Taglines: The bases are Loaded… So is the coach.
In “Bad News Bears,” grizzled former professional baseball player Morris Buttermaker (Billy Bob 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). From the director that brought you “The School of Rock” with the writing team behind “Bad Santa” comes a hilarious 2005 homage to an irreverent 1976 comedy.
Morris Buttermaker, a former pro baseball player, was ejected from the game for attacking an umpire and now works as an exterminator. More interested in boozing and broads than baseball, Buttermaker is lured back into the game by Liz Whitewood, an attorney whose class action suit has forced the Little League to accept all players, regardless of their abilities.
As the new coach of the Bears, the most losing team in Little League history, Buttermaker has his work cut out for him. Initially, he’s only in it for the paycheck, but he and his inept players have a transformative effect on one another that is wholly unexpected, and completely remarkable.
Bad News Bears (2005)
Directed by: Richard Linklater
Starring: Billy Bob Thornton, Greg Kinnear, Marcia Gay Harden, Sammi Kane Kraft, Jeffrey Davies, Brandon Craggs, Timmy Deters, Emmanuel Estrada, Troy Gentile
Screenplay by: Glenn Ficarra, John Requa
Production Design by: Bruce Curtis
Cinematography by: Rogier Stoffers
Film Editing by: Sandra Adair
Costume Design by: Karen Patch
Set Decoration byÇ Brana Rosenfeld
Art Direction by: David Lazan
Music by: Ed Shearmur
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for rude behavior, language throughout, some sexuality and thematic elements.
Distributed by: Paramount Pictures
Release Date: July 22, 2005
Visits: 89
