Tweet
Released by: Imprint
Released on: February 22nd, 2023.
Director: John Berry
Cast: Tony Curtis, Jackie Earle Haley, Tomisaburô Wakayama
Year: 1978
Purchase From Amazon
The Bad News Bears Go To Japan – Movie Review:
Made hot on the heels of the box office success of 1976's The Bad News Bears and 1977's the Bad News Bears In Breaking Training, 1978's The Bad News Bears Go To Japan, directed by John Berry, is a notoriously bad film that pretty much mostly deserves its reputation.
At this point, Walter Matthau is nowhere in sight, nor is the coach from the second movie and instead, the team of mouthy baseball loving kids is now handled by a man named Marvin Lazar (Tony Curtis). He sees The Bears not as anything noble or anything to help some troubled kids, but as a business opportunity,
When The Bad News Bears win the opportunity to go to Japan and challenge a boys team there, who are coached by a no-nonsense man named Shimizu (none other than Tomisaburô Wakayama of the Lone Wolf And Cub films!), for the world championship, they board a plane and head to the Land Of The Rising Sun where team member Kelly Leak (Jackie Earle Haley) gets into the swing of things by quickly obsessing over and then stalking a pretty Japanese girl named Ariko (Hatsune Ishihara). While this might weird someone out in 2023, in 1978 it was apparently a pretty effective method of wooing someone, because soon enough she's returning his affections. Of course, the rest of the Bears wind up getting into trouble while all of this is going on.
Elsewhere, Marvin somehow winds up having to compete in a wrestling match against Antonio Inoki (playing himself). When it's finally time for the big game, a fight breaks out and it's called off but Marvin later finds the kids playing each other anyway and the race is on.
On paper this one probably worked. Team up The Bears with a huckster and send them to a foreign country and let hijinks ensue. The potential for comedy is definitely there, and occasionally, the movie delivers some of that. Curtis, who is occasionally enthusiastic here but not especially often, brings some of his trademark manic energy to the film’s few funny moments and the novelty of seeing a legitimate cinematic bad ass like Tomisaburô Wakayama play the coach of the Japanese team counts for something. However, there are two main problems with the movie that prevent it from working the way that its creators probably hoped it would. The first is that there’s really no baseball here until the final act, and at that point, it almost feels forced in. The movie is a lot more concerned with showing us how the American characters react to ‘wacky’ Japanese culture in a series of set pieces rather than really elaborating on what brought all of these characters together in the first place, which is obviously baseball. The second is that there’s really no character development here, outside of the story arc involving Kelly and Ariko, which is not only clichéd, but even a little creepy at times.
The film’s pacing is pretty much what you’d expect and the production values are fine. The score is decent and there aren’t really any issues with the editing at all. It’s just a shame that the film doesn’t expand on its characters at all or ever really come together the way that it should.
The Bad News Bears Go To Japan – Blu-ray Review:
Imprint brings The Bad News Bears Go To Japan to Blu-ray framed at 1.78.1 widescreen and in AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer that looks pretty strong even if it doesn’t appear to have been sourced from a new master. Detail is generally pretty strong throughout, most noticeably in close up shots but also in medium and long distance shots as well. Colors are reproduced very nicely, skin tones look good and black levels are solid if not quite reference quality. Some shots look a bit better than others but this would appear to stem back to the photography rather than the transfer itself. Overall, this looks nice.
The 24-bit LPCM 2.0 Mono track, in the film’s native English sounds fine. Optional subtitles are offered in English only. There are moments where the sound is a bit on the flat side but for an older mono mix, that isn’t super surprising. For the most part, the track is clean, clear and nicely balanced without any audible hiss, distortion or sibilance.
The main extra on the disc is a commentary track with film critic Scott Harrison. He talks about where the movie works well and where it doesn’t while also providing a good bit of information about the cast and crew that worked on the pictures. There’s also talk here about how this sequel contrasts and compares to the earlier movies in the series, some of the casting decisions and more. It’s a good mix of facts and trivia regarding the movie’s history as well as Harrison’s own opinions on the film itself.
Additionally, Imprint supplies a thirteen minute featurette called America's Wildest Export: Scoring The Bad News Bears Go to Japan which interviews composer Paul Chihara about what went into supplying the music for the film and what he did to try and differentiate his work here from the music created for the two films in the series that preceded this third entry.
Menus and chapter selection options are also provided and this release comes packaged with some double-sided cover sleeve art and a limited edition slipcover.
The Bad News Bears Go To Japan - The Final Word:
The Bad News Bears Go To Japan lacks the energy and fun of the earlier films, despite a few moments that do prove amusing and the genuinely weird concept of having the man who brought Itto Ogami to live in a prominent role. Imprint’s Blu-ray edition, however, is a good one as it presents the feature in a very nice high definition presentation and with some decent extra features as well, meaning that fans of the film will appreciate the upgrade.
Click on the images below, or right click and open in a new window, for full sized The Bad News Bears Go To Japan Blu-ray screen caps!
