Review: Bad News Bears
Snooty parent Marcia Gay Harden thinks every kid should be part of a Little League baseball team, even the athletically-challenged ones, and thus the misfit brood of the title is born. For their coach, Harden hires (read: bribes) pest exterminator Billy Bob Thornton, a former big-time (albeit very briefly) baseball player, now a surly, foul-mouthed drunk. Needless to say, with these kids, the job won’t be easy: There’s Troy Gentile as a kid in a motorised wheelchair, Timmy Deters as an aggressive, loudmouthed little runt, as well as a Poindexter East Indian, as well as Harden’s own uncoordinated son, and a character named Ahmad Abdul Rahim. Thornton’s coaching methods aren’t going to be orthodox either (he’s all for cheating), but when the number one team in the league is coached by ruthless, heartless and glib Greg Kinnear, it ain’t hard to root for Thornton and his little misfits. Sammi Kraft plays Thornton’s estranged stepdaughter, who can actually play ball pretty well. Jef...