The Bad News Bears

A film was released that got everything beautifully, hilariously and even painfully right.

At a time when sports movies can't be just sports movies anymore, it's both startling and soothing to take a second look at Michael Ritchie's Little League comedy The Bad News Bears.

Surprisingly, improbably, The Bad News Bears is the year's funniest movie.

Michael Ritchie keeps his dead-end cynicism in check and produces a genuinely funny comedy about a Little League team managed by a lovably drunken Walter Matthau.

An extremely funny adult-child comedy film.

Amiably engrossing satire on the 'win ethic' that offers a take-it-or-leave-it approach to its serious points about enforcing precociousness on kids, but consistently delights with its panoramic comic invention.

It's well-written and directed, and avoids being labeled as an outright "family comedy."

Still one of the scrappiest underdog movies...

A sublime, unique film that finds a way to serve its agitation with superbly scripted dry humor and richly defined characters.

Rather than put people from all races in a pressure cooker and supply them with crap dialogue intended to tread on liberal, white guilt, The Bad News Bears flips a refreshing bird to propriety.