lowdown:
Remake of the 1976 movie about a ragtag little league team.
low expectation:
Bill Lancaster, the dead screenwriter of the original The Bad News Bears and one of its sequels, has been given a writing credit because there supposedly wasn't much changed by Ficarra and Requa. If a remake is going to be that true to its source, then what is the point, really? Perhaps the first draft of the new project was as filthy and crass as the duo's Bad Santa script and when Linklater came on board, he had them stick closer to the family-friendly, yet still fairly foul first film. The only noticeable difference is the dropping of the first article in the title.
Well I hope they at least paid Lancaster's family (did you know he was the son of Burt?), but it is likely that Paramount saw no obligation there. This release is a big insult to screenwriters everywhere. Linklater, often acclaimed for his writing skills more than anything, could easily write a baseball movie to do justice to his favorite pasttime, but he has instead been tempted by the success of familiar kid movies. The Bad News Bears has been remade so many times with so many other sports that its familiarity wins the world series of understatements.
Billy Bob's attitude plus the fact that it is basically a carbon copy of its enjoyable predecessor will make the picture entertaining anyway. That and Linklater's handling of a story and a soundtrack can not be hurt even by its irksome pointlessness.
Pro: Glenn Ficarra and John Requa also wrote Bad Santa
Con: another unnecessary remake from Paramount
Pro: Kinnear's character has a different name than in the original, hopefully freeing him from the chance of an eerie coincidental decapitation death in his future
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Article comments
1 - dietdoc
F.C., this "remake mania" is getting a little ridiculous, isn't it?
I keep waiting on the next "Mutiny on the Bounty" starring Brad Pitt as Fletcher Christian and Anthony Hopkins as...
Oh, wait, Hopkins already did that gig with Mel.
Nevermind.
Cheers,
Ron