The Bad News Bears Go to Japan

1978 "They never met an adult they couldn't drive crazy."

The Bad News Bears Go to Japan

3.7 | 1h32m | PG | en | Comedy

In this third film version of the Bad News Bears series, Tony Curtis plays a small time promotor/hustler who takes the pint-sized baseball team to Japan for a match against the country's best little league baseball team which sparks off a series of adventures and mishaps the boys come into.

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3.7 | 1h32m | PG | en | Comedy , Family | More Info

Released: June. 30,1978 | Released Producted By: Paramount , Country: United States of America Budget: 0 Revenue: 0 Official Website:

Synopsis

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Cast

Tony Curtis , Jackie Earle Haley , Tomisaburō Wakayama

Director

Hiroshi Kitagawa

Producted By

Paramount ,

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Trailers & Images

Cast

Tony Curtis

as Marvin Lazar

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Jackie Earle Haley

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Tomisaburō Wakayama

as Coach Shimizu

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Reviews

bkoganbing Tony Curtis in his memoirs said he was not pleased with the results of The Bad News Bears Go To Japan. Probably he thought when signing on for this film in the first place he was going to be part of a hit series like James Bond. Unfortunately this film came up way short and The Bad New Bears ground to a halt. Try as I might I could not wrap my mind around the concept that the parents of this club would send their kids unchaperoned to Japan with an unregenerate conman like Tony Curtis. Not like Curtis hasn't played hustlers on the big screen, he has and quite successfully. But that character he has done is jarringly out of place in a family type film.Curtis is a down and out promoter who has the idea to promote the Bad News Bears to play the champion team of Japan. That's roughly like getting the Harlem Globetrotters to play the NBA champions, the Bears play in a style like the Globetrotters.When it proves successful all kinds of people want to cash in and Curtis has to reexamine his own life. Couldn't buy it and I doubt audiences in 1978 were buying it.

barney5 I just turned on the telly this afternoon and was rather surprised to hear people speaking Japanese without subtitles. Turned out I was halfway through this film and I can't recall ever seeing a more realistic depiction of Japan (I lived there for five years). Another user commented on the Godzilla advert - a nice touch was the phrasing of the catch line. "With this bat you can beat the anyone!" An excellent film for anyone who has ever lived in Japan, and one which is surprisingly undated considering its age.I also think it was very brave - and realistic - of them to release a film in which more than half of what goes on does so in a language that most of the audience doesn't understand, leaving them in the same position as the characters. Lost in translation? Perhaps.

bud-24 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.

jrs-8 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."