Hollywood's recent obsession with remakes of the 70s - that also saw Amityville Horror, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Assault on Precinct 13, The Longest Yard, etc - continues with this un-needed redo of the 1976 Walter Matthau-Tatum O'Neal hit.
The film should really have been called Bad Santa Meets the Bad News Bears, as star Billy Bob Thornton reprises his Bad Santa persona (and the Bad Santa writers worked on the script). Actually maybe it's more Bad Santa Meets the Bad News Bears Meets School of Rock, as the director is Richard Linklater.
In School of Rock Linklater showed a good eye for kid casting and he's done that again here as well. Everyone turns in professional work but you can't help the feeling that everyone is slumming it - slumming it professionally, but still slumming it. It really is the same old crappy sports movie (recruitment then thrashing then low point then turn around then improvement montage then obstacle then climax) with a couple of really funny gags and moments inserted. The kid in the wheelchair is pretty funny, as is Thornton's taste in women and his habit of dumping rats in eskies.
The sort of movie I would have enjoyed more if I'd watched it at a hotel or on a plane. Greg Kinnear is a good villalin opponent coach.
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