The Bad News Bears (2005)

[ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ]

Just saw it on opening day.  It was a lot better than I expected.  Linklater and Billy Bob work together perfectly.  Probably my favorite Linklater film since Dazed and Confused.

So you didn't like Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, or Waking Life?

[MacGuffin]

'Bad News' for filmgoers under 10
The makers of the new "Bad News Bears" caution that the film hardly represents a safe night out for the whole family.

Nearly three decades after they first took the field, the young "Bad News Bears" baseball players are as hapless as ever. But in a sign of evolving movie ratings and shifting pop-culture politics, they have cleaned up their act. They no longer smoke, they don't drink and they aren't given to racial epithets.

Other than that, they are raunchier than ever, and the new "Bad News Bears" has nearly as many four-letter words as it does bats and gloves.

Just as the "Austin Powers" movies pushed the edge of the ratings envelope, so too did the original "Bad News Bears." Released in 1976, eight years before the PG-13 rating was created, the movie earned the PG mark, a broad category that at the time ranged from an intense action film, "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom," to an Oscar-winning drama, "Paper Moon," and gave little warning of the film's ribald content.

The new "Bad News Bears" also occupies an unusual place within the film-ratings spectrum. Although its PG-13 mark allows children of any age to attend the film, the film's makers are cautioning parents that it hardly represents a safe night out for the entire household.

"This is a pretty hard PG-13," director Richard Linklater said. "It's not a family movie. I wouldn't take children under 10."

The delicate balancing act between bawdy edginess and don't-go-there sacrilege was on display on an Encino baseball diamond in February, as production on the remake that opens today was winding down. Following a G-rated scene in which the Bears try (and, naturally, fail) to catch a routine fly ball, the movie's kids repaired to the dugout for some riskier business, filming dialogue about how the word "team" should be spelled with an "F" and a "U."

"We want to keep the movie PG-13," co-producer Bruce Heller said before the scene was shot. "And it's going to be tough."

Paramount Pictures ultimately was able to win the PG-13 rating — the filmmakers reworked one scene involving some potentially borderline dialogue about a crack pipe — with the warning that the film includes "rude behavior, language throughout, some sexuality and thematic elements." Yet the film also excised a number of scenes from the original 1976 movie that were considered too politically incorrect for today's audiences.

One of the most notable exclusions is an iconic line spoken in the original film by a character named Tanner Boyle, in which the ballplayer denounces his team's ethnic and religious makeup, using slurs for Latinos and African Americans.

"Bad News Bears" screenwriters John Requa and Glenn Ficarra ("Bad Santa") initially included the insults in the remake's screenplay. When the scene was finally read aloud by the actors in an early rehearsal, they quickly reconsidered their choice.

"There was dead silence," said Linklater ("School of Rock"). "It just reminded us how much humor and the culture changes over time. It's a different time and place now. It's just not funny."

Although the remake is faithful to the original movie (original screenwriter Bill Lancaster, who died in 1997, even shares a screenplay credit on the new film), Linklater and his two screenwriters also cut out scenes from the Walter Matthau version in which members of the Bears drink beer and smoke cigarettes.

"We were told in no uncertain terms that showing the kids smoking or drinking was a guaranteed R" rating from the Motion Picture Assn. of America, Requa said.

The kids were allowed to serve their alcoholic coach (Billy Bob Thornton) cocktails and also are seen drinking nonalcoholic beer.

As for the film's multiple vulgarities, Ficarra said, "The MPAA doesn't mind, as long as you are not referring to [sexual] penetration."

The idea for the remake was hatched at Thornton's manager's office and was pitched to Paramount, which had made the original.

Thornton's off-color comedy "Bad Santa" had been a recent hit, and Paramount's thinking was to marry that film's star and its audacious writers with what it felt was a topical story about competition, sportsmanship and redemption.

"There's a message in it for kids that is really good, and they are not going to watch the older movie," Thornton said. The message, the actor said, "is that it doesn't matter if you're not as big or fast as the other kids, because maybe you're better than you think you are. We've always loved movies about underdogs and misfits." The challenge was to combine those wholesome themes with the first film's uncouth pedigree. Although the original film was well reviewed, it also generated some criticism.

"It was pretty scandalous," Linklater said.

Added Ficarra: "It was the first movie I saw that showed how other kids talked. It seemed so real to me."

In adapting the 1976 version for today's moviegoers, Linklater, Ficarra and Requa faced a predicament: Water down the dialogue too much, and you alienate the original film's fans; make it too raunchy, and you've got a comedy about 12-year-olds for which only adults can purchase tickets.

Thornton, whose own baseball career ended mere minutes into a tryout with the Kansas City Royals, believes today's kids are exposed to much more worrisome fare on television and in video games.

"I'd much rather my kids watch a movie with cursing than a movie with violence," said Thornton, whose middle children are 11 and 12. " 'South Park' has language much worse than this, and it's on TV. Video games like Grand Theft Auto are incredibly violent."

Paramount's marketing campaign has tried to emphasize the mature elements of the film, essentially saying that "Bad News Bears" is to Little League what "Bad Santa" was to Father Christmas.

At a time when riskier fare like "Wedding Crashers" is playing well, it might be the right pitch at the right time.

Already, "Bad News Bears" is getting mixed reviews from some younger kids. Linklater said he took his 12-year-old daughter to a recent screening.

Said Linklater: "She said the parts that weren't disgusting were pretty funny."

[soixante]

Just saw it on opening day.  It was a lot better than I expected.  Linklater and Billy Bob work together perfectly.  Probably my favorite Linklater film since Dazed and Confused.

So you didn't like Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, or Waking Life?

I liked those films, along with Tape, Suburbia and School of Rock.  Linklater's films are always good.   The cool thing is, even though Bad News Bears is a mainstream sports movie, it has flavor of a Richard Linklater film.  Linklater works well with actors, and gives them lots of breathing room to explore their characters.  I also think Linklater works really well with young actors.

[GoneSavage]

Kelly Leak wasn't as totally awesome as he was in the first.  Tanner's actor was great though.  I thought a lot of the jokes fell flat and just hung in the air.  I did laugh often though, they get away with a lot more "shits" than they used to in PG-13s.  

*OMGSPOILERSOMG*I thought him fucking Marcia Gay Harden was unnecessary.  It seemed like it took them 30 minutes to get to the championship game and the remaining hour was that whole game.  *OHTHANKGODTHOSESPOILERSAREOVERJESUS*

I didn't like it as much as the original, nor as much as Linklater's last foray into the theme of kids overcoming evil.

[MacGuffin]

This "update" only varied on the original (which I've seen numerous times) slighty; otherwise, it was just a straight remake and added really nothing new, so why remake it at all? What worked in the original, and in School of Rock, is missing here, and that's the personalities of the kids; that's what made those movies funny and what made the non-actors become actors. With this film it just seemed like they were trying to match the original kids.

[ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ]

This movie felt like they were swearing just to be kids swearing, whereas in the original, I really believed they had horrible parents.