Bad News Bears Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		3.5
Overall		3.5

Bad News Bears Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman February 10, 2022

Richard Linklater (School of Rock) directs Bad News Bears, a remake of the 1976 film of the same name. The film is structurally almost identical to the original, right down to character names, the look of the uniforms (minus the change in sponsor), themes, and the like. But it somehow lacks the soul from the original. It's a fine remake insofar as its faithfulness to the original ebbs and flows, but it brings absolutely nothing to the table that the original didn't already bring to it. This version never makes a case for its existence, but it exists in a good enough state to make for an interesting comp piece but not much more.

Morris Buttermaker (Billy Bob Thornton) was once a promising prospect for the Seattle Mariners but a run-in with an umpire cost him his career, and probably a pretty decent payday, too. Now, he's a perpetually buzzed exterminator who is hired to coach little league baseball. His task: wrangle a team of rejects and misfits. There's little hope of winning with this ragtag bunch called The Bears, but when Buttermaker sobers up -- just a little bit -- and makes an effort to actually coach the team, things slowly begin to turn around. When he finagles two stars players -- Amanda Wurlitzer (Sammi Kane Kraft) and Kelly Leak (Jeffrey Davies) -- onto the team, the wins begin to pile up. As a showdown with the hated rival Yankees looming in the championship game, will Buttermaker push the right buttons to win, or will he realize that winning isn't everything?

The film falls short because it lacks the central beating heart that defined the first one, which is essentially an unwritten intangible that no level of mimicking faithfulness can capture. Past the crudeness and the bumbling baseball antics was a compellingly rich story of the human condition, about what it means to win and lose and try and have fun, to come together through adversity and find real inward success even in perceived, outward failure. These themes are not missing here, but they are somehow missing the same depth and poignancy that richly rewarded viewers of the original film beyond the externals. This film is certainly game to tackle those externals, and it does that very well – even within the PG-13 rating context – but that is not what makes Bad News Bears, and that is where this remake falls short: its priorities are reversed, even if the film follows the same pattern from the original classic.

That said, Billy Bob Thornton embodies Morris Buttermaker with uncanny depth and realism as a drunk and disorderly womanizer who uses the Bears for a quick payday, at least at first. He’s every bit as capable as Mattheu was in the original but working with a lesser script and backwards priorities even his commanding, born-for performance can’t quite get off the ground the same way Mattheu’s did back in 1976. Thornton plays the part with gusto, though, and his character is something like Field of Dreams' Moonlight Graham meets, well, another of Thornton's characters from Bad Santa. Like Graham, Buttermaker made it to the Big Leagues only briefly, pitching not even a full inning and finding himself out of the game thereafter. Unlike Graham, he has chosen not to make the most of his post-baseball life, serving his community not as a respected doctor but rather as a a local nuisance. Like his character in Bad Santa, Thornton lives perpetually wasted, but functionally wasted, focused not on anything meaningful but only his own selfish bubble in which he seeks instant gratification rather than committing to making a long-term impact for himself and on the world around him.

Bad News Bears Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

This 1080p Blu-ray presentation is very nice. The picture holds to a steady filmic texturing. Grain is present, light, but critical in capturing the essential structural elements, offering a refined cinematic appearance that spearheads a solid image. Details are tight and capable, offering fine point clothing definition, ballcap textures, and facial pores and stubble in close-up shots. Clarity extends through the whole image, including grass outfields and dirt infields, little bits of wear in the dugout, and other world details in homes, restaurants, and the like. Colors are bold, with natural greens a highlight as well as the Bears yellow accents. Contrast is dialed into a natural state, as is temperature. Whites are crisp as they support uniform colors, black levels are fine, and skin tones are healthy. The source print is free of any bothersome blemishes and the encode is likewise in good shape. This is a rock-solid Blu-ray from Paramount.

Bad News Bears Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Paramount brings Bad News Bears to Blu-ray with a fundamentally sound, if not somewhat uninteresting, Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack. The presentation is front heavy with minimal surround activity and no real discernible ambition for such a thing as the track was originally engineered. Whether big blasts of score or baseball scenes, surround extension is kept to a minimum, and even crowd ambience, chatter on the field, and other assorted elements remain mostly along a front side line rather than do more than drift into the back. Still, front end width is very good, and clarity is fine, whether, again, score or baseball activity. There's not a whole lot more to the track. Dialogue is clear and well prioritized. It is consistently focused on the front, though some background chatter does stretch out to the sides.

Bad News Bears Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of Bad News Bears includes an ample assortment of legacy extras. No DVD or digital copies are included with purchase. This release does not ship with a slipcover.

• Audio Commentary: Director Richard Linklater and the team of Co-Screenplay Writers -- Glenn Ficarra and John Requa -- discuss the film in some detail: the process of making a remake, characters, writing and edits, evolutions and changes from the original, and plenty of interesting anecdotal insights amongst various plot and technical details. They recorded the commentary only weeks after film's release. Note that this extra is available in the "Settings" menu tab rather than the "Extras" tab. Available with optional English and Friench subtitles.
• At Bat with the Bears (480i, 4x3, 11:33): Updating the original, cast and performances, character qualities and specifics, and more.
• Writing the Bad News Bears (480i, 4x3, 9:39): As the title suggests, Writers Glenn Ficarra and John Requa sit down to discuss writing this film as a "remix" rather than a "remake" of the original.
• Scouting for the Big Leagues (480i, 4x3, 10:18): Casting the child ballplayers who appear in the film.
• Spring Training (480i, 4x3, 4:39): Building better baseball scenes.
• Deleted Scenes (480i, window box, 8:53 total runtime): Included are Pay Off, Don't Trust Whitey, Playing Catch - Take 1, Coach & Pitcher Talk, Teasing the Pitcher, and Playing Football. With optional commentary by the director and co-screenplay writers.
• Outtakes (480i, window box, 1:28 total runtime): Humorous moments from the shoot. Included are International Superstar Billy Bob, Lineup, and Butterfingers. With optional commentary by the director and co-screenplay writers.
• Video Baseball Cards (480i, 1.78:1, ~40 seconds each): Inside a baseball card, the actors introduce themselves and their characters. The card then flips over with a few fun facts about each actor. Included are Jeffrey Tedmori, Troy Gentile, Tyler Jones, Ridge Canipe, Carlose Estrada, Jeffrey Davies, Sammi Kraft, Emmanuel Estrada, Kenneth Harris, Billy Bob Thornton, Brandon Crags, and Timmy Deters.
• Theatrical Trailer (480i, window box, 1:38).

Bad News Bears Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This updating of Bad News Bears is largely fine, even if it's lacking the soul that made the original a classic. Like so many remakes this one can only hope to replicate the original rather than duplicate it. It's a fine second take as it is but brings little to the table and nothing that can't be found in the original. Paramount's Bu-ray looks great, sounds fine, and offers a nice selection of legacy bonus content. It's priced right, too. Worth a look.