The Bad News Bears

1976 baseball movie

Rating: 15/20

Plot: Buttermaker, a former minor league baseball prospect, agrees to coach a little league team full of misfits. He drinks through the Bears' practices and barely pays attention during their first game against the Yankees. He realizes that the kids need him and decides to give it his all, and the Bears, after recruiting a gal with a rocket arm and a curve that breaks two-and-a-half feet and a hotshot motorcycle-ridin' centerfielder, starts to have some success.

The message about little league baseball and the parents/coaches involved is sadly a timeless one. I like the baseball scenes in this at once. The kids and their errors look completely natural, and the blunders and mishaps never seem too hammy. The kids can't always act, but they can play baseball not very well very well. Walter Matthau can act and is perfectly grizzled and curmudgeonly for this role. Like all the misfits-turn-into-superstars movies that would follow this one, the transformation isn't all that surprising or believable. This also isn't a terribly funny, probably because I'm not as easily amused as some people might be when watching children cursing, but it's entertaining enough. I do think the end gets it just about right.

I think I saw one sequel, but I haven't bothered with the Billy Bob remake. Worth my time?