What is going on here?! Where are The Bears? This is a Tony Curtis film. And his character wears out after 5 minutes. There are lengthy stretches of the film where The Bears barely appear, if at all! Like the 15 minute karate exhibition, or the 10 minute Game Show nonsense. And how bout some subtitles for the long conversations in Japanese. Viewers outside of Japan don't need the realism of communication breakdown. The heart and cleverness of the original are completely missing here, and we're left with Tony Curtis (a great actor) rambling on like a cheap salesman. The newly added Mustapha (Scoody Thornton) gives us a few cute moments, but Kelly (Jackie Earle Haley), the leader of the team, is little to be seen. And where's Tanner!! Don't poke this bear.

This 3rd and final installment in which the Bear's appear on the big screen is nothing but a big mistake, you'd think, after the sequel turns out to be surprisingly good, considering it was a different writer, director, etc. and the only thing that was the same was the cast. Exactly. The cast. That's one of the many flaws of this movie I will begin with, lack of cast. I guess a majority of the team are still there as Kelly, Stein, Feldman, Ahmad, Miguel, Toby, and Engleberg are all still in this, but the missing character's are the one's that are missed the most, one of the most notable absent is Tanner, who from my understanding had to back out've this because the kid who played him parent's were becoming "Increasingly uncomfortable with the profanity of his character". Whatever.....I've never been all that big a fan of Tanner, but even I know the movie will be dull without his shrill outbursts, racial slurs, and fighting everyone, I mean, he, other than Kelly is pretty much the only character that you can't just drop without an explanation. Other missing character's would be our beloved nerd Ogilvy, Our bugger eating moron Timmy, The English speaking Mexican Twin/brother Jose, and the Chachie Clone, Carmen.

Next, there is the story, I guess it starts out somewhat promising, with a somewhat half smile humor of the opening. Then cut to the Bears watching some war movie and Ahamd and Feldman playing Chess, and Stein nagging at them to be more careful, then Engleberg of course, raiding the refrigerator. Then nothing but blah until one final funny part where the team is practicing their first practice since arriving in Japan and everyone keeps arguing about who's playing where then in the last awesome moment ever, Kelly pushes Ahamd and yells "God Damn it! Play Left!". But other than that it's boring. And the kid's are given little to do, with the exception of Kelly and Ahmad, but they don't do anything special here either.....

Like the other film, this one is really bad on continuity, as they're going to Japan, like they were going to do when they won the game in Houston, but in this they're going for a different reason, which explains why they appear on a talk show with Regis looking for a coach, and it's there, the introduction of Coach Marvin Lazar, then they meet him at some restaurant and they get things set up. And in that part Kelly leaves and goes inside the bar in the restaurant and what else, flirts with older woman in the bar. But there's only one problem. HE DOESN'T LOOK 12 YEARS OLD ANYMORE. SO THEREFORE IT'S NOT FUNNY. And other stuff like, mainly, as much as it's hard to see the Bear's go, this movie just didn't work out.

Tony Curtis in his memoirs said he was not pleased with the results of The Bad News Bears Go To Japan. Probably he thought when signing on for this film in the first place he was going to be part of a hit series like James Bond. Unfortunately this film came up way short and The Bad New Bears ground to a halt.

Try as I might I could not wrap my mind around the concept that the parents of this club would send their kids unchaperoned to Japan with an unregenerate conman like Tony Curtis. Not like Curtis hasn't played hustlers on the big screen, he has and quite successfully. But that character he has done is jarringly out of place in a family type film.

Curtis is a down and out promoter who has the idea to promote the Bad News Bears to play the champion team of Japan. That's roughly like getting the Harlem Globetrotters to play the NBA champions, the Bears play in a style like the Globetrotters.

When it proves successful all kinds of people want to cash in and Curtis has to reexamine his own life.

Couldn't buy it and I doubt audiences in 1978 were buying it.