La chouette équipe

Hilarious film with a darker side that sometimes pokes through, especially in its serious moments. This is classic Walter Matthau, and classic Jackie Earle Haley, too! (Love that air hockey scene!) It reminds me of my childhood, and not many movies do. I can watch this film a dozen times and never get tired of it.

This is a superb movie. I don't think it will ever become dated--not as long as little league baseball is in existence. I remember first seeing it at a drive-in when I was ten, shortly after my own little league season had finished. Walter Matthau is excellent as Buttermaker, the beer-soaked coach who takes on the unwanted task of coaching a team of misfit kids who were allowed to play in the league only after a civil action law suit was won in their favor. Tatum O'Neal shines as the team's recruited pitcher Amanda, whose mother once dated Buttermaker. A touching subplot involves the relationship between Amanda and Buttermaker which turns from distant to warm as the final game approaches. Vic Morrow gives a frighteningly good performance as the out-to-win-no-matter-what coach of the opposing team who was never happy with the fact that the Bears were allowed to play in the first place. Joyce Van Patten is also good as the butch, outspoken league supervisor.

It's the kid players that really give this movie the edge. All performances are top-notch, and director Michael Ritchie splendidly keeps the focus mostly on them and their feelings about the whole ordeal. Stand-outs include Jackie Earl Haley as the heroic Kelly Leak and Chris Barnes as shortstop Tanner Boyle. This film should be a warning to relentless adults who try to achieve stardom on the backs of their children, be it on the baseball field or on the ballet floor.

I remember watching the Bad News Bears as a teenager close to when it first came out, and thinking that yeah, this was a fun movie that kind of reminded me of real life. The movie was famous at the time, and I never remembered it being anything more than a fun entertainment. When I watched it again a few days ago (perhaps the first time in 30 years), I was really startled. This movie was not just funny but impressive, capturing something of the truth about the way adults and kids really interact with each other in our society. The kids are gritty--they swear, they fight, they are insolent and belligerent, they are cruel (sound familiar?). The adults are hyper-competitive, drunken, prone to selfish projection, lazy and insensitive (sound familiar again?). The movie becomes much more than a feel-good underdog story (although it would inspire many such imitations) but rather becomes a desperate struggle for dignity among all the participants in a situation that is full of snares. This is a really good movie, not particularly for kids to view.

I know that is an exaggeration, but I truly believe that this movie sets the standard by which all other "kids and sports" movies will be measured.

What it does that is unique is that it keeps the swearing and fighting where it belongs: on the field. This movie does not even try to make anyone look good, for the sake of making them look good. It just shows the kids at their very essence: booger-eating morons, just out to have a good time trying to play baseball.

Scrappy pool-cleaner (and former ballplayer) in Southern California gets talked into coaching Little League to a bunch of no-talent boys. I don't think I've ever seen another movie that captured this bit of Americana so vividly: you can almost smell the freshly-cut grass and the cigar smoke in the air! One of Walter Matthau's many triumphs, and Tatum O'Neal as the pitching ace is also terrific (especially in the dug-out scene where she tries involving Matthau in her life and he cracks, sending her away in tears: "You don't wanna go, fine, no big deal."). The young boys are mostly all wonderful: Alfred Lutter, from "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore", as the nerdy brain; Jackie Earle Haley as the cool kid with shades and motorcycle; Brandon Cruz, from "The Courtship of Eddie's Father", as the pitcher for the enemy-team. The film has some overacting and is occasionally sloppy (with the boom-mike showing, as well as O'Neal's stand-in in a wig), but is otherwise extremely well-written and designed and directed. In 1976, this had kids and adults lining up to see it, so I wouldn't consider the picture a 'sleeper' or an underrated film. It was a big commercial box-office hit and there is an audience for it wherever there's a DVD player and a screen. ***1/2 from ****