The Bad News Bears (1976)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:24
Fresh:22
Rotten:2
Average Rating:7.5/10
Consensus: The Bad News Bears is rude, profane, and cynical, but shot through with honest, unforced humor, and held together by a deft, understated performance from Walter Matthau.
Runtime: 1 hr 42 mins
Genre: Comedies
Synopsis: One of director Michael Ritchie's most universally recognized comedies, THE BAD NEWS BEARS is a film that continues to entertain audiences of all ages. The story concerns a hopeless Little League... [More]
Starring: Walter Matthau, Tatum O'Neal, Jackie Earle Haley, Vic Morrow
Director: Michael Ritchie
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Reviews for The Bad News Bears
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Click to read the article Full Review |
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Surprisingly, improbably, The Bad News Bears is the year's funniest movie. Full Review |
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4.5/5 |
If all kids' movies were like this, you wouldn't need to drag parents to the multiplexes. Full Review |
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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. Full Review |
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3.5/4 |
This charming, funny film takes a gentle poke at Little League baseball and the American obsession with winning. Full Review |
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An extremely funny adult-child comedy film. Full Review |
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3.5/4 |
Matthau's perfectly restrained, brilliantly comic performance holds it together. Full Review |
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Amiably engrossing satire on the 'win ethic' that offers a take-it-or-leave-it approach to its serious points about enforcing precociousness on kids, but consistently delights with its panoramic comic invention. Full Review |
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3/5 |
No review available.
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 2.5/4 |
Click to read the article Full Review |
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3/5 |
No review available.
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A- |
Remains the best film ever made about kids and sports. Full Review |
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3/5 |
[Ritchie] keeps the sentimentality in check most of the time and obtains first-rate performers from his miniature cast all of the time. Full Review |
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3/5 |
rude and very funny
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3/4 |
[Ritchie] 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. Full Review |
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3/5 |
The chemistry between Matthau and O'Neal makes it work.
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5/5 |
No review available.
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2/5 |
I've never understood what people thought was so great about this middling sports comedy.
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4/5 |
Isn't it great when a piece of classical music gets forever redefined by a movie about a bunch of foul mouthed brats? What could be a better way to spend 102 minutes of the truth? Full Review |
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4/5 |
Nice until they came up with a franchise!
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CommentLatest News for The Bad News Bears
September 19, 2008:
Paramount DTV Sequel Plots Revealed 
Finding yourself morbidly curious about that slew of direct-to-video sequels announced by Paramount recently? You'll want to check out studio exec Louis Feola's recent interview... More...
April 10, 2007:
Play Ball With RT's Top Sports Movies Countdown!
It's spring again, and we all know what that means: The NBA and NHL are getting down to the wire, P.A. announcers across the land have dusted off their copies of John Fogerty's... More...
July 21, 2005:
Critical Consensus: Critics Do the "Hustle," Escape "Island" and "Bears"
This week's wide releases share a theme of Escape. Escape from The Game, escape from the bottom of the Little League standings, escape from a futuristic Philip K. Dick-esque... More...
June 30, 2005:
Critical Consensus: "Rebound" Misses, "War of the Worlds" Hits
This week's wide releases are both tales of people looking adversity square in the face, and becoming better for it. The adversity in question comes in the form of alien... More...
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