The Bad News Bears is a 1976 film directed by Michael Ritchie. The film was followed by two sequels, The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training in 1977 and The Bad News Bears Go to Japan in 1978, and a short-lived 1979-80 CBS television series, none of which were able to duplicate the success of the original.1
In “Bad News Bears,” grizzled former professional baseball player Morris Buttermaker (Thornton) is bribed by a straitlaced lawyer (Marcia Gay Harden) to coach the Bears, a woefully inept youth baseball team. Buttermaker’s got to find a way to drive this gang of 12 misfits to a championship against their hated rivals: the Yankees and their overbearing coach (Greg Kinnear).2
One of the movies that started all of the cliches of the down and out team of ragtag misfits and losers. The Bad News Bears manages to do it in a realistic, interesting and funny way.3
When a little league team named The Bad News Bears are in need of a coach, one of the boy’s fathers turns to Morris Buttermaker (Matthau), a has-been minor league baseball player who now supports his alcohol and smoking habits by cleaning and maintaining pools. Taking the dysfunctional team under his wing, Buttermaker at first sees the kids as a lost cause because, let’s face it, the kids suck at baseball.4
Hollywood’s tradition of remaking classic movies continues with this 21st-century updating of the 1976 romp, THE BAD NEWS BEARS. Acclaimed director Richard Linklater (THE SCHOOL OF ROCK, DAZED AND CONFUSED) pays respect to Michael Ritchie’s original film by updating it rather than reinventing it.5
0 comments:
Post a Comment