“’Bad
News Bears’ Good News For Summer Audiences”
Only Richard Linkletter (“Before Sunrise,” “School
of Rock”) could remake the 1976 hit comedy “The
Bad News Bears” virtually line for line and still
manage to hit the ball out of the park. The movie’s
freshness can be attributed to both Linkletter’s
confident style but also camaraderie between the young
cast members and assured leadership by Billy Bob Thornton
in the role made famous by Walter Matthau.The plot closely
follows the original. Drunkard loser Buttermaker (Thornton)
takes a gig coaching a motley team of un-athletic boys
for a competitive little league. When
his lackadaisical brand of coaching doesn’t inspire
the boys, he recruits an ex-girlfriend’s daughter
(Sammi Kraft) to pitch and a hunky delinquent (Jeff Davies)
to be the star hitter. Held
up to mockery by the other kids, parents and coaches,
the Bad News Bears become a force with which to be reckoned,
pummeling their way to the pennant.The “Bears” is
a bit raunchy for a children’s film, filled with
raw language, mostly out of the mouths of babes. The
raunchiness should come to no surprise since the screenwriters
were responsible for the ribald Thornton vehicle “Bad
Santa.” Teenagers and adults, though, will delight
in the roughhousing. Screenwriters
Bill Lancaster, Glenn Ficarra and John Requa update slightly
by adding a feisty paraplegic team member, Hooters waitresses
in the Bear’s cheering section and focusing on
bad parenting and the legacy of latchkey children.Not
only is the script similar, composer Ed Shearmur infuses
the original film’s choice of Georges Bizet’s
Carmen with a modern Texas twang.The film’s lone
disappointment, newcomer Sammi Kraft lacks the natural
presence that 13-year-old Tatum O’Neal brought
to the original film. As a “Bad News Bear” in
my own youth (though unlike the clueless Lupus, I never
caught that high ball EVER), I’ve always had a
soft spot for the motley crew of losers in cleats. This movie brings on the same nostalgia
as the first.
“Must
Love ‘Must Love Dogs’? Doubtful”
Have
you ever been on a date with a very nice person: someone
conscientious, attractive, who can carry a conversation,
yet you don't connect at all? You stare at the clock,
you chew on ice, and you tap your feet on the floor because
the evening has become eternal. “Must Love Dogs” made
me laugh, and smile, but something didn't click. It could
have been David Gary Goldberg’s sitcom-like script
or slow pacing. It could be that stars Diane Lane and
John Cusack (who both were very good) lacked chemistry
or it could have just been the chicken I ate at Outback.Freshly
divorced Sarah (Lane) finds herself on the online dating
track after her sister (Elizabeth Perkins) places an
ad for her. In
typical romantic comedy tradition, she and her future
love (Cusack) awkwardly meet-cute in the park, clash
over complications and eventually fall in love. What
works in “Must Love Dogs” is Lane’s
frustrated portrayal of a beautiful woman over forty
watching her options dry up. Any attractive single person
being passed over by ‘fresh meat’ can identify
with this odyssey in courting-hell.Don’t be shocked
to find Stockard Channing on this year’s Oscar
race as a floozy dating Lane’s father (Christopher
Plummer). The epitome of a trailer park resident, she
manages to allow dignity to radiate through her character’s
slovenliness. The rest of the cast works well together
but the film tries too hard to put the audience in Lane
and Cusack’s corner. The script even sabotages
a relationship between her and Dermot Mulroney that seems
contrived and melodramatic.
An amusing diversion, “Must Love Dogs” should
have been a perfect summer date movie, but nothing kills
a romance quicker than focusing on two attractive, charismatic
actors with zero sparks. If
Lane and Cusack can’t catch fire, what chance does
average Joe have with Sally Simpson next to him. Grade: Bad News Bears: B+; Must Love Dogs: C+
