Bad News Bears

USA 2005, 111 minutes
Dir. Richard Linklater
Genres: Comedy

Topics: Sport.

Feat. Billy Bob Thornton, Marcia Gay Harden, Greg Kinnear

Aroview: Billy Bob Thornton stars as the loutish coach of a losing baseball team in this soft-shoe remake of the 1976 Walter Matthau classic, following the spirit of the original in subverting all the 'underdog' cliches of the adolescent sports movie, while removing its spikier points of satire.

Dir. Linklater (SCHOOL OF ROCK) corrals his youthful cast of losers with apparent ease, but the best comedy certainly derives from Thornton's BAD SANTA-esque turn as the drunk, bad-tempered anti-hero. Finally too worthy for its own good, the inevitably triumphant finale rolls out some appalling cliches - Matthau would roll in his grave.