Morris Buttermaker is a burned-out minor league baseball player who loves to drink and can't keep his hands to himself. His long-suffering lawyer arranges for him to manage a local Little League team, and Buttermaker soon finds himself the head of a rag-tag group of misfit players. Through unconventional team-building exercises and his offbeat coaching style, Buttermaker helps his hapless Bears prepare to meet their rivals, the Yankees.
Billy Bob Thornton is the best weapon against cute that a kid baseball movie ever had.
– Peter Travers,
Rolling Stone,
28 Jul 2005
fresh:
There are many lingerings over communal feelings other directors might pass through more quickly to get to the next giggle or guffaw more efficiently.
– Andrew Sarris,
New York Observer,
4 Aug 2005
rotten:
Billy Bob Thornton has proven he can do pretty much anything, but he simply does not look haggard, washed-up or miserable enough to be a believable Morris Buttermaker, the role Walter Matthau immortalized.
– Christy Lemire,
Associated Press,
13 May 2014
fresh:
Fortunately almost everyone acquits himself coolly and admirably.
– Jonathan Rosenbaum,
Chicago Reader,
13 May 2014
fresh:
The best reason to see Richard Linklater's wholly unnecessary but highly enjoyable remake of The Bad News Bears is Billy Bob Thornton, who's doing a PG-13 version of his Bad Santa.