Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

The Bad News Bears (1976) This is a classic sports comedy about an aging, down-on-his-luck ex- minor leaguer coaches a team of misfits in an ultra-competitive California little league. It stars Walter Matthau and Tatum O'Neal. This is one of my favorite movies from my childhood. Considered crass and crude in its day, it's now received cult status. The film garnered two sequels, a television series, and a 2005 remake. It also received multiple award nominations. The remake wasn't necessary, as I believe the original still holds up, despite the critics' problem with the drinking, smoking, and profanity. This a great representation of comedy from the era.

Morris Buttermaker (Walter Matthau) is an ex-professional baseball player who now makes his living as a pool cleaner. In order to try and earn some extra money he agrees to coach baseball to a bunch of kids or misfits as they are otherwise known. Both the kids and Buttermaker struggle against any opposition in the early stages (generally due to both a lack of talent and Buttermaker's questionable coaching methods). However, when Buttermaker recruits two star players - Amanda Whurlitzer (Tatum O'Neal) and Kelly Leak (Jackie Earle Haley) will these two players be the key to reverse Buttermaker's fortunes? In some ways this is a very difficult film for me to review because the overall tone and message within the film are both excellent. The problem with this film lies with the actual story and many of the characters. Let's begin with the characters;The majority of the characters (particularly the kids) are really annoying and fall into the laziest clichés imaginable - we've got the fat kid who is clumsy and oafish, the kid who's half the size of everyone, but think he's tougher than everyone else. The quiet kid who doesn't say anything and gets picked on. The geeky kid etc. Their shouting and bickering was more annoying than funny most of the time.Another problem I had with the film was the main story; I've got to be honest I'm not a fan of baseball and the only reason I watched this film is because it had Walter Matthau in it and because it had a 4 star rating on Sky Movies. I was expecting a laugh riot, but if I'm honest the only scenes that I found mildly amusing were the scenes between Matthau and O'Neal - you could see chemistry between the pair and could see that they had built a genuine rapport - O'Neal was also the only child actor who wasn't annoying and who I could say was actually acting. Sadly everything else about the film was poor and largely unfunny and again a lot of this wasn't helped by the fact that it had a serious 'baseball' themed wraparound story which again just didn't particularly appeal to me.One thing I did like about this film was that it ranked taking part and being a team player as being equally important as winning. This assertion is impressed upon throughout the film and really hits home at the end. The fact that the writers chose to avoid a clichéd ending was excellent and the ending is actually one of the strongest aspects of the film.As I said in my summary this is a film that is great when you look at what it has to say, but the problem for me is that most of the kids are annoying, the film doesn't have enough laughs and I didn't find the story all that interesting or compelling. If you're a fan of baseball fan then you may find this somewhat enjoyable. However, if you're not a fan of baseball and you want to watch a more entertaining film with similar plot mechanics then I'd recommend watching Cool Runnings.

An alcoholic ,ex-minor leaguer, and all-round sour-puss is hired to coach a losing Little League team because no one else will do it. The team miraculously pulls together to overcome their problems. There is a lot of profanity and bad behavior by both adults and children on the way to the inevitable happy ending. Walter Matthau sleepwalks his way through his standard grouchy/heart of gold role while Tatum O'Neill is wasted. Her character is given little screen time and no development. There's not one word about how the boys feel about a girl teammate, and in 1976, this would have been news.Trashy.

The Bad News Bears defined Little League baseball in the USA for better or worse. Previous to this movie the only item I can remember about the Little League was a Walt Disney television film that starred Kevin Corcoran.Walter Matthau stars as a former minor league ballplayer who got a major league look/see in spring training in the Fifties who gets picked by town councilman Ben Piazza to take over the worst of the Little League teams in the league in that small Iowa town they're from. It's the Bears and these kids have no motivation no drive and not a whole lot of talent. What Matthau does is scout for some talent which includes a female pitcher in Tatum O'Neal and a young hood in training in Jackie Earle Haley. With two stars and after losing his first three games, the Bears make a race for the Little League pennant.When they get there they have to contend with Vic Morrow who is a real sports dad and who wants to win at any price. That leads to some unforeseen complications with Brandon Cruz who is the star pitcher on Morrow's team and his own son.Matthau in his usual brand of grumpy cynicism with the kids supplies the comedy. The drama and it's serious is supplied by Morrow who gives the best performance in the film. We've seen more current news stories about riots and fatalities at sports events, even kid's sports events. In that sense The Bad News Bears was ahead of its time. And the film is good and more serious than one might think given its reputation.