X
- 1976
- PG
- Paramount Pictures
- 1 h 42 m
- 1976
- PG
- Paramount Pictures
- 1 h 42 m
Summary An aging, drunk, ex-minor leaguer (Matthau) reluctantly agrees to coach a team of misfit kids in an ultra-competitive California little league.
Directed By: Michael Ritchie
Written By: Bill Lancaster
- 1976
- PG
- Paramount Pictures
- 1 h 42 m
- 1976
- PG
- Paramount Pictures
- 1 h 42 m
The Bad News Bears
8.1
Where to Watch
Summary An aging, drunk, ex-minor leaguer (Matthau) reluctantly agrees to coach a team of misfit kids in an ultra-competitive California little league.
Directed By: Michael Ritchie
Written By: Bill Lancaster
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 15 Critic Reviews
84
93% Positive
14 Reviews
14 Reviews
7% Mixed
1 Review
1 Review
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 15 Critic Reviews
84
93% Positive
14 Reviews
14 Reviews
7% Mixed
1 Review
1 Review
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Surprisingly, improbably, The Bad News Bears is the year's funniest movie. It is very much like the team itself: no serious threat at first, but, finally, tough to beat.
The Bad News Bears is about kids, but they're real kids, not bland, cutesy, lovable Hollywood moppets. These pre-teens are unwashed, obnoxious, cynical, fractious, gleefully profane, unrepentantly juvenile, and deeply untrusting of any sort of authority — in other words, just like the kids you probably played team sports with.
User Score
Universal Acclaim
Based on 15 User Ratings
8.1
80% Positive
12 Ratings
12 Ratings
20% Mixed
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
User Score
Universal Acclaim
Based on 15 User Ratings
8.1
80% Positive
12 Ratings
12 Ratings
20% Mixed
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
There are no user reviews yet. Be the first to add a review.
Matthau should get points for allowing himself to be filmed as such an unlikable cuss, and Vic Morrow, as usual, is just short of psychotic.
Michael Ritchie keeps his dead-end cynicism in check and produces a genuinely funny comedy about a Little League team managed by a lovably drunken Walter Matthau. Sometimes Ritchie goes too far in avoiding the family-movie cliches the subject invites and indulges in some pointless vulgarity, but all in all, it's one of his best films.
This seminal kids movie broke new ground in terms of its realistic portrait of young people and their use of foul language.
The Bad News Bears is, in a way, [Ritchie's] most harrowing portrait of how we'd sometimes rather win than keep our self-respect. He directs scenes for comedy even in the face of his disturbing material and that makes the movie all the more effective; sometimes we laugh, and sometimes we can't, and the movie's working best when we're silent.
Has a number of other virtues that make it a surprisingly painless adventure. Among these are the screenplay by Bill Lancaster, Burt's son, who has the talent and discipline to tell the story of The Bad News Bears almost completely in terms of what happens on the baseball diamond or in the dugout.
Awards
Writers Guild of America, USA
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
BAFTA Awards
• 1 Nomination
Photoplay Awards
• 1 Nomination
