Bad News Bears is about a little league team and their fighting determination to deal with an alcoholic coach and diverse, not-so-talented teammates. The coach, Mr. Buttermaker (played classically by Walter Matthau), agrees to more than he thinks he signs up for when he agrees to manage the Bears. With a distorted view of how the team should perform and hardly any practice put into the work of the team, he learns how much the meaning of sportsmanship has slipped through his fingers into his alcoholic gaze.
I liked the movie, but not enough to call this one a classic, in my opinion. I think there were a lot of slow, detached scenes when you wondered what was supposed to be going on. The little girl (his daughter?) who ends up pitching for the Bears seems like overkill with her "8 going on 30" acting mannerisms. The "bad boy" Kelly character was a nice touch but again very unbelievable with their casting choice for that kid. My guess is that he might've been chosen for actual baseball skill, I think. Matthau doesn't need to do a whole lot in this film; he gets to sit around and order kids to play ball better as he sips beer and loses focus of the team.
If the movie is trying to get the audience to feel badly for the players, the sympathy level rises, but not enough to make anything believable. You get to see the products of destroyed ethics in a few kids (like the kid quick to hurl racist terms around). The only significant time when something starting happening was when the rival coach goes on the field and confronts/hits his kid, causing the kid to stop participating in the play right after the incident. I don't know if this movie took place when a lot of alcoholic (or even obsessive) managers/parents would have their kids in little league/pop warner football/whatever. The message was clear from the beginning and seemed to stretch and get tired by the end, though.
The remake of the film (with Billy Bob Thorton) was a bit more lively and kept my attention longer possibly for the newness of the scenes in that version. This older one didn't have very active or attention-grabbing moments as much as that one. There was no music to spice up the playing time. But despite the lack of active scenes, Matthau does keep every movie he does a classic by providing his reluctant twist on an otherwise boring character.
I gave the film a 5/10. It didn't grab me as much as I was possibly expecting from a movie like this, called a "classic" even. I was hoping for more of a comedy as well, but not very many scenes held their own to be very memorable. Despite the average score, I'd suggest checking it out for the Matthau performance (and classic character of his) and an overall sense of what going out to movie back when this came out is all about (a lot of films were released into this cesspool of films which could've been a lot better).
I liked the movie, but not enough to call this one a classic, in my opinion. I think there were a lot of slow, detached scenes when you wondered what was supposed to be going on. The little girl (his daughter?) who ends up pitching for the Bears seems like overkill with her "8 going on 30" acting mannerisms. The "bad boy" Kelly character was a nice touch but again very unbelievable with their casting choice for that kid. My guess is that he might've been chosen for actual baseball skill, I think. Matthau doesn't need to do a whole lot in this film; he gets to sit around and order kids to play ball better as he sips beer and loses focus of the team.
If the movie is trying to get the audience to feel badly for the players, the sympathy level rises, but not enough to make anything believable. You get to see the products of destroyed ethics in a few kids (like the kid quick to hurl racist terms around). The only significant time when something starting happening was when the rival coach goes on the field and confronts/hits his kid, causing the kid to stop participating in the play right after the incident. I don't know if this movie took place when a lot of alcoholic (or even obsessive) managers/parents would have their kids in little league/pop warner football/whatever. The message was clear from the beginning and seemed to stretch and get tired by the end, though.
The remake of the film (with Billy Bob Thorton) was a bit more lively and kept my attention longer possibly for the newness of the scenes in that version. This older one didn't have very active or attention-grabbing moments as much as that one. There was no music to spice up the playing time. But despite the lack of active scenes, Matthau does keep every movie he does a classic by providing his reluctant twist on an otherwise boring character.
I gave the film a 5/10. It didn't grab me as much as I was possibly expecting from a movie like this, called a "classic" even. I was hoping for more of a comedy as well, but not very many scenes held their own to be very memorable. Despite the average score, I'd suggest checking it out for the Matthau performance (and classic character of his) and an overall sense of what going out to movie back when this came out is all about (a lot of films were released into this cesspool of films which could've been a lot better).