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"Bad News Bears" - Bad News is Good News

Billy Bob Thornton proves once again that he plays white trash better than just about anybody in the current remake of the 1976 comedy classic, “Bad News Bears.” As Coach Buttermaker, Thornton horrifies the adults around him with his delightfully insensitive behavior as he bonds with a bunch of foul-mouthed kids on the ball field.

Decidedly grittier, this PG-13 rated version by director Richard Linklater gets to the heart of what makes the Great American Pastime so great…talking trash. And there is plenty of it to go around. Parents may want to keep the young and innocent away from what seems to be another summer kid’s pic, but is in reality an adult comedy.

Personally I don’t have a problem with it, but then again, I don’t have kids either. Thornton is hilarious as the coach and the Bears themselves are given some choice bits of material to play with. The story follows the original fairly closely with a few updates like computers and skateboards and a trip to Hooters to keep it real.

Greg Kinnear shows up as the coach of the Yankees, a collection of un-sportsmanlike boys who succeed through sheer meanness. Kinnear is the typical coach/dad with winning on the brain. He stands in stark contrast to everything that Thornton represents, laziness, drunkenness, and lewdness. The two face off in a slow burn towards an obvious meltdown near the end.

There are lots of lessons here except they are all for the grown-ups. This is a movie about how to relate to kids and how not to relate to kids. One of the few pointers that kids can take away from this movie is how to give the finger properly. In reality, there isn’t much here that can’t be learned on a grade school playground. Linklater is trying to say that boys will be boys, so don’t take it too seriously.

The group of youngsters that play the Bears represent a cross-section of today’s youth. There’s the over-protected one, the loud-mouth, the fat loud-mouth, the shy one, the brain, the rebel, the taking-ten-other-lessons-besides-this one, the barely speaks English one, and the one in a wheel chair…oh yeah, and the girl one. It’s a real wrecking crew. They flesh out the story with their antics fairly well, while Billy Bob smokes cigars and drinks spiked non-alcoholic beer.

Of course, Buttermaker is the guy who really cares. He’s down with the kids instead of towering over them like an ogre. Kinnear finally shows his true colors and it’s a very uncomfortable moment. It’s meant to be. Perhaps some adults will see themselves in this unlikable character and rethink their attitude. Then again, guys like that don’t really do summer movies too much…and in the end, well, I don’t want to say whether they win or lose, because it’s mostly about how they play the game.