished, even for a veteran actor. Tragedy ended Kane’s life in 2012 when she died of injuries in a car crash at the age of 20.

The team’s characters translate mostly well – especially Timmy Deters as the somewhat iconic “Tanner Boyle” – and here are a few vignettes about them:

  • Deters is just as spunky as Chris Barnes was as the competitive schoolboy “Tanner Boyle” in the original (he has the same haircut and has a bit chunkier build), but, while the character and his actions mirror Barnes’ work, he somehow comes off as establishing himself in the role that was clearly defined by the other actor. Deters was also in “The Animal” and “Daddy Day Care.” He’s had 22 acting credits since his first in 2001, but hasn’t worked in Hollywood or tee-vee since 2017.
  • Jeffrey Davies plays “Kelly Leak” and he’s the outcast boy who is an outstanding athlete and the final piece to Thornton’s winning puzzle. Kinnear’s taunts send Davies into the Bears’ camp and he plays this one smooth and laid back. Your first impression is that Davies is the opposite physical type for “Kelly Leak” from the original. Jackie Earle Haley’s “Kelly Leak” was a slight, smallish boy who was supposed to be this great athlete with a malnourished physique. Davies comes off as lanky, but both he and Haley are 5-foot-5 and part of Hollywood’s short set in front of the camera. This film is Davies’ only acting credit.

I’d like to take the time to examine every player on the team from Brandon Craggs as husky catcher “Mike Engelberg” to Kenneth “K.C.” Harris as “Ahmad Abdul Rahim” to Tyler Patrick Jones as “Timmy Lupus,” but I don’t want to turn this into a novel-length effort. Troy Gentile plays physically-challenged “Matthew Hooper” and has good lines and delivers a solid effort – he’s had 17 more credits, including “Good Luck Chuck” and TV work, since his first film role here.

In addition to getting a strip club to sponsor the team, other updates includes Kane’s meeting with Davies at a skate park instead of over a game of air hockey; the kids’ music (of course); “Buttermaker” is a pest control employee instead of a pool man; and also modernized dialogue – such as when Thornton tells the kids that baseball is difficult because you can love it but it won’t love you back. “Kind of like dating a German chick, you know,” he tells his charges.

“Bad News Bears” struck out with moviegoers as it was the 82nd ranked film of 2005 with $32.8 million in ticket sales, according to Box Office Mojo. Overall, the film brought in $34.2 million worldwide on a $35 million budget, according to Wiki. The No. 1 film of the year was “Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith” with $380.2 million. Here are the films from that year that I’ve reviewed for this blog:

Assorted cast notes (via IMDb.com):

  • Thornton’s Billy Bob is fully William Robert; and Craggs’ nickname is “Hoss.”
  • “Bad News Bears” was Kane’s only acting credit. She was a baseball player with a 70 mph fastball, according to IMDb.com, when she was chosen for the part.
  • Directly from IMDb.com: “The character Matthew Hooper is named after Richard Dreyfuss‘s character in Jaws (1975).”
  • Watch close and you’ll find a little homage to the original – Thornton seeks sponsorship at “Chico’s Bail Bonds” and it, of course, was the sponsor in the original film.
  • Finally and directly from IMDb.com: “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.”

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