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'Bad News Bears': A square hit from Billy Bob Thornton

The remake of "Bad News Bears" so closely resembles the 1976 original it might as well be called "Double Play."

Indeed, so much of the original screenplay remains that the 1976 film's writer, Bill Lancaster, shares credit for the new screenplay, even though he's been dead for eight years.

Paramount Pictures 'Bad News Bears' B+ The verdict: Almost, if not quite, as good as the original. Director: Richard Linklater Starring: Billy Bob Thornton, Greg Kinnear, Marcia Gay Harden, Timmy Deters, Sammi Kane Kraft Run time: 111 minutes Release date: July 22, 2005 Rating: PG-13 for rude behavior, language throughout, some sexuality and thematic elements. See showtimes On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime Rate "Bad News Bears"   Go see it   Make it a matinee   Wait to rent   Don't bother Voter Limit: Once per Hour View Poll Results

Luckily, since the first film was great fun, and the new film boasts a strong cast, script and director, the remake is almost, if not quite as good as the original.

However, I would caution overeager parents against taking their broods of young ball players to this movie expecting good, clean fun. Good, yes. Clean? Not exactly.

The language is as coarse a broken beer bottle. Let's not forget that in the original film, one kid lamented his team's including a "Jew, a (black slur), a (Hispanic slur) and a booger-eating moron."

If anything, the new movie is even rougher, meriting its PG-13 rating. Instead of taking the Bears out to Pizza Hut, Coach Buttermaker (Billy Bob Thornton) takes them to Hooters, where the young players join in a jubilant chorus of Eric Clapton's "Cocaine."

Buttermaker is a drunken lout who played in the major leagues for about half an inning. That's clout enough to get him a job managing the most hopeless cases that ever stumbled onto a baseball diamond. One of them is even in a wheelchair. Buttermaker grouses that he's coaching "the bronze medal winners in the Special Olympics."

Still Buttermaker wants to give some hope to the kids, so he recruits two solid players: a girl named Amanda (Sammi Kraft) with a cannon for an arm, and a juvenile delinquent, Kelly Leak (Jeff Davies).

Richard Linklater directs, obviously hoping to recapture some of the spark he showed in helming kids through the terrific "School of Rock." These kids are engaging, so he succeeds fairly well, but the casting falls short in one key area.

In the original, Amanda was wonderfully played by scene-stealer Tatum O'Neal, coming fresh off her Oscar win for "Paper Moon." Kraft acquits herself well enough, but doesn't have anywhere near O'Neal's charisma. It's clear Kraft was hired more for her pitching than her acting.

But the movie's home run is the casting of Thornton, who at least matches Walter Matthau's portrayal by giving Buttermaker the same world-weary crustiness that made him so funny in "Bad Santa." It's no coincidence that the writers of that film also penned this one, giving Thornton outrageously off-color lines like "You guys swing like Helen Keller at a pinata party."

I hope audiences aren't turned off by all the political incorrectness. I'm disabled, but I never took offense, even at the kid in the wheelchair, because the movie doesn't laugh at the characters. Lurking underneath the rowdiness is a worthwhile message about how, in the end, without respect, you never truly win.

By driving home that point with some great laughs, this new "Bad News Bears" wins too, with (non-alcoholic) beer flowing freely by the end.