So do I, especially the 40
‘Do you know what his wife’s name is?’
Humongous something…
Gotta be the original Bad News Bears, innit?
Sometimes the flaws and faults of the past, while wrong, serve to underline a lack of homogenization in a work. A homogenization almost omnipresent in film today. Especially “family films”. Especially films “for children”.
I normally hate children in films. Why?
Stuff like this.
Boy that’s grounded and real if you were 10, right? You’d never be as cool as those kids…
So it’s delightful to see a film with children who, you know, look and act idiosyncratically? You know, like real people. Who don’t look like JC Penney catalog models?
Matthau is gold in this, as is Tatum O’Neal. This ad-lib in the car says it all.. Jackie Earle Haley plays a 4’6 tough guy, way before Breaking Away and The Watchmen.
But the kids really are the stars of the piece. Tanner is a case in point. Despite using racist language, and then later racist and sexist epithets (as well as abuse of booger-eating morons), he remains sympathetic. Because he later sticks up for booger-eating morons, and can’t abide his team’s integrity being questioned. And finally, wants to win, and see his teammates win.
Teamwork as a redeeming virtue, that can enable us all to overcome the evils of our past. What a concept!
Oh, and teamwork means supporting your teammates no matter what.
The Olde English 800 (A Forty):
The Suddenly Appropriate Roger Maris (61*):
Tanner is just about to trip this kid…
The 1hr21min20sec:
“I told you not to swing, you idiot!”
The Two Centuries:
Lupus’ Parents are cool with him spraying the other kids with beer in celebration. Priceless.
“But there is some good news; two of our runners almost managed to get to first base, and we did hit seventeen foul balls, @charmtrap!”
There are also films that feature adults who can fly and melt lead with laser beams they shoot from their eyes. I think there’s something to be said for fantasy, which that gif clearly is. Also, cool is relative. To me, they look like dorks. I mean, I appreciate relatable, real-seeming kids in film as well, but there’s no shortage of that, and my kids–given the choice–will choose fantasy over it every time. (Which I get, because it’s also my choice 90% of the time.)
Literally though you could say the same thing about anything in films that gets used to the point of being annoying: kids, animals, bumbling idiots, fat suits, brand advertising, special effects, childlike robots, sarcastic side characters, childlike and bumbling Star Wars races, etc.
So I decide to go to bed early (I’m old after all) and you guys plow through three films. I think Navaronegun is permanently jacked into the intertubes like a character in a Gibson novel.
Navaronegun was up late managing the Movie Club election at midnight when Charmtrap answered the 20. :)
Yes, to each their own. I was trying to get to the heart of why I like that movie when by all rights I shouldn’t.
Yes, so with that in mind, why did I love Bad News Bears (1976)? Hence my post.
The selection process to watch it was weird: I had shared that Hoosiers link earlier and stumbled across it on a “Best Sports Films” list. I hadn’t seen it in, god, 30 years? And saw it was on Prime, and took a chance (knowing I’d be up late EST, closing the Club election, writing posts and whatnot))…and loved it!
Which then made me think. Why?
Ah. Well you made a good case: real, relatable kids, good lessons about loyalty, good acting all around, and really it’s hard to dislike a feel-good sports film (even if, like me, you don’t really care about most sports.) Cool Runnings still makes me cry.
Well, truth be told, I quote the Sandlot constantly, “You’re killin’ me, Smalls!!!” And I would toss that movie into a similar heap. I didn’t think it was that great, at all.
I think we can all appreciate snippets of bad movies as things that last within our watching history as bright moments.
So do I, but I also saw it for the first time when I was about 10, so…
Yeah, I saw this when I was about 9, and it did not connect with me the same way that it did as an adult. This film is a GOOD adult film as well as one that a child would enjoy. In my humble opinion. And not because you get to “be a child again” or see the world through a child’s eyes. This was a straight up hilarious adult comedy.
Damnit … now I have to watch it again?
Dude, Matthau plays an alcoholic neer do well. Click on the linked hypertext in my post (beware for the offensive language I write that exists in those links…).
Sorry man, I thought you were talking about The Sandlot. I agree with you on Bad News Bears.
I only saw The Bad News Bears for the first time within the last year. Not only did I like it, it kind of made me want to play baseball. And I sucked at baseball.
A few months after I saw it, something clicked: the title is kind of a pun. The Bear(er)s of Bad News. I’d heard of the movie since I was a kid but didn’t pick up on that. But then, I also thought that Toy Story was a play on Toy Store – the best place (next to amusement park) for a kid to go to.
No idea what it is, but that is a cool frame.