Watch The Bad News Bears Go to Japan For Free

Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Awesome Movie

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

In his autobiography, Tony Curtis blasted this movie, the final entry of the "Bad News Bears" series. Watching this movie, it doesn't take long to figure out why Curtis hated this movie. The strange thing, however, is that despite his less than adequate surroundings, Curtis gives a pretty good performance. He's lively, and manages to deliver a few quips in his trademark sarcastic manner that manage to provoke a few chuckles. Aside from Curtis, however, this movie is a terrible mess. I know these movies aren't supposed to be politically correct, but there are some touches that today could be considered racist. But the storytelling is even worse. For some reason, the kids in this movie don't get a lot of focus, and there's even less footage of them playing baseball. And most of the movie is one scene after another that doesn't advance the thin plot the slightest. It's hard to believe that Bill Lancaster, who wrote the sharp first movie, wrote this sloppy script.

After watching Lost In Translation and seeing Bill Murray's character awkwardly appear on a quirky Japanese TV show called 'Matthew's Best Hit TV', I couldn't help but be reminded of the Bad News Bears Go To Japan and the Bears appearance on a 70's Japanese variety show.Both movies tried to show the quirky aspects of modern Japanese society, although the subplots in LIT were a bit more subtle than those of BNBGTJ. Think you can compare all movies made about Japanese society with LIT and come up with the same similarities? Two that come to mind, Mr. Baseball and Black Rain don't even come close. As strange as it may seem, LIT and BNBGTJ are more closely related than it would seem on the surface.

It had to happen. After the success of "The Bad News Bears" and "Breaking Training" the film execs at Paramount knew they had a goldmine on their hands and couldn't leave well enough alone. They started on the right track by enlisting Bill Lancaster to write the script. He also authored the original. Sadly that is where the similarities end."The Bad News Bears Go To Japan" is one of the worst films of the 70's. It's so bad the many of the kids from the first two don't even appear in this one. The ones that do are given little to do save for team leader Kelly Leak who gets to romance a young japanese girl. The love story is laughably bad.The coach this time around is Tony Curtis playing a con man looking for his next score. Curtis looks as if he is in a trance as he sleepwalks thru the film.And the worst part? There is very little baseball in a movie about little leaguers!!! We get more scenes of sumo wrestling. The one baseball game we DO get is badly directed and comes so late in the film you may have either fallen asleep or turned it off.And why send the kids all the way to Japan? A bit far fetched don't you think? Apparently the first film was a smash hit in Japan, playing in one theater for over a year. That says it all. The filmmakers knew that no matter how badly it bombed here (and it did) that they would have a hit in Japan (and it was). Too bad they didn't care that the product they were presenting was no better than a student film on a tiny budget. No. Take that back. A student film on a tiny budget would have to be ten times better than this pathetic "comedy."

Misadventures of the delinquents of the diamond came to an end with this unmemorable third and final film with Curtis, flashy in his 70's getup, leading the charge. This time the Bears travel to the Orient to take on a champion Japanese team and somehow return without starting World War III.