Rating: PG
Genre:
Comedy
Release Date: 02/12/2002
SubTitles: English
Dubbed: English
Sound: 5.1/1
Run Time: 101 Minutes
Flags: Questionable for Children, Adult Language
Distributor/Studio: Paramount
The success this underdog comedy from director
Michael Ritchie almost single-handedly spawned the kids' sports film boom of the 1980s and '90s. When beer-breathed ex-minor-league ball player and professional pool cleaner Morris Buttermaker (
Walter Matthau) agrees to coach a little league team in the San Fernando Valley, he soon finds he's in over his head, having inherited an assortment of pint-sized peons and talentless losers. They play well-organized teams and lose by tremendous margins, and the parents threaten to disband the Bears to save the kids (and themselves) any further embarrassment. Buttermaker refuses, though, and brings in a pair of ringers: Amanda (
Tatum O'Neal), his ex-girlfriend's tomboy daughter, and Kelly (
Jackie Earle Haley), a cigarette-smoking delinquent who happens to be a gifted athlete. With their help, the Bears manage to change their losing ways and qualify for the championship, where they face their arch-rivals, the Yankees.
~ Jeremy Beday, All Movie Guide