Bad News Bears
Paramount Pictures | Release Date: July 22, 2005 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
65
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 35 Critic Reviews
Positive:
23
Mixed:
11
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
New-era losers (the cast is a cheery scrum of relaxed kids, led by genuine whiz pitcher Sammi Kane Kraft in the role created by Tatum O'Neal) now include a rotten kid in a wheelchair. Read full review
80
VarietyBrian Lowry
The new Bad News Bears has adopted a somewhat raunchier tone but delivers enough laughs to go the distance. Read full review
80
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
Does nothing to justify its own existence other than be consistently funny from start to finish. Read full review
80
L.A. WeeklyScott Foundas
There may be no other actor (Thornton)working today (or as frequently) who is this good each and every time out. Read full review
80
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
Filled with small, cute kids and large, goofy laughs and buoyed by fine supporting work from Greg Kinnear and Marcia Gay Harden, the director's latest effort won't rock your movie world, but the fact that he manages to keep the freak flag flying in the face of our culture of triumphalism is a thing of beauty. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesCarina Chocano
A straightforward, surprisingly faithful and definitely loving adaptation of the original. Read full review
80
Washington PostStephen Hunter
Matthau was merely worthless, while Thornton, God bless his soul, rises to the actual level of sociopathic. I love it when that happens. Read full review
80
SalonStephanie Zacharek
At least Linklater isn't just picking the bones of his forebears; he honors them as they deserve. Read full review
80
SlateDavid Edelstein
Wholly unnecessary but highly enjoyable. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
The new Bad News Bears may not make you cheer, but it should provide laughs and a good time. Isn't that what some movies are all about? Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
The coach is certainly an offensive goofball, and the Bears are certainly a pack of hard-to-handle whippersnappers. But the picture's point is that surfaces don't tell the whole story about people, about teams, or about anything. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
The strong script (with updated flourishes by "Bad Santa" writers Glenn Ficarra and John Requa) and some of the vibrant child characters pull it through, with the comically reptilian Thornton egging them on with one inappropriate shocker after another. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The movie is like a merger of his ugly drunk in "Bad Santa" and his football coach in "Friday Night Lights," yet Thornton doesn't recycle from either movie; he modulates the manic anger of the Santa and the intensity of the coach and produces a morose loser who we like better than he likes himself. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Linklater has crafted an entertaining motion picture. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter Travers
The mischief Thornton does make adds up to wild, rowdy fun. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterMichael Rechtshaffen
Many moments of laugh-out-loud comedy. But somehow those moments never add up to a fully satisfying viewing experience. Read full review
70
Washington PostDesson Thomson
You don't watch Bad News Bears for the action out on the diamond. You hang out with that hangdog coach so you can catch every slurry, sour-mouthed retort coming out of his mouth. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Fortunately almost everyone acquits himself coolly and admirably; only costars Greg Kinnear and Marcia Gay Harden ham it up. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
While Linklater's version has its own unique pacing, mounting up more like a series of innings than a series of acts (even if you think you know how it ends, that bottom-of-the-ninth screwball still beans you silly), it lacks the screwball-to-the-noggin punch of the original. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Linklater's Bears are even scrappier, fouler and worse-behaved than their 1976 counterparts. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy Burr
The remake is stranded between pushing the scatological envelope and caving in to the formulas the 1976 movie established, and until the well-nigh foolproof ending, it comes up gasping for air. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Brad Wheeler
It falls short of the original but surpasses its sequels. Read full review
63
PremierePeter Debruge
Sure, it's a pleasure to watch Thornton stretch his legs in Matthau's role, but I miss Tatum O'Neal as his firebrand daughter. Read full review
50
Dallas ObserverRobert Wilonsky
Linklater, whose intimate "Before Sunset" was an art-house wonder last year, proved he could make mainstream money with "School of Rock." With Bad News Bears, he proves he can waste it, too. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Thornton swills the Matthau role with the unslakable thirst of W.C. Fields and idiosyncratic sexuality of Johnny Depp. So this is what Bad Santa does during the off-season. Read full review
50
USA TodayMike Clark
The material is so solid and Thornton so tailor-made that the movie almost gets by. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
For all the updated riffs and personal noodling, it's best when it doesn't stray too far from the original material. Read full review
50
New York PostLou Lumenick
Merely a passably amusing excuse to pass a couple of hours in an air-conditioned theater. Read full review
50
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
The most grievous flaw in Richard Linklater's remake of Michael Ritchie's 1976 misfit juvenile baseball comedy The Bad News Bears is that it over-relies on Thornton's willingness to play an irredeemable degenerate. Read full review
50
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
It's the screenwriting equivalent of those fat substitutes used by snack food manufacturers: the finished product looks all right but the taste is off, and the aftereffects are embarrassing and uncomfortable. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
In a blind taste test, I couldn't possibly have identified this as a Linklater movie, and he's a filmmaker I generally like. If anything, Bad News Bears shows that Linklater can get in and out of a movie like a cat burglar, without leaving his fingerprints anywhere. OK, he's proven it. He need never do that again. Read full review
50
Village VoiceMichael Atkinson
Hardly the kids'-sports movie we need, but maybe it's as much as we can handle. Read full review
42
Seattle Post-IntelligencerPaula Nechak
This is simply another in a long line of utterly unnecessary remakes that, having nothing new to say, clutch at crassness and dumbness. Read full review
40
Film ThreatDon R. Lewis
Just isn't a very good movie. In fact it's kind of like living in the San Fernando Valley where it was filmed. It's big, kind of neat, has nice weather and has all the accouterments of a real city. But there's no "there" there. Read full review
38
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
The year's least necessary and most unimaginative remake slogs half-heartedly to its pre-destined conclusion without making a ripple. Read full review
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