McDaniel Enterprises

A major surprise as one of 1976's top grossing films, The Bad News Bears is a movie about children that is refreshing, utterly believable and quite cleverly funny. Walter Matthau is at his absolute best as the grumbling beer-guzzling former minor-league pitcher Morris Buttermaker, who gets roped into coaching a band of half-pint misfits somewhat loosely called a team. When the team hits an all-time low against a rival team, Morris decides to do something about it and turn the kids into winning ball players once and for all. After recruiting a girl pitcher (Tatum O'Neal) and a motorcycle-riding punk (Jackie Earle Haley) who excels at the game, Morris and his team are finally on the way to the championship. But with this bunch in uniform, nothing is guaranteed to come out as expected.