Bad News Bears (2005)

Here I go again  about unnecessary remakes.  This Billy Bob Thornton vehicle is a fairly straight recreation of the 1976 Walter Matthau movie, adapting the original script and even using the same music from "Carmen" to comedic effect.  So why is it so rotten?  Well for starters Thornton whom I do not dislike as such -- he was memorable in "The Man who Wasn't There" and "A Simple Plan -- is just too scruffy and unlikeable here to carry the day.  Matthau was nearly as foul-mouthed in the original, but there was always something about his curmudgeonly manner to win the audience.  The only minor changes here are to make the Tatum O'Neill role into Billy Bob's estranged daughter and to add a kid in a wheelchair and some cheerleaders from Hooters.  Apart from anything else there have been so many movies about loveable and not-so-lovable kids' losing teams in the intervening thirty years -- not just baseball, but think of all the Mighty Ducks rubbish as well -- that the world is not exactly panting for more.  All in all it seems a weird choice for director Richard Linklater who has made some influential and experimental films over the last ten years or so, such as "Waking Life" and "A Scanner Darkly".  His only other comedy has been "School of Rock", but at least that brought something new to the screen with infectious humour which this movie sadly lacks.  People will still be watching the Matthau movie long after this one is deservedly forgotten.