The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training

I first saw this movie back in the summer of '77, just before my 9th birthday, and enjoyed it so much that I joined a little league baseball team the following year. That's what this film did for my life.

While people have often criticized this sequel over the absents of both Walter Matthau and Tatum O'Neal from the original cast. I think the criticism would be an accurate and valid one if this sequel was trying to be something like, "Rocky II", for example. Where the sequel is just a slight variation on the original story, except that the hero (or heroes) win at the end of the movie, instead of lose. But that's NOT what this movie was trying to be.

Instead, "The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training" is a road picture at heart. About a group of preteen misfits from the suburbs of Los Angles, California who get swept away by their shared ambitions of playing in the Astrodome in Houston, TX for the National Championship of little league baseball.

Sort of like, "Bless the Beast and Children", meets, "Treasure Island" in the form of a sports movie. Without any pirates or buffalo's serving as metaphors for the doomed spirit of young boys.

But, what I think is a more accurate criticism of this sequel, is that despite the Bears being the West Coast champions at the beginning of the movie, they're apparently a really bad baseball team, who are in desperate need of a decent pitcher.

Twice we see the Bears play baseball prior to the championship game and twice it's like watching the 3-little stooges, Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin all on the same baseball team together trying to hit and field a baseball.

That is, until Kelly's long separated father (William Devane) becomes the teams manager shortly after the Bears arrive in Houston. Then, he quickly converts them from a comically bad team into a championship team, after just a few days of practice.

Also, there's the unnecessary family drama conflict at the end of the film between Kelly Leak and his father/team manager which suddenly erupts out of nowhere, for no reason, and feels very forced and too tact on for the audience to empathize with Kelly's sudden outburst of pent-up emotional rage of being abandoned by his father (that everyone likes by now) when he was a very young child.

Then later, in this 70's "Feel Good Summer Sports Movie" - which would eventually become a movie cliché by the mid-80's - all of that sudden serious drama between a divorced father and his abandoned son is all magically resolved by simply winning the big game at the end of the movie.

That's nice, and it made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside at the end too. If only real life was more like that.(sigh)

But, both of those justifiable criticisms of the movie are only a very slight departure from what this movie really excels at in a big way. Which is, creating a huge sense of joy and fun of watching a small band of preteen misfits in their collective pursuit of playing baseball on a national stage, inside the greatest sports stadium in the country and possibly bringing a National Championship back to California with them.

I was with the Bears the entire way through the movie, and I even lived in Texas at the time, and still do.

While I realize that this movie is definitely not for everyone. But, if you were a kid in the 70's, or just want to reconnect with your lost sense of youthful mischief when the world was still just one big adventure? Then this is a must see movie.

"The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training" is a cute sequel to the classic original. By know means does it come close to it predecessor but it is a fun time waster.

The Bears head off,unchaperoned, to play an exhibition game at the Astrodome against the Texas state champs. (One major flaw is that it is never adequately explained why the Bears would be making the trip since they lost the championship game in the original). The usual juvenile hijinks ensue on the road as they make their way there.

Once there team leader Kelly Leak enlists the aid of his estranged father (nicely played by William Devane) to coach the team. This leads to the opening of some old wounds between the two. It's a nice distraction from the main story and handled well until the cornball, cliched scene where the hatchet is buried.

The big game is handled well with the Astrodome surroundings a big aid.

While Walter Matthau and Tatum O'Neal (the star pticher in this one is played by Jimmy Baio who is given nothing to do)are sorely missed, the cast does an adequate job of making the film amusing for kids.

The final result is a nice little film. The game is the best part but there are plenty of amusing moments (including the requisite bad language from the kids) to keep you mildly interested. If you don't agree, just take a peak at "The Bad News Bears Go To Japan." This film will look like a classic compared to that disaster.

The Bears are back but Amanda Whurlitzer and Buttermaker are gone. Kelly Leak (Jackie Earle Haley) drives the new dictatorial coach Manning away. The team is off to the Houston Astrodome to play the Houston Toros. Leak brings on Carmen Ronzonni from back east to be the new pitcher. The boys drive to Houston on their own. They discover that they still suck after playing a roadside game. They get into trouble for their van and Kelly decides to contact his estranged father Mike Leak (William Devane). Sy Orlansky (Clifton James) is the local businessman sponsoring the game.

Most of the gang is back with the exception of the big stars. It's too bad that Walter Matthau and Tatum O'Neal can't return but it may be asking too much for sequels of that era. The story isn't much. I don't know why the Bad News Bears get to play in the Astrodome. There are snippets of fun but mostly it doesn't live up to the original. That is until Tanner runs around and the Let Them Play chant. It's cheesy but effective and it's the Astrodome.

Most of the standard crew (Walter Matthau and Tatum O'Neal are huge absences though) return for this feather-weight sequel to the highly popular original of 1976. This time juvenile delinquent Jackie Earle Haley and his teammates hit the road to Houston to play a little league game in the Astrodome. It seems that Haley's estranged father (William Devane) also lives in Texas and he becomes a focal point as the club lacks a manager. The kids are more grown up this time but their maturity seems to be on the decline as they only care about girls (who are all obviously older than they are) and getting into general mischief. The only real attraction is the Astrodome as the old scoreboard and the novelty of the eighth wonder of the world in 1977 make the closing act of the picture a nostalgic view to a part of sports history that many have already forgotten about. Overall the movie is a stinker with little else to recommend. 2 stars out of 5.

Folks, There is only one group of people who will truly enjoy and think this is a great film-the group who it was intended for: those of us who were in our pre-teens or early teens who saw this when it first came out in the Summer of 1977.

The tale is pretty much the kind of thing that every red-blooded American boy of that age would dream about. The little leaguers fire their tyrannical coach and "borrow" a van to play at a little league championship in Houston. To avoid spoiling it, I'll just say that this deals with their adventures along the way and the results. A "Huckleberry Finn" of the 1970s, to be generous.

The overprotective parents and PC squads of today would have heart attacks at the scenes of the kids' foul language, cigarette smoking, chasing a grown woman, committing grand theft auto, and swiping Playboy magazines. But most of us who saw it at the time knew that this was over -the top and didn't take it that seriously.

Yeah, an adult viewer would agree that the story, writing, and acting are atrocious. But this wasn't intended to be Shakespeare. See it with a 13 year old mind and trust me, you'll "get it." For those of us who saw this as 13 year olds in 1977, leave your brains at the door and enjoy the nostalgia and the theme song "Looking Good." To everyone else-you've been warned!