Slide into Little League season by watching The Bad News Bears. Released in 1976, The Bad News Bears will need a few disclaimers for today’s younger audiences: Kids back then had access to cigs but not always seatbelts, for example. The film is a 1900s period piece, but Gen Alpha will like its commitment to underdog camaraderie and good ol’ cussing. What hits now is how many actual kids were on the field back then. In today’s youth-sports industry, there are often more grown-ups involved than there are kids. And unfortunately, not a single one of them is Walter Matthau. Playing an aging former minor leaguer coaching a team of misfits, he is perfectly cast opposite 13-year-old Tatum O’Neal —fresh off her Oscar-winning Paper Moon performance. Matthau understands his role is about interacting with kids as though they are adults. Makes you wonder … is this a kids’ movie or a movie for adults that happens to have kids in it? Now, 50 years after its original release, Bad News Bears will screen multiple times for one day only as part of Regal’s monthlong Legends of Laughs series.
Multiple showtimes at local Regal theaters
