I think it has become Billy Bob Thorton’s goal in life to take only acting roles where he gets to swear at children.

Why not? He’s kind of cultivated this skeezer persona off-screen? What with the Angelina Jolie, blood in a vial around the neck antics.

Or maybe Angelina was just a bad influence. Who can say?

I’m giving Billy Bob some crap, but actually, I’m very fond of him as an actor. By-in-large, I think he does good work. But you can’t deny the comparisons in his performance as the beer-guzzlin’ Morris Buttermaker (made famous by Walter Matthau in the original Bad News Bears) to his performance as Willie in Bad Santa.

Well, except maybe he plays Buttermaker a little less angry. But still, things don’t bode well when both movies share the same screenwriters in Glenn Ficarra and John Requa. So, in that way, they’re not just remaking one movie, but two at the same time! How’s that for Hollywood efficiency?!

I really have no interest in seeing this version. From the reviews I’ve read, director Richard Linklater copied from the source material almost to the letter. Everything from the girl pitcher with the killer arm to a foul-mouthed runt on the team. Except this time, now there’s a kid in a wheelchair.

Or is there a book version of The Bad News Bears that I haven’t read and the wheelchair kid was in there? Can never be too sure these days! Hate to be called out for my ignorance!

At any rate, I’m just hoping Linklater’s quasi-animated take on Philip K. Dick’s A Scanner Darkly turns out better when it’s released next year. I was in awe of Waking Life, and the same rotoscoping animation techniques will be used here as well.

But who knows. Most Phillip K. Dick adaptations often don’t survive the translation to screen. And since Keanu Reeves is in both this movie and another Phillip K. Dick box office dud – Johnny Mnemonic – my attitude is “wait and see.”

Did you enjoy that little tangent I took you on? I hope so, because now I am tired and need to stop blogging.

Talk to you soon.