THE BAD NEWS BEARS IN BREAKING TRAINING

US, 1977, 100 minutes, Colour.
William Devane, Jackie Earle Haley, Jimmy Baio, Clifton James.
Directed by Michael Pressman.

The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training was an immediate successor to Michael Ritchie's very successful The Bad News Bears, the rag taggle baseball team coached by Walter Matthau whose star was Tatum O'Neal. Both characters are missing from this sequel. Instead the focus is on Jackie Earl Haley's Kelly Leek. He was the sullen player in the original, here he is again sullen but acquires a long-lost father, played by William Devane, who trains the Bears and leads them to success. Kelly is hostile and then, of course, finally reconciled. There are some humorous aspects, repeating the style of the original: the focus on the range of oddball players in the team. However, there is a move towards sentiment as the Bears move towards an emotional success in Houston at the Astrodome. There is some humorous support also by Clifton James. The screenplay was written by Paul Brickman (Citizens' Band, writer director of Risky Business) and direction by Michael Pressman (Some Kind of a Hero, Doctor Detroit). The film raises the same kinds of questions as the original, but is not in the same league!