The Bad News Bears (1976)--3/5

It's hard to watch Walter Matthau, especially in "The Bad News Bears," without thinking of Homer Simpson. Dan Castellaneta famously based Homer's original voice on an impersonation of Matthau. Here, Matthau is Morris Buttermaker, pool cleaner, Little League coach, alcoholic. His inept, grumbling tirades are one "D'oh!" short of a Homer-monologue.

"The Bad News Bears" is one of those glorious seventies PG-rated movies loaded with rude behavior and swearing. The Bears are outcasts throughout the film, showing only marginal growth as athletes and even less as individuals. The biggest smart-ass on the team is just as likely to get into fights at the end of the season. And the few *heartwarming* scenes are peppered with beer-drinking and a noticeable lack of resolution.

The whole thing has a kitchen-sink approach to comedy, clearly abetted by the cheap production costs of the whole thing. It seems like the entire movie takes place at public locations: the Little League diamond, City Hall, the side of a street, and others. I'm sure this looked attractive to the film's producers. (How they got talked into traveling to Japan for a second sequel is anyone's guess.)