The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training (1977)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Please don't spend money on this.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

After seeing The Bad News Bears, I have just been in love with that film ever since my first viewing, so I figured despite the low rating on IMDb, just to give the sequels a look. So, I just watched The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training and while I didn't think it was so bad, it lost it's substance of what the first one was, and that was a crappy team with a lousy coach that didn't care if they won or lost. Now we don't get to know the coach better, we get to know the team better, well, I guess we didn't need to know that much.Some of the team is back, mainly it seems like we are focusing on Kelly this time, but they want to go to Texas to win the big game in the Astrodome to win the game for Lupus and a trip to Japan or something along those lines. But the team gets a lousy coach to begin with, so on their road trip, Kelly picks up his estranged father and asks him to be the team's coach and help them practice. Of course, Kelly and his dad need some things to patch up before they can play any games.The thing that was strange to me mainly, I don't know maybe because it's a different time, but I found it strange that the dad kept calling the boys "handsome" and patting their upper legs, but I don't know, maybe I'm just taking it too seriously or too PC. While, on it's own, it's not too bad of a movie, I wouldn't really suggest this movie for the hard core fans, but I rented both sequels, so I might as well see the next one, right? 5/10

"The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training" (which should've just been called "The Bad News Bears 2" takes off a year after the first one. The boys led by Kelly Leak (Jackie Earle Haley) jump into a stolen van and drive from Southern California to Houston Texas to play against the reigning Little League Baseball Champs, The Toros. I love how most of the boys returned and that it is a worthy sequel. I also like the subplot with Kelly and his father, Mike (William Devane), showing why Kelly was so bad to begin with. Things that did make me mad about this film is the disappearance of Walter Matthau and Tatum O'Neal, if they were in this film, it would've been good, and Kelly's Dad could've been the co-coach. Kelly and Tatum also could've had a little romance blossom in this one. And the only other thing I didn't like is why Timmy Lupus is in the film, but for a maximum of three minutes! But you gotta love Tanner Boyle, Ahmad Abdul Rahim, and smart whiz Ogilvie. Jimmy Baio's Carmen Ronzanni I could've did without, but he was good towards the end. I recommend this for all "Bad News Bears" Fans.

The subject is a reference to my review of the original (The "Mighty F***s"). There's no getting around it: this movie SUCKS.It would have been okay if they did this as a separate movie, and it might have found a home on cable, but to piggyback it onto one of the best films of all time was a disgrace.No Matthau and O'Neal? Are they KIDDING? What made the original work was those two great actors taking a great script and making it even greater. This movie reminds me of watching the Chicago Bulls after Jordan retired and Pippen moved on; the supporting cast was fine when they were letting the two heavyweights shine, but on their own they were as bad as those "Baby Bulls." Do we really need to know Kelly Leak's backstory? Bill Devane as his father was a miscast, but it was hard to notice because the entire cast stunk. The plot -- they are playing for the national little-league championship -- is also far-fetched, since the Bears were about having fun rather than winning, and you can only go so far on Kelly Leak's back.I wish I could say I remember more about the plot, but most of it was about how the Bears had to navigate their way to Texas without adult supervision (creating tons of complications whenever they needed to be of age for something), and it becomes painfully obvious in this film why Jack Earl Haley is a competent #3 guy in a movie, he is no Jordan or Pippen on the screen.Calling this movie a sequel is a bit of a stretch as well, as the characters, the plot, and the movie as a whole bears little if any resemblance to the original. Matthau is probably still turning over in his grave at what they did to this movie, and I'm sure Vic Morrow has done the same.A movie as strong as the original deserved a much better continuation than this one, and it could have been done.

This second installment in Paramount's "The Bad News Bears" film series is (as most sequels are) not quite as good as the original film but it's not entirely bad either. William Devane does a fairly good job in his role as the new coach of the Bears little league baseball team. He has his sights set on big things including giving the team a shot for the little league world series and a chance to play at the famed Houston Astrodome. However, what could've made this sequel better was if some of the talent that came together to make the first film so enjoyable could've returned. The series was never the same without Walter Matthau and Tatum O'Neal.