5 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.9 |
In this third film of the Bad News Bears series, Tony Curtis plays a small time promoter/hustler who takes the pint-sized baseball team to Japan for a match against the country's best little league baseball team which sparks off a series of adventures and mishaps the boys come into.
Starring: Tony Curtis, Jackie Earle Haley, Tomisaburo Wakayama, Antonio Inoki, Hatsune IshiharaSport | 100% |
Comedy | 95% |
Family | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: LPCM 2.0
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
John Berry's "The Bad News Bears Go to Japan" (1978) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Via Vision Entertainment. The supplemental features on the release include exclusive new program with composer Paul Chihara and exclusive new audio commentary by critic Scott Harrison. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.
The promoter
Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, The Bad News Bears Go to Japan arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Via Vision Entertainment.
The release is sourced from an older master that was supplied by Paramount Pictures. Even though the age of the master easily shows, I would describe it as good. Why? Because it produces visuals with good, often even very good detail and depth, and because it does not have any traces of problematic digital corrections. It has a stable color scheme too, but this is an area where various meaningful improvements can be made to improve balance and saturation levels. Select areas should have superior highlights and shadow detail, but I was very pleasantly surprised by the overall quality of various darker areas where darker nuances look quite nice. Image stability is good. Small blemishes and dirt spots can be seen, but there are no distracting large cuts, warped or torn frames to report. My score is 3.75/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray release. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your player regardless of your geographical location).
There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English LPCM 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.
The dialog is stable and very easy to follow. However, there are areas of the film where the audio becomes a tad thin, possibly somewhat flat as well. I think that if it is remastered with modern equipment its overall quality will improve. But you do not have to worry about any serious distracting anomalies that could affect your viewing experience.
Is it possible that The Bad News Bears Go to Japan could have turned out a better film if its producers had booked another actor to play Tony Curtis' part? Yes, I think so, but I am unsure if this better film would have been a good film. In its current form, The Bad News Bears Go to Japan has too many serious flaws and virtually all of them can be traced back to Bill Lancaster's screenplay and John Berry's direction. Replacing both would have meant starting from scratch again. I did not like The Bad News Bears Go to Japan at all. Curtis looks awful and I could not detect even a whiff of the sincerity that made the previous two films memorable. Via Vision Entertainment's Blu-ray release is sourced from an old but good organic master that was supplied by Paramount Pictures. It will be of interest only to completists that must have all three films about the Bears in their library.
Imprint #107
1977
2011
Imprint #31
1976
2017
Let's Get Sweaty Edition
2008
25th Anniversary Edition
1992
1992
2007
1998
2004
2006
2010
2007
1996
2013
2012
1999
2002
Imprint #173
1979
Cinema Cult
1977