Synopsis: Billy Bob Thornton delivers a wickedly funny performance in this hilarious hit from the director of School of Rock. Morris Buttermaker (Thornton), former pro ballplayer-turned-exterminator, expects to make some easy money coaching a struggling Little League team called the Bears. What he gets is a ragtag group of inept players who transform the field of dreams into the stuff of nightmares! Taunted by an arrogant rival coach (Greg Kinnear), pressured by his new employer (Marcia Gay Harden), and challenged by the Bears, Buttermaker must somehow step up to the plate and help his players become something they never imagined they could be: a team.
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Almost as good as the original – but for entirely different reasons.
On the strong side, they filled in some gaps that were weak in the original film – things that didn’t detract that much initially, but made me wonder. It’s also been updated very well – they didn’t change too many things and what they did change felt appropriate.
Having said that, it really is a remake; it’s not a reboot of, or inspired by, the original. There are scenes that are taken straight out of the 1977 version – key ones, in fact, that would have been felt had they gone missing. You can tell that the filmmakers were either fans of, or were at least respectful of, the material.
On the down side, however, all of the strong characters were pale copies of the originals – they didn’t have much presence and felt diluted somewhat. This is a big problem, because the fun I had with the first movie was that there were some outstanding performances that you couldn’t help but love.
For instance, Walter Matthau actually felt more unscrupulous and cantankerous than Billy Bob Throton – if you can imagine that. Thorton would seem like the perfect candidate for this role, but he went soft too early and, because of this, the final transition of the character was lost. As for Amanda and Kelly, the two kids who originally stole the show… well, in here they picked horrible, uncharismatic actors – a complete reversal.
Another thing that didn’t help is that this team was a little more homogenized. The originals were definitely not politically correct, were crude and pretty pathetic. But they had an “oomph” that this team doesn’t have and you could actually believe that they could be “Bad News”.
These Bears, however, have been tamed and declawed somewhat. They tried to make up for it in other areas (and relatively successfully, I might add) but when even fireheaded Tanner can’t pick a fight with a certain amount of credibility, you know something’s up; that little runt had so much guts he made up for his lack of strength. Here, he never actually becomes pocket rocket that he was meant to be.
Still, I would pick this movie over a lot of other Hollywood fodder. And it’s FAR superior to the sequels (and, one supposes, the TV series as well). I’m glad that I decided to give it a shot, after all 
thecriticaleye 