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| "You can take your apologies and your trophy and stick them straight up your ass!" |
Tom Cruise said in an interview that Jackie Earle Haley's
performance in "The Bad News Bears" was the reason he signed on to do
"Losin' It". I've really enjoyed Haley's performances in other
films recently, so I decided to watch this again over the weekend.
Walter Matthau stars as Coach Morris Buttermaker; an over-the-hill, alcoholic, ex-minor leaguer turned pool cleaner hired to coach a rag-tag team of hopeless players in an overly competitive baseball league. After going through the motions, not taking the task seriously and seeing how disappointed the kids were after forfeiting their first game, he pulls his shit together, brings in some hired guns and takes them to the finals.
It would be easy to dismiss this as a kid's or sports movie, but there's a lot going on here. It addresses feelings of disappointment, isolation and inadequacy as well as dealing with strained relationships, unrequited love and regret. It also shows how easy it is for adults to get caught up in winning causing them to lose sight of what's best for the children they're working with. Matthau is absolutely believable in this role and is the glue that holds this film together. Vic Morrow is equally great as the well-meaning but win-obsessed Coach Turner. The kids mostly pull off decent enough performances, standouts being Tatum O'Neal as Amanda Whurlitzer and Chris Barnes (no, not that Chris Barnes) as the foul-mouthed Tanner Boyle. As for Haley's performance, he does a fine job, but is overshadowed by most of the other key players. There's just too much going on in this movie for his character to shine, really.
If it’s been a while since you've seen this, give it another viewing. It’s like a completely different movie now that I'm an adult.
4/5
Walter Matthau stars as Coach Morris Buttermaker; an over-the-hill, alcoholic, ex-minor leaguer turned pool cleaner hired to coach a rag-tag team of hopeless players in an overly competitive baseball league. After going through the motions, not taking the task seriously and seeing how disappointed the kids were after forfeiting their first game, he pulls his shit together, brings in some hired guns and takes them to the finals.
It would be easy to dismiss this as a kid's or sports movie, but there's a lot going on here. It addresses feelings of disappointment, isolation and inadequacy as well as dealing with strained relationships, unrequited love and regret. It also shows how easy it is for adults to get caught up in winning causing them to lose sight of what's best for the children they're working with. Matthau is absolutely believable in this role and is the glue that holds this film together. Vic Morrow is equally great as the well-meaning but win-obsessed Coach Turner. The kids mostly pull off decent enough performances, standouts being Tatum O'Neal as Amanda Whurlitzer and Chris Barnes (no, not that Chris Barnes) as the foul-mouthed Tanner Boyle. As for Haley's performance, he does a fine job, but is overshadowed by most of the other key players. There's just too much going on in this movie for his character to shine, really.
If it’s been a while since you've seen this, give it another viewing. It’s like a completely different movie now that I'm an adult.
4/5
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