CS Weekly Archive > DVD of the Day > 12/23/05

When Remakes Go Bad

by dennis sampson

Bad News Bears
(Special Collector's Edition) (2005)

Bill Lancaster and Glenn Ficarra & John Requa
Based on the film by Bill Lancaster

The 2005 version of Bad News Bears, which stars Billy Bob Thornton in the Coach Morris Buttermaker role previously played by Walter Matthau, seems like a hybrid of the leading man's Friday Night Lights and Bad Santa films set on a Little League baseball diamond. (It should be noted that screenwriters Glenn Ficarra and John Requa also wrote Bad Santa; check out their CS Weekly interview here. Only the Richard Linklater-directed Bears doesn't reach Lights' inspired heights, nor Santa's debaucherous lows. By now, everyone knows the story of the grizzled coach who brings a team of misfits to the championship game. The 1976 film hit just the right notes in terms of character interplay (particularly those of Buttermaker and the ball players) and a rousing theme of the underdog, but this update tries so hard to be everything to everyone, it ends up losing its audience in the process. The vulgarity seems forced and inauthentic, so much so that we actually end up losing compassion for the Bears. By the end, we don't care if these kids win or lose, as long as they just shut up. The extras, on the other hand, are quite good, with writers Ficarra and Requa sharing commentary with Linklater. (Lancaster, who penned the original film and is also credited on the sequel, died in 1997.) The "Writing the Bears" featurette, where Ficarra and Requa discuss the challenges of rewriting a classic film, is particularly edifying. Ironically, this supplemental manages to work against the purpose of the DVD -- it makes us realize everything the original film has that this one doesn't: wit, believability, and, above all, a clear sense of what it is.

Bad News Bears (Special Collector's Edition) (2005)
Paramount Home Entertainment
Rated PG-13; 113 min.
$29.95

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Dennis Sampson is a commercial production coordinator and unproduced screenwriter. He currently lives in Los Angeles with his better half, Susan, and their dog Tripp.

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