Billy Bob Thornton takes his “Bad Santa” routine and turns it into what should be a kids movie, except the kids, his little league team, needs to have their mouths washed out with a case of Tide detergent, let alone a bar of soap! Their Potty mouths make one wonder just who the director was targeting this movie for. And so, like the original with Walter Mattheau, the movie has little much to offer than a bunch of uncoordinated kids who are demoralized and only playing because of politics – making them a case study with a black, Armenian, twin Mexicans, white boy, crippled boy and you name it – the United Nations of ghetto kids. With little self-respect for themselves, and less for their coach, who mixes drinks out of a cooler in the dugout, even when the story has its miraculous turnaround, we find little comfort in any of it, despite a couple funny moments. Makes one wonder if director Richard Linklater has kids. And moreso, does he have any values?
