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Bad News Bears In Breaking Training, The
Paramount // PG // February 12, 2002
List Price: $24.95 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
I could start this review off with a harrowing tale of how the 1976 smash hit The Bad News Bears irrevocably affected my childhood, inspiring a lifelong interest in sports and assorted athletic activity. That would, of course, be a lie. I loathe sports with an unbridled passion, and aside from the occasional kickball game and a season of soccer in grade school, I successfully steered clear of anything that might conceivably resemble physical exertion. I've never cared much for sports movies either. Sure, I've had my moments, and I was just as touched as the rest of the nation when TV's Webster finally pulled off that free throw in the classic episode "One More Shot". But forcing myself to endure that for 90 minutes at a time? No thanks. The DVD Talk reviewing staff is tightening its collective belt and taking a swipe at the twelve-foot-tall pile of backlogged discs, and I seem to have drawn the short straw. Following Philip Duncan's review of the original The Bad News Bears from February, I've been assigned the weighty task of tackling its two sequels. First to the plate (witty!) is The Bad News Bears In Breaking Training.
When I learned that I would be writing a review of this movie, I took it upon myself to do some cursory research and learn what "breaking training" is, exactly. I assumed it was standard baseball terminology, but I didn't stumble onto many references outside of the film at all. The title did inspire a composition by Minimum Security Composers Collective member Dennis DeSantis entitled "Breaking Training". I doubt the Mighty Ducks can make that same claim.
In any event, The Bad News Bears In Breaking Training is the rushed sequel to the original The Bad News Bears, hitting theaters a scant fifteen months later. For anyone bored enough to feign interest, less than eleven months passed between The Bad News Bears In Breaking Training and the third and final film, The Bad News Bears Go To Japan. Anyway, The Bad News Bears In Breaking Training picks up as the California champions (wait, didn't they come in second?) are preparing to make their way to Texas for a game at the Astrodome. The Bears consist of every cliché in the book, including The Nerdy Guy, The Cute Little Kid, The Fat Guy Who Has To Go To The Bathroom Every Eight Minutes, The Pair O' Brothers, The Obligatory Black Kid, and The Outwardly Tough But Secretly Tender Older Twerp. A taskmaster of a coach steps up to fill the vacant position, much to the chagrin of the highly undisciplined team. As if there were any doubt as to Coach Manning's lot in life, the word 'coach' is emblazoned on a $2 maroon top from Family Dollar, with the letters haphazardly ironed on by the same sorts of brilliant minds who boast homemade shirts with witty sayings as they eagerly await the opportunity to "come on down" on The Price Is Right. He's quickly dumped, and the team dupes their parents into letting them make the trip unsupervised. Hijinks predictably ensue along the way, such as the revelation that they're traveling in a stolen van and an embarrassing defeat in a pick-up game. A heart-warming reunion with a team member's father later, the Bears are off to the big game and fully prepared for a lead-in to another sequel.
The Bad News Bears is, of course, a series about baseball. Care to venture a guess as to how far along in this movie the first pitch is? Come on, that's not a rhetorical question. Those who replied "half an hour" get a virtual pat on the head. Baseball's practically the B-story in The Bad News Bears In Breaking Training, with nearly every other moment devoted to sophomoric "humor" and a few trite attempts at sentimentality. I have the distinct feeling that I'm around thirteen years outside the film's target audience, though even at that tender age, I'd like to think that I'd have better taste than to subject myself to the likes of this. I'm far past the age where I'm excited by the prospect of kids hopping around maniacally while tossing around issues of "Playboy". None of the kids put in a passable performance, though The Bad News Bears In Breaking Training is buoyed somewhat by the presence of such familiar faces as Lane Smith and William Devane. The writing shows an utter lack of imagination, and by the second time the Fat Guy begs for a pitstop and the other kids swat their arms around to ward off the stench of some off-screen flatulence, I found myself eyeing the kitchen sink longingly. The prospect of pre-washing pots and dishes seemed infinitely more appealing than continuing to waste 99 potentially valuable minutes of my life on this dreck. I did force myself to make it all the way through, though with total disinterest. The Bad News Bears In Breaking Training failed to inspire a single smile or, boredom aside, an emotion of any sort.
Video: The Bad News Bears In Breaking Training is presented in anamorphic widescreen at an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, as was the case with the other two entries in the series. This is an average effort, not up to the usual exceedingly high standards Paramount sets for its catalog titles, but hardly unwatchable either. A smidgen of grain is apparent, though it infrequently drew my attention, and there isn't an unusually high number of specks and bits of grit dotting the print. Edge haloing is a minor nuisance, which is not a flaw I typically associate with this studio. Perhaps it's the result of some quick and dirty digital cleaning instead of the usual care Paramount devotes to its work, which I suppose is understandable considering that this isn't likely to top sales charts any time soon. Fine detail is somewhat lacking as well. One of the kids' shirts -- sorry, I'm no good with names -- is awfully moire-tastic, and I can't recall the last time I watched a 16x9-enhanced disc with the moire effect this severe. Colors are drab and at times made me recoil in horror, but then, this is a '70s production and is likely in keeping with the styles of the time. The presentation is adequate, but nothing more than that.
Audio: The Dolby Digital mono is a touch on the quiet side, prone to distortion whenever anything moderately loud occurs. Dialogue sounded slightly muffled for much of the movie, though it's generally discernable after bumping the volume up a couple of notches. Aside from one song that plays early on in the Bears' road trip, there's no bass to speak of whatsoever. The soundtrack on this DVD ought to offer quite a nostalgic blast to those who watched The Bad News Bears In Breaking Training on a 19" mono TV in the early 1980s.
English subtitles and closed captioning are both present and accounted for.
Supplements: None of the three Bad News Bears DVDs have any extras at all. No, not even a trailer. To pad this section out a little more, though, it may be worth mentioning that the film has been broken up into twelve chapters.
Conclusion: I was not expecting much from The Bad News Bears In Breaking Training, but it failed to meet even my minimal expectations. At $24.95, there's not much to justify a purchase. If this had been an MGM release, The Bad News Bears In Breaking Training would've been priced a full ten dollars less and probably would not have looked or sounded appreciably different. This DVD is difficult to recommend with any enthusiasm, especially considering that the immeasurably superior The Sandlot is available for substantially less. Those devoted to the series may be interested in a rental, but this disc is an extremely marginal purchase.
When I learned that I would be writing a review of this movie, I took it upon myself to do some cursory research and learn what "breaking training" is, exactly. I assumed it was standard baseball terminology, but I didn't stumble onto many references outside of the film at all. The title did inspire a composition by Minimum Security Composers Collective member Dennis DeSantis entitled "Breaking Training". I doubt the Mighty Ducks can make that same claim.
In any event, The Bad News Bears In Breaking Training is the rushed sequel to the original The Bad News Bears, hitting theaters a scant fifteen months later. For anyone bored enough to feign interest, less than eleven months passed between The Bad News Bears In Breaking Training and the third and final film, The Bad News Bears Go To Japan. Anyway, The Bad News Bears In Breaking Training picks up as the California champions (wait, didn't they come in second?) are preparing to make their way to Texas for a game at the Astrodome. The Bears consist of every cliché in the book, including The Nerdy Guy, The Cute Little Kid, The Fat Guy Who Has To Go To The Bathroom Every Eight Minutes, The Pair O' Brothers, The Obligatory Black Kid, and The Outwardly Tough But Secretly Tender Older Twerp. A taskmaster of a coach steps up to fill the vacant position, much to the chagrin of the highly undisciplined team. As if there were any doubt as to Coach Manning's lot in life, the word 'coach' is emblazoned on a $2 maroon top from Family Dollar, with the letters haphazardly ironed on by the same sorts of brilliant minds who boast homemade shirts with witty sayings as they eagerly await the opportunity to "come on down" on The Price Is Right. He's quickly dumped, and the team dupes their parents into letting them make the trip unsupervised. Hijinks predictably ensue along the way, such as the revelation that they're traveling in a stolen van and an embarrassing defeat in a pick-up game. A heart-warming reunion with a team member's father later, the Bears are off to the big game and fully prepared for a lead-in to another sequel.
The Bad News Bears is, of course, a series about baseball. Care to venture a guess as to how far along in this movie the first pitch is? Come on, that's not a rhetorical question. Those who replied "half an hour" get a virtual pat on the head. Baseball's practically the B-story in The Bad News Bears In Breaking Training, with nearly every other moment devoted to sophomoric "humor" and a few trite attempts at sentimentality. I have the distinct feeling that I'm around thirteen years outside the film's target audience, though even at that tender age, I'd like to think that I'd have better taste than to subject myself to the likes of this. I'm far past the age where I'm excited by the prospect of kids hopping around maniacally while tossing around issues of "Playboy". None of the kids put in a passable performance, though The Bad News Bears In Breaking Training is buoyed somewhat by the presence of such familiar faces as Lane Smith and William Devane. The writing shows an utter lack of imagination, and by the second time the Fat Guy begs for a pitstop and the other kids swat their arms around to ward off the stench of some off-screen flatulence, I found myself eyeing the kitchen sink longingly. The prospect of pre-washing pots and dishes seemed infinitely more appealing than continuing to waste 99 potentially valuable minutes of my life on this dreck. I did force myself to make it all the way through, though with total disinterest. The Bad News Bears In Breaking Training failed to inspire a single smile or, boredom aside, an emotion of any sort.
Video: The Bad News Bears In Breaking Training is presented in anamorphic widescreen at an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, as was the case with the other two entries in the series. This is an average effort, not up to the usual exceedingly high standards Paramount sets for its catalog titles, but hardly unwatchable either. A smidgen of grain is apparent, though it infrequently drew my attention, and there isn't an unusually high number of specks and bits of grit dotting the print. Edge haloing is a minor nuisance, which is not a flaw I typically associate with this studio. Perhaps it's the result of some quick and dirty digital cleaning instead of the usual care Paramount devotes to its work, which I suppose is understandable considering that this isn't likely to top sales charts any time soon. Fine detail is somewhat lacking as well. One of the kids' shirts -- sorry, I'm no good with names -- is awfully moire-tastic, and I can't recall the last time I watched a 16x9-enhanced disc with the moire effect this severe. Colors are drab and at times made me recoil in horror, but then, this is a '70s production and is likely in keeping with the styles of the time. The presentation is adequate, but nothing more than that.
Audio: The Dolby Digital mono is a touch on the quiet side, prone to distortion whenever anything moderately loud occurs. Dialogue sounded slightly muffled for much of the movie, though it's generally discernable after bumping the volume up a couple of notches. Aside from one song that plays early on in the Bears' road trip, there's no bass to speak of whatsoever. The soundtrack on this DVD ought to offer quite a nostalgic blast to those who watched The Bad News Bears In Breaking Training on a 19" mono TV in the early 1980s.
English subtitles and closed captioning are both present and accounted for.
Supplements: None of the three Bad News Bears DVDs have any extras at all. No, not even a trailer. To pad this section out a little more, though, it may be worth mentioning that the film has been broken up into twelve chapters.
Conclusion: I was not expecting much from The Bad News Bears In Breaking Training, but it failed to meet even my minimal expectations. At $24.95, there's not much to justify a purchase. If this had been an MGM release, The Bad News Bears In Breaking Training would've been priced a full ten dollars less and probably would not have looked or sounded appreciably different. This DVD is difficult to recommend with any enthusiasm, especially considering that the immeasurably superior The Sandlot is available for substantially less. Those devoted to the series may be interested in a rental, but this disc is an extremely marginal purchase.
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