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Rating:  -
Could not believe the language. Every swear, and I mean, Every swear possible ... except the F-word, but including the N-word! Also other derogatory and racist words for hispanics and jewish people. G-D this, G-D that. Constant Beer Swilling (every scene). This would NEVER make it past today's censors! If it did, it would be rated R for language. Not exaggerating... feel free to check it out.. but watch it BEFORE you allow your kids to see it.
Also, not a positive role model (kid getting smacked down by his dad, and worse) Kids that are too wise to adult concepts and talk freely about them.
Not for children. This isnt the 70s.
Rating:  -
Talk about waxing nostalgia. I hadn't seen THE BAD NEWS BEARS since it made its successful run in theaters way back in the mid-70s; then I recently came across this film on TCM (thank goodness for Turner) and all of the memories and charm of the Bears came rushing back into my noggin. Before long I was chuckling and giggling while watching the ambivalent antics of ex-minor leaguer Morris Buttermaker (one of Walter Matthau's best roles, in my humble opine) as he sits in the dugout with his ice chest full of suds and watches his Little League team of misfits completely warp America's favorite past-time. Matthau's Buttermaker couldn't care less his Bears are stinking up the diamond (they get run-ruled in the 1st inning of their first game); all he wants is his paycheck for coaching the team so he can drink away his meaningless life. But Buttermaker does possess one redeeming quality--a conscience--and when it finally dawns on him that his players are being endlessly humiliated he decides to give them a competitive chance by recruiting Amanda (Tatum O'Neal), the 12-year-old daughter of his ex-girlfriend. Amanda's got a sensational fastball and an eye-popping 12-6 curveball, and with the addition of Kelly Leak (Jackie Earle Haley)--the area's chain-smoking, Harley-riding, juvenile delinquent--the Bad News Bears indeed become. . .the Bad News Bears.
Did I mention this film is charming? The mayhem of the Bears in a game, Buttermaker's drunken indifference, sets the comical stage for the story to develop; once the Bears start moving up in the standings there's a transformation. Suddenly Buttermaker becomes what so many overbearing Little League adults become when their teams are winning--he becomes a jerk. Coach Turner (Vic Morrow), his antagonist leading the hated Yankees, is the epitome of the win-at-all-costs coach, and Buttermaker is swiftly heading in that direction. The championship game becomes the culmination of these two men's competitive egos. . .until Coach Turner gets a resounding comeuppance from his own son, and Buttermaker realizes that baseball, in the grand scheme of all things, is only a game. Accordingly the charm of THE BAD NEWS BEARS manifests itself with crystal clarity.
For those who have not seen this original be forewarned: it's definitely jarring. My, how times have changed in well over thirty years! Many of the children swear like sailors, Haley's character smokes like a chimney, and after the final game Buttermaker gives all his charges a cold one, which they begin downing. Not exactly PTA-approved, but for those of us who survived the Seventies let's just say those were considerably more tolerant times. Regardless, THE BAD NEWS BEARS sends a timeless message: Little League competition is innocent--provided you can keep the adults from mucking it up.
--D. Mikels, Author, The Reckoning
Rating: -
Way better than the stupid remake . This is a great gift the classic movie in your life.
Rating: -
This is a good movie. It also is the first PG film I remember watching, and let me tell you my virgin ears of 8 years old were shocked. This movie reminds me of why I don't have the heart to put my son in neighborhood sports. The competitiveness, the vanity, the pressure it's all too much. I remember about 6 years ago hearing about a riot that broke out at a school sports game, and a poor 17 year old girl paid the price for the wrath of the spectating parents. It broke my heart what happened to her, and I guess my heart breaks for the kids in this movie. It's a good underdog movie about a has-been drunken third rate ball player who coaches a team of throwaway kids. There's a racist shortstop, an obese catcher, and a whole bunch of kids that just wouldn't fit in the "Perfect" team. It was done well in the sense that it showed the team being built from the ground up, and the addition of 2 good players to shoulder the weight, and only to increase the diversity of this team as now we add a girl, and a juvenile deliquent. Alot of good performances went into this movie Walter Matthau as the coach, Vic Morrow as the opposing coach a Type A(as in anal) person, and Joyce Van Patten as his assistant, and Tatum O' Neal as the girl pitcher Amanda. These aren't Oscar-Winning performances, but they carry their weight for this movie. The film is a dark comedy, and that's putting it mildly as we see how human nature just takes over when a person tries to make a kid into a better person...a promising adult. This film also made me have some prejudices against parents as I feel that parents are so much wanting to be cocksure about their kids being good athletes that they bet their whole paycheck for their kids team to win. Let's face it parents we have to let our kids just have fun, and learn on their own about fair-play, and good sportsmanship. If we do what one parent says in this movie: "You're supposed to tag him you dummy" we've shown our kids where our heart is it's not about our kids either.....it's about us living through our kids, and that's not a good way to be. I don't know if they do this where they have a class at the beginning of the sports season where the adults learn about good sportsmanship, and just chilling out at the game....if not they should. I still remember the 17 year old girl, and if I was at that game I would've comforted her like she was my own daughter, and nurse her wounds. We send a mixed message to our kids when we act like this, and that's: "It's only fun when you win" instead of "It's not if you win or lose, but how you play the game." As I said I cannot lie this movie is good, and it's all too real about what happens in organized neighborhood sports. Parents it's time to wake up, and smell the coffee; Are we exposing our kids to this because we like the sport, and hopefully they'll like it, or is this one of the ways we try to get to heaven thinking God will let me in if I show how dedicated I am to making my child into a winner. Parents think before you expose your child to neighborhood sports.
Rating: -
"The Bad News Bears" is a heartfelt, poignant movie about how one man comes to find redemption through that most hallowed of American institutions, little league baseball. The film is anchored by Walther Matthau who is perfectly cast as Morris Buttermaker, a washed up ex-minor league pitcher frittering away what is left of his life cleaning pools in suburban southern California. He agrees to coach a little league baseball team to make a few extra bucks.
All Buttermaker wants to do is show up, drink beer and collect his money. His attitude changes, however, as he watches his team get laughed at and humiliated by the little league "powers that be." He decides that he is not going to stand by and watch his players start down the same path to nowhere he has taken.
Matthau is supported by a great cast including first and foremost, the child actors fronted by Tatum O'Neal as the daughter of Buttermaker's ex-girlfriend. The kids pull off the difficult task of portraying the collection of misfits, social outcasts and ner-do-wells as both obnoxious and yet endearingly innocent and charming all at the same time.
Vic Morrow is excellent as the coach of the Bear's archenemies the Yankees. The scene where he forces his pitcher son to intentionally walk Engelburg, the kid he most wishes to strike out, is one of the most powerful in any movie about children, sports, and a "win at all costs" attitude. Joyce Van Patten is also wonderful as the annoying busybody who runs the league.
Overall "The Bad News Bears" is a terrific movie not just as a nostalgia trip for those like myself who grew up playing little league in the '70's but also for its positive message. I highly recommend it.
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