The Baltimore Sun needs a lobotomy if it continues to retain Michael Scragow as its professional reviewer for films. This guy has never been right yet. He gave Gone With The Wind a score of 40 but loved Benifer and Madonna in their forgotten duds...Whatever he says it is the other way around. Mark my words in that Bears will now be a box office smash. Earth to MS: We want Billy Bob Thonton to play a similar character as he did in Bad Santa. That is his schtick and the appeal. Too funny.… Expand

The original Bad News Bears was one of my all time favourite films. Unfortunately it was difficult not to compare the original with this version. For me there was just no comparison! The kids in the original were funnier and had more flair and personality. I think it was a mistake to try and copy the Tanner character from the original.That Tanner could never be copied. The Amanda and Kelly characters appeared to be chosen for their baseball abilities and not their acting abilities. My 16 year old daughter who had never seen the original really enjoyed this movie. She is also a big Billy Bob Thornton fan. He was fine in this role but overall it left me feeling blah. This years other big remake Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is worth seeing. But if you have seen the original Bad News Bears, I say stay away from this version.… Expand

Everything that's wrong with this remake of the 1976 Walter Matthau/Tatum O'Neal pee-wee sports classic can be summed up in the poster. The original film's advertising art, by the great comic artist Jack Davis, looked spontaneous and effortless. The obvious attempt by the current version's cartoonist to replicate Davis' style comes off as cluttered, stiff and forced. Similarly, the normally way-above-average Richard Linklater's scene-for-scene Xerox copy of Michael Ritchie's original (any rumors that Linklater wasn't on the set for long periods at a time can be readily explained by the probability that he was at home studying Ritchie's setups and shots so he could steal them exactly) reproduces all of Ritchie's musical notes, but Linklater's result is, from beginning to end, shrill, dissonant and mostly unendurable. (Speaking of which, it's hard to decide what's more unforgivable: Linklater's wholesale pilfering of Ritchie's droll use of Bizet's Carmen as background music for team practices and games or the lackluster, elevator-music rendering of same--quite a shock coming from the man who brought you School of Rock!) The hardworking Billy Bob Thornton's streak of tremendously satisfying screen performances over the last few years, matched perhaps only by Samuel L. Jackson's, just snapped; casting him as a profane, lecherous, drunken exterminator forced to coach a Little League team is almost inevitably, owing to the law of averages, bound to yield a few raunchy laughs...but Thornton and the audience still get seriously shortchanged by a screenplay from Bad Santa's John Fuqua and Glenn Ficarra that's so creatively bankrupt and lazy that its very few attempts at updating the 29-year-old material with jokes about Mark McGwire and the Atkins diet still come across as hopelessly outdated. Ritchie, who was working at his peak with the political docusatire The Candidate, the beauty contest chronicle Smile, and this, was peerless at sharply but affectionately tweaking the American competitive spirit, and he worked with a true sense of generosity and affection toward his characters: he really liked the coach and the kids and showed them growing as team members and human beings. All that Linklater, Fuqua and Ficarra care about are cheap, cruddy third-rate sitcom gags: what does it say about Thornton's Coach Buttermaker in this film that by the time the championship game rolls around, he STILL can't remember the names of his players? Worst of all is the utterly confusing muddle with which the moviemakers depict the opposing coach (creepily and memorably played by Vic Morrow in 1976; blandly and forgettably played by Greg Kinnear here). In the original, Morrow's son-abusing behavior changed the Bears' entire attitude toward winning; any lesson that Ritchie communicated about the win-at-any-cost philosophy is hopelessly buried and lost here. And what's with Paramount lately, by the way? How long is this once-great studio going to tread water by raping and plundering decades-old past glories (Alfie, The Longest Yard, War of the Worlds, and this... all in less than a year)? What's next: an "updating" of Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity with Kinnear in the Fred MacMurray role of the duplicitous insurance agent-turned-murder accomplice, Tara Reid as Barbara Stanwyck's femme fatale, and John Goodman as the wily detective originally played by Edward G. Robinson? If that's the wave of the future, may the studio opt to nobly and with dignity go gently into that good night, as Orion Pictures did, rather than forcing its founder, Adolph Zukor, to continue tossing and turning in his grave in dismay and disgust at what he hath wrought.… Expand

Silly fun.

Meh. the fat kid made me laugh. everything else is thorougly boring, and not because I'm not a kid anymore.

Completely unnecessary remake (the original is PERFECT) that still manages to entertain. Billy Bob Thornton is hilarious and director Linklater maintains much of the original's anarchic spirit.

Dont remake a classic!

Michael Scragow gave it a bad review, what more proof do you need that it's worth seeing? This guy thought "Vertical Limit and "Twisted" were magnificent movies and "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" was an abomination. Need any other reason to think this movie has 99.999% chance of being good? This guy is like a reverse indicator for good films and crappy ones.

Didn't expect too much out of this one. Provides a few laughs every once and a while (most near the beginning when they play baseball like retards). I have to give this a 5 because of Thornton, the comments and jokes he makes in this are great but are not frequent enough. Bad Santa was perfect for him and this had its moments. During this movie a lot of people in the theater got bored, and even I was getting tired. Some of the characters were really lame, and I felt nothing for them. Amanda and Kelly looked way older then the kids on the team... I mean 12 year olds rarely have... you know. The plot was predictable as usual BUT at least they don't win in the end (and yes I know its a remake).… Expand

Parents, please do not take your kids to this movie, I have never heard more cursing in a movie n imy entire life and from kids at that. I also never laughed more in a movie than "Bad News Bears", well maybe I did when I saw "Raw" 15 years ago or so. I was literally rolling on the floor with that one. As a kiddie movie you will be sorely disappointed in the "Bad News Bears", but as a dark comedy this is a good as it gets. It was worth oh so much more than eight bucks. I would have gladly paid double. Can you put a price on laughing your ass off for two hours straight? So what was it that made this film great? First off Billy Bob Thorton is a great actor who can mold himself to a divesity of rolls. Who'd have thought he could ever do comedy? The was not a smidgeon of cheap slapstick to him. He played this dysfunctional also sociopathic character with a dead pan face. It worked so well, I can't describe it, just go see it. All the kids were great too. The were always fighting with each other and everone else. I know it junvenile but sometimes you just need to let your inner kid out. And there were moments when you'd see their inner kids' coming out and just have fun with each other. I'd love to see the out-takes one this one. In short I highly recomend this movie for adults that aren't to stuffed up to let loose and enjoy this rare beauty of a comedy.… Expand

What a relief it is to watch a sports movies that doesn't involve the requisite mock broadcast by ESPN or some other sports outlet. The omission of any media coverage could be construed as part of the film's commentary that youth sports is often taken too seriously. For example, ESPN expanded their coverage of the Little League World Series by infiltrating neighborhood ballparks with their cameras to capture the regional finals. This added significance on games that by right should take place in relative anonymity, helps breed coaches like the one played by Greg Kinnear. "The Bad News Bears" seemed like a pointless remake, until we learned in the news about the Little League baseball coach who won't be winning any humanitarian awards in the foreseeable future. But there are moments when the deja vu is so strong, Richard Linklater's "The Bad News Bears" is like watching Gus Van Sant's remake of "Psycho". It's still a lot of fun though. With the possible exception of Jeffrey Davies subbing for Jackie Earle Haley, as Kelly Leak, Linklater's replacements don't have you clamoring too hard for Chico's Bail Bonds and the late Vic Morrow. Sammi Kane Kraft is a standout. In 1976, you probably couldn't find a convincing girl pitcher in an open call.… Expand

Fairly entertaining, but the the girl is quite annoying, and none of the kids seem their age in looks or behavior.

The original is simply better. Thorton is quite good (as expected), but someone of the caliber of Tatum O'Neil is sorely missing as Amanda. The kids and the context seemed so much more real in the original movie. Here, they're a pretty bland bunch, except for Tanner (who hits all the right notes) and the new Ogilvie, now an Indian-American whiz kid with the same awkward intellectual charm. Worth seeing, but the original is much more worth seeking out.… Expand

Michael Scragow must go!!! I'm giving this 10 just because he didn't like it and it's an unpretentious Linklater movie -- the best kind.

Wow, there are some serious Michael Scragow haters in the audience. Anyway, I thought this movie was rather funny, but it drew almost all of its humor from the "ha ha, look, it's little kids swearing!" reaction. Some of the kids were pretty funny and Bill Bob was alright. Sadly, the main child character (Amanda, the pitcher) was a pretty amazingly bad actress, which sort of detracted from the film a bit. Overall, it was entertaining, particularly if you like children with anger management problems.… Expand

The only real words I can use are... YUCK!

A lot better than what that Mike guy from the Baltimore Sun said. Funny stuff.