The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training (1977) Paramount/Comedy RT: 99 minutes Rated PG (language, racial epithets, mild sexual content) Director: Michael Pressman Screenplay: Paul Brickman Music: Craig Safan Cinematography: Fred J. Koenekamp Release date: July 8, 1977 (US) Cast: William Devane, Clifton James, Jackie Earle Haley, Jimmy Baio, Chris Barnes, Erin Blunt, George Gonzalez, Jaime O. Escobar, Alfred Lutter, Brett Marx, David Pollock, David Stambaugh, Jeffrey Louis Starr, Quinn Smith, Lane Smith, Fred Stuthman, Dolph Sweet, Pat Corley. Box Office: N/A
Rating: ** ½
While The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training isn’t exactly bad news, it doesn’t come close to recapturing the magic and hilarity of the 1976 original about the underdog Little League baseball team that rose to the challenge and played in the climactic championship game against a stronger, better team. They lost, but winning wasn’t really the point. So why is it that they’re referred to as “the California champs” throughout Breaking Training? Did the makers of this amusing but inferior sequel actually see the first movie? How did such a gaffe get past studio execs? Did they honestly think that nobody would notice?
Right off the bat (ha ha), this second movie makes an error. The rest of it feels like warmed-up leftovers that still retain some of the flavor, but not enough of the taste to make it substantial or particularly satisfying. I wanted to see Breaking Training when it came out in summer ’77, but my dad was still mad about “all the GD bad language” in the first movie so the answer was an emphatic “NO!” I saw it on network TV a couple of times (not the same), but didn’t get to see it uncut until early fall ’86 when it played on HBO. It has its fair share of funny moments, but the overall effect is far less than the original movie, still one of my favorites.
Because they’re the champs (?!), the Bears have the privilege of playing a four-inning exhibition game against the Texas champs, the Houston Toros, at the Astrodome. All they need is a coach. Original coach Buttermaker is nowhere in sight, same goes for pitcher Amanda. Bad boy player Kelly Leak (Haley) devises a plan to fool everybody’s parents into thinking that the half-witted groundskeeper is the new coach. What he actually plans to do is drive the team to Houston himself (he’s like 13, right?) in a “borrowed” van without an accompanying adult.
The lineup for this trip includes foul-mouthed Tanner (Barnes), fat kid Engelberg (Starr), black kid Ahmad (Blunt), bookworm Ogilvie (Lutter), nervous Rudy (Pollock), unassuming Toby (Stambaugh), quiet Feldman (Marx) and non-English speaking brothers Jose (Escobar) and Miguel (Gonzalez). New to the team is big-talking pitcher Carmen Ronzonni (Baio, cousin to Scott), a braggart who’s all talk and no talent. Kelly has an ulterior motive for making the trip, to reunite with his estranged father Mike (Devane, Marathon Man).
The team eventually makes it to Houston where they almost instantly arouse the suspicion of the local police. Kelly asks his father to temporarily serve as the coach so the team can play the exhibition game for which the winners get a shot at playing against the champs in Japan thus setting up the scenario for the next and last sequel, The Bad News Bears Go to Japan.
Breaking Training doesn’t break any new ground with its predictable story arc- i.e. the team rising to the challenge (again), Kelly bonding with his dad, the mean opposing team, etc. Strangely enough, the Bears are once again incompetent ball players and need to get their act together. Did they really forget everything Buttermaker taught them in the span of a year? While we’re on the subject of departed friends, were they that reliant on Amanda’s skills that they fall apart without her? I’m just saying.
The Bears have cleaned up their act a bit since the first movie, the kids don’t swear quite as much. That is except for Tanner who rattles off his usual litany of profanity and racial slurs. But he gets to show his softer side in his friendship with Lupus (Quinn Smith), laid up with a broken leg and unable to make the trip. He decides after watching the late movie that they need to win this one for “the Looper”. Speaking of memorable lines, during the climactic game which gets cut short due to time constraints, coach Mike leads the entire stadium in the now-famous “Let them play!” chant.
A movie like Breaking Training would likely not get made today with its depiction of kids smoking cigarettes (Kelly), driving without a license and reading dirty magazines. If it did, it certainly wouldn’t get a PG rating. It’s interesting how much mores change with the times. What seemed acceptable in the 70s (Kelly smoking) is completely inappropriate and un-PC today. Growing up in the 70s, I remember seeing a lot of teens and preteens smoking (behind their parents’ backs but still). I guess what I’m saying is that I appreciate Breaking Training on the level of how it captures a time when kids behaved or misbehaved differently.
I like the Bears’ original line-up very much and while it’s great seeing them again, I’m not so sure about the addition of Carmen. He’s the kind of kid you just want to smack in the mouth. He’s the schoolyard big shot that claims to be great at everything, but when he fails to deliver, he has some lame excuse as to why he’s coming up short. He gets a bit more likable as the movie progresses, but he’s still rather irksome. He’s one of the reasons that Breaking Training comes up short. It’s an amusing little sports comedy, but so predictable and formulaic that it almost seems pointless. It has its moments, but it’s not a home run. Instead, it makes it to second before being called out.
