The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training (1977)

“[after a huge fight between Carmen and Tanner, Engelberg is on the phone with KFC] Hey, what do you mean biscuits and coleslaw are extra? ” – Mike Engelberg

Number of Times Seen – at least twice (Cable in the 80’s and 14 Jan 2021)

Brief Synopsis – The Bears must find a coach in order for them to playing an exhibition game in the Houston Astrodome.

My Take on it – This is a sequel that I recall seeing on cable as a kid and enjoying it, but upon rewatching it now, I see that the story is far too thin to stay really enjoyable.

They do manage to give us a fun chain of events but they end up taking things a bit too far here.

It’s great seeing that many of the children from the first film return for this movie, but they don;t have enough to do overall because the focus of the story isn’t on the team, but rather on the connection between Kelly an his father.

This film sorely misses the comic moments of Walter Matthau, but William Devane is an great substitute because of the way that the direction of things is changed.

The scenes where Devane actually teaches the characters some of the fundamentals of the game actually help establish them as a team to contend with.

The film’s final third deals with the game itself and it remains quite enjoyable to watch unfold.

The parts here the real players get involved ads even more to things along the way.

This is a fun film, but they lack much of the tone of the previous film which had more of a message since this movie seems as if they made it just for the fun moments instead of any real poignant ones.

Bottom Line – Fun sequel that takes things a bit too far. Great seeing most of the players return, but the lack of Matthau really hurts things here. Devane is great as the new coach that they get involved and the scenes where he actually teaches them fundamentals of the game work really well in helping establish this as a team to contend with. The last third of the film that deals with the game itself is enjoyable to watch especially when they get the real players involved in the action. As fun as this film is, it lacks some of the more powerful moments of the previous film that had a clear message because this all seems to be done just for fun.

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – During the game at the Astrodome, a Toros player comments that Jimmy Feldman looks like “one of the Marx Brothers”. Brett Marx, who plays Jimmy, is the grandson of Gummo Marx, a brother of the Marx Brothers. (From IMDB)

Rating – BAFTA Worthy (6/10)