Bad News Bears (7/10)

by Tony Medley

If it’s Paramount, it must be a remake. Surely we are nearing the end of Sherry Lansing’s legacy. She’s been gone almost a year but the remakes are still flowing out of the Melrose lot like a tidal wave.

“Bad News Bears” is not only a remake, it’s remarkably similar to the original, which was written by Burt Lancaster’s son, Bill. Screenwriters Glenn Ficarra and John Requa made some changes, but Lancaster’s original emerges amazingly intact. It’s still irreverent. It’s an adult movie peopled by children. The kids are mostly profane, really just short adults. Not surprisingly, given that Ficarra and Requa wrote the script for Billy Bob Thornton’s despicable “Bad Santa” (2004), the changes that were made to the film are generally not for the better.

But it wasn’t due to the casting. Thornton, who plays Buttermaker, is as good, if not better, than Walter Matthau. But the script makes him less odious than Matthau, and that’s not for the better. Greg Kinnear fills in as Yankee coach Roy Turner, played by Vic Morrow in the original. Morrow, as you may recall, was beheaded in a John Landis movie. Morrow’s Turner was a heavy, a real unlikable guy. I coached Little League and there were lots of guys like Morrow’s Turner coaching. Turner’s role has been changed from an odious heavy to a squeaky clean hypocrite here, a guy you want to like, but really can’t. Nobody ever wanted to really like Morrow’s Turner. Kinnear’s Turner is more complex and interesting, mainly because Kinnear gives an outstanding performance.

But where the original shone was the juvenile leads, Tatum O’Neal as Amanda, Buttermaker’s daughter and star pitcher, and Jackie Earle Haley as Kelly Leak, the bad boy, motorcycle-riding star of the team. O’Neal didn’t look like much of an athlete, but that was overcome by good camera work. Haley did look athletic. Athletic or not, what they could both do was act. O’Neal, an Oscar winner as a ten-year-old in “Paper Moon” (1973), was just as good in “Bad News Bears” as she was in “Paper Moon,” three years previously, just an exceptionally talented little girl. The scenes between O’Neal and Matthau were very good, especially the one in which Amanda yearns for Buttermaker’s companionship, only to be cruelly rejected. O’Neal showed the hurt in her eyes, an amazing bit of acting for a 13-year-old.

For this “Bad News Bears,” director Richard Linklater felt athleticism was more important than acting ability. So he auditioned little girls as baseball players, picking Sammi Kane Kraft, who reportedly can throw a 70-mile-per-hour fastball. She is a believable baseball player. Unfortunately, she is not an actress. Her scenes are painful to watch. Her deficiency as an actress is all the more glaring because most of her scenes are with Thornton, an Oscar-nominated professional. The scene of Amanda seeking companionship with Buttermaker is muted, completely losing its effect, probably because Linklater realized it was beyond Kraft’s capability.

Linklater’s Kelly Leak, Jeffrey Davies,  was a little league player in Orlando, Florida who was picked out of a casting call. Whether or not he can act isn’t that important because he’s not in that many scenes that call for him to do much more than hit and catch a baseball, which he does exceptionally well.

Casting actors for their athletic prowess has worked recently, most notably in “Miracle” (2004) and “The Game of their Lives” (2005), where the actors were picked out of athletic auditions, chosen for their athleticism first and their acting second. But acting was a requirement, nonetheless. Here is seems as if Linklater chose Kraft solely because she could throw a baseball 70 miles-per-hour and disdained the fact that she couldn’t act. That’s a shame because Thornton and Kinnear do a good job, and the other children are entertaining, especially Timmy Deters, who plays Tanner Boyle, the feisty little guy who’s always getting into fights. He is already a professional actor and the difference between his talent and Kraft’s is glaring.

They did find one player who turned out to be a good actor. Brandon Craggs, plays Engelberg, the rotund catcher. He’s got some good lines and he delivers them well.

Even though this is an entertaining movie, and even though Thornton and Kinnear are very good, Kraft’s acting is so deficient that it can’t be rated much higher than what I’ve given it. She’s on screen too much and her role is too pivotal. What a monumental error!

Another negative addition to the original is the blatant political correctness of the casting. The Bears have Arabs and Indians and African Americans and even a paraplegic on the team. Talk about making a statement in-your-face. Linklater would do well to emulate the dictum often attributed to Samuel Goldwyn, “If you want to send a message, use Western Union.” Maybe Linklater’s simplistic political sermonizing is somewhat understandable when one realizes that he is responsible for the anti-marriage, anti-family “Before Sunset” (2004).

If you listen closely, you will hear that “Habañera” from Bizet’s “Carmen” is played throughout as background music, an odd amalgamation of class with low class. This is not a children’s movie, as it is replete with vulgar language, disrespect for authority, and the low moral values of Buttermaker.

One good thing Linklater retained is the anti-Hollywood ending, which makes a point little league coaches should take to heart. Little League should be about several things. First, it should be fun. Second, the children should learn how to play baseball. What it should not be about is winning.

July 18, 2005