Richard Linklater's cynical kiddie-sports comedy is less a remake of THE BAD NEWS BEARS (1976) than a cover version; for all the updated riffs and personal noodling, it's best when it doesn't stray too far from the original material. Once upon a time, Morris Buttermaker (Billy Bob Thornton) was a Major League baseball player, if only for one game and not even all of that. Now he's a drunken exterminator so broke he's willing to take on coaching the Bears, a pathetic excuse for a Little League team that only exists because overbearing mom Liz Whitewood's (Marcia Gay Harden) antidiscrimination lawsuit against League officials could have stopped the entire season. Butte...
Released:
2005
Rated:
PG-13
Length:
111 mins