The Sandlot Movie Review

The Sandlot (1993)

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Written by: David Mickey Evans & Robert Gunter
Directed by: David Mickey Evans
Starring: Tom Guiry, Mike Vitar, Patrick Renna, Chauncey Leopardi, Art LaFleur, Denis Leary, Karen Allen, James Earl Jones
Rated: PG
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Plot
In the summer of 1962, a new kid in town is taken under the wing of a young baseball prodigy and his rowdy team, resulting in many adventures.

Verdict
I feel a lot of nostalgia with this movie. It's a fine kids movie, just don't expect much more. It's a meandering plot that follows the misadventures of twelve year olds one summer. That was more appealing when I was a kid. It's a bit flat now, but it has some fun scenes. There's always something to these nostalgic movies and this manages to cut a wide path in the genre. It's a wholesome kids movie that's also memorable.
It depends.

Review
If you saw this movie when you were a kid, it's difficult not to like The Sandlot. This is steeped in sentimentality, but it starts in a common place; Scotty Smalls (Tom Guiry), a new kid in town with no friends. The neighborhood kids all play baseball, and he's never played.

A voice over from this same kid now grown keeps mentioning the biggest pickle he's ever encountered. That's teased a few too many times. While Scotty isn't very good, Benny (Mike Vitar), as the leader, wants him on the team so they have nine. He's the only one as the other kids don't want a kid that can't play. This leads to a nice moment where Benny tries to teach Smalls how to play. Benny helps redeem Smalls for the rest of the team. As the best player, he carries a lot of clout.

This does a great job of capturing  those feelings at twelves, wanting to make friends, being awkward, and excited to tell mom about the day. It's fun; the sandlot group gets challenged by a little league team, they try chaw with disastrous results, and they even get kicked out of the community pool. Those adventures escalate by the time we finally get to the "big pickle" that Scotty gets them into. They have to retrieve a baseball, and that proves to be much more difficult than they anticipated. This doesn't have a destination for most of the movie, it's just kids hanging out. It's wild for a movie to take so long getting to the plot, but I like that about the movie. It sets a mood that captures the audiences feelings first. As a kid, you just wish you had similar adventures. After all of their attempts to retrieve the ball, Benny finally takes charge to fix the situation. 

This is a sweet movie, the misadventures of a bunch of kids one summer. The ending has stuck with me since I first saw this as we get an title card on what happened to everyone on the team. Friendships don't last, but they had that one awesome summer. Benny achieved his dream, and Smalls developed a career.