I'm not sure why, but as he demonstrated in Bad Santa, there's something inexplicably funny about him being inappropriately vile around children. While some of the acting by the kids is amateurish (for some this is their first acting experience), it is Thornton who carries the movie. It's full of foul language, alcohol, and jokes that will fly over kid's heads. Bad News Bears is not a kids movie, in the same way that Thornton's Bad Santa was not a kid's movie. What sets Bad News Bears apart from those other imitators is the fact that they were all, for the most part, kids movies. Misfit coach meets misfit band of kids and together they transform into a team of champions who go all the way to the finals.
Since 1976, the plot of this movie has been done to death in countless other films. He takes the job, but only because he's getting paid. Needing a coach, she turns to broken down former minor league player, Buttermaker (Thornton). Liz (Harden), a lawyer and the parent of one of the players, sues the little league for discrimination against players of lesser abilities, forcing the league to add another team to its roster. In some ways the impetus of the plot seems like a very current idea, although it was the same in the original. It retains some of the best ideas of the original, while updating it nicely into modern times. However, this is one remake that was done right. The idea of a remake seemed almost sacrilegious to me. Any time I happen to catch the original on television, I am instantly transported back to those warm summer nights and long Saturday afternoons around the fields of Milwood Little League in Kalamazoo, Michigan. While I never actually played on a league team, all of my brothers and my sister did and my father coached for many years. No other movie ever made is more evocative of my early childhood than the original Bad News Bears (1976). Billy Bob Thornton gives some batting tips in Bad News Bear.