The Bad News Bears Go to Japan (1978)

In this third film of the Bad News Bears series, Tony Curtis plays a small time promoter/hustler who takes the pint-sized baseball team to Japan for a match against the country's best ... See full summary »

Director:

John Berry

Writer:

Bill Lancaster

Stars:

Tony Curtis, Jackie Earle Haley, Tomisaburô Wakayama

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Tony Curtis	...	Marvin Lazar
Jackie Earle Haley	...	Kelly Leak
Tomisaburô Wakayama	...	Coach Shimizu
Antonio Inoki	...	Himself
Hatsune Ishihara	...	Arika
George Wyner	...	Network Director
Lonny Chapman	...	Louis the Gambler
Matthew Anton	...	E.R.W. Tillyard III (as Matthew Douglas Anton)
Erin Blunt	...	Ahmad Rahim
George Gonzales	...	Miguel Agilar
Brett Marx	...	Jimmy Feldman
David Pollock	...	Rudy Stein
David Stambaugh	...	Toby Whitewood
Jeffrey Louis Starr	...	Mike Engleberg
Scoody Thornton	...	Mustapha Rahim

Storyline

In this third film of the Bad News Bears series, Tony Curtis plays a small time promoter/hustler who takes the pint-sized baseball team to Japan for a match against the country's best little league baseball team which sparks off a series of adventures and mishaps the boys come into.

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Plot Keywords:

baseball | japan | altered version of studio logo | baseball game | homerun | 

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Taglines:

Still more bad news.

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Genres:

Comedy | Family | Sport

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

Japan USA

Language:

English Japanese

Release Date:

30 June 1978 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Bad News Bears 3

Filming Locations:

Tokyo, Japan

Box Office

Gross USA:

$14,000,000

Company Credits

Production Co:

Michael Ritchie Productions, Paramount Pictures, Paramount Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

91 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The picture was nominated for Worst Picture at the Hastings Bad Cinema Society's 1th Stinkers Bad Movie Awards in 1978.

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Quotes

Abe Bernstein: Marvin, if I take off my shoes, I'm going to get athlete's foot!
Marvin Lazar: Well, that'll be the only part of you that is an athlete.

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Crazy Credits

The Paramount mountain changes into Mount Fuji before the opening credits begin.

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Connections

Followed by The Bad News Bears (1979)

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Soundtracks

Take Me Out to the Ball Game
(uncredited)
Music by Albert von Tilzer

User Reviews

Maybe the worst movie ever made

It boggles the mind to think that this steaming pile of crap was in some way related to the brilliant 1976 classic with Walter Matthau and Tatum O'Neal. Perhaps having to follow the original was too much for any movie, maybe. HOWEVER, let's not let the makers of this terrible film off the hook so easily. This movie is rancid in every sense of the word. Although it is made under the pretense of following the Bears (or at least the actors that continued to be in these films), the Bears become so secondary during the film, they are almost entirely forgotten. What we are left with is Tony Curtis trying to do a one- man show, and failing miserably. There were so many openings for potential comedic spots that were just completely missed by the makers of this film. For one, could you imagine what kind of hijinks the Bears could have gotten into on a plane flight from the US to Japan? Apparently none, because that was glossed over completely. Seriously, to itemize a list of problems with this turd would take twenty pages. Just know that most of the talent from the original skipped this thing and rightfully so. What you have is a confused cast trying to follow an incoherent and completely ridiculous script and story, that at best, is awful. I don't fault Curtis for this film, no actor or actors could have made this "story" work.