Razorblade Smile Reviews: The Sandlot
Because I might as well continue with the whole "golly gee" happy theme for the week....
....and because it's still technically "Opening Day" April, how about we break type a bit and tackle this flick....
The Sandlot
Info:
Director-- David M. Evans
Writers--- David M. Evans
Robert Gunter
Starring--- Tom Guiry
Mike Vitar
Patrick Renna
Year: 1993
Company: Island World Productions
The Basic Scoop, The Poop, The Lowdown:
A recently relocated shy tween boy named Scotty Smalls (sounds like a cheesy porno name doesn't it? Errr...sorry...wholesome review...WHOLESOME... lol :P) is made to get out and make new friends by his recently remarried mom and in the process learns about baseball, life, girls, and gets in a whole-lotta gee-whilickers trouble and fun in early 1960's Utah.
Utah? Why Utah? Yathink just MAAAAYBE a Mormon wrote this??? Hmmm... thinking too much, sorry, my bad. Upward and onward! :)
What's Pretty Good:
It's innocent, slice-of-Americana...uhh...ishness. The film really does do a pretty decent job at being lightly entertaining and cute while at the same time not being too obnoxious, though there are SOME parts of the film that are annoying (get to that in a minute...of course.)
The kids who naturally play the kids in the film are believable in their roles, and being unknown child actors at that helped in "selling" their innocence to the audience...okay THAT didn't sound right at all...eww...lol WHOLESOME damnit Chet, WHOLESOME!! :P
What I meant to say I guess is that you KNOW that they're just regular kids PLAYING regular kids. There was probably no flamming raging uber egos strutting around on that set in either short pants or board shorts. (Though the fact they didn't have someone like...I dunno...that screaming kid from Home Alone didn't help with the movie's box office.)
I particularly like the pool scenes...and yes...I can relate. Okay, damn that made me sound like a Lester McMoe Lester again...but just watch the film and you'll get what I mean...the pool scene was cute!!
Oh yeah, and it's got quite a few nice cameos.Karen Allen as young Scott's sweet, well-meaning mom, Denis Leary and last but certainly not least James Earl Jones
Wholesome family fun folks, oh yes, WHOLESOME!
What Kinda Sorta Really, Really Sucks:
As I was saying earlier, because it's a KIDS MOVIE first and foremost, and because we are not kids here (well...uhh...hopefully! ;) lol ) there are a couple of parts in the film that are annoying and very "Cartoon...ish." Unbelievable and silly...particularly when we get into the flick prime predicament concerning "The Best."
But, in all honesty, I've seen far worse in terms of kid movie implausibility and hamminess (SEE previously mentioned screaming kid actor link above! :P )
The plot is pretty simple, you can probably figure out how it's all gong to shake out within 20-30 minutes before it all ends (as in the movie of course, not Time Space, and The Universe...didn't mean to scare you! ;) )but if you're watching it that long, I doubt you'll care.
Oh, and in case maybe you hadn't already guessed, these kids were C-list or D-List actors when they made this, they're now GROWNUP C-list actors, and there's probably a reason for that...BUUUT still the performances are mostly fine in this flick. Just saying you won't find a lot of star power here or deep universe-bending plot twists. Kids movie....yeaaaah....
Overall Film Grade: C +
This is a sweet little baseball movie. nice dorky ordinary kids playing baseball in a sandlot that was likely later turned into a strip mall or a super Meglo-Wallyworld's. If you like baseball, if you played Sandlot ball with "the guys" when you were a kid (Like I did) or if you ever got thrown out of a public pool or got a wee "stiffie" checkin' out the hot older babe Lifeguard (Like I ALSO did!) OR if you're a red-blooded AMERICAN...
.....Then you'll probably dig this flick.
Bottomline folks, it'll bring back memories of baseball and good times...just don't expect anything deeper than that. Watch it with the fam and the folks and the kids. You'll all do fine with it.
God Bless America...now go play frickin' ball already!! :P
---Chet
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....and because it's still technically "Opening Day" April, how about we break type a bit and tackle this flick....
The Sandlot
Info:
Director-- David M. Evans
Writers--- David M. Evans
Robert Gunter
Starring--- Tom Guiry
Mike Vitar
Patrick Renna
Year: 1993
Company: Island World Productions
The Basic Scoop, The Poop, The Lowdown:
A recently relocated shy tween boy named Scotty Smalls (sounds like a cheesy porno name doesn't it? Errr...sorry...wholesome review...WHOLESOME... lol :P) is made to get out and make new friends by his recently remarried mom and in the process learns about baseball, life, girls, and gets in a whole-lotta gee-whilickers trouble and fun in early 1960's Utah.
Utah? Why Utah? Yathink just MAAAAYBE a Mormon wrote this??? Hmmm... thinking too much, sorry, my bad. Upward and onward! :)
What's Pretty Good:
It's innocent, slice-of-Americana...uhh...ishness. The film really does do a pretty decent job at being lightly entertaining and cute while at the same time not being too obnoxious, though there are SOME parts of the film that are annoying (get to that in a minute...of course.)
The kids who naturally play the kids in the film are believable in their roles, and being unknown child actors at that helped in "selling" their innocence to the audience...okay THAT didn't sound right at all...eww...lol WHOLESOME damnit Chet, WHOLESOME!! :P
What I meant to say I guess is that you KNOW that they're just regular kids PLAYING regular kids. There was probably no flamming raging uber egos strutting around on that set in either short pants or board shorts. (Though the fact they didn't have someone like...I dunno...that screaming kid from Home Alone didn't help with the movie's box office.)
I particularly like the pool scenes...and yes...I can relate. Okay, damn that made me sound like a Lester McMoe Lester again...but just watch the film and you'll get what I mean...the pool scene was cute!!
Oh yeah, and it's got quite a few nice cameos.Karen Allen as young Scott's sweet, well-meaning mom, Denis Leary and last but certainly not least James Earl Jones
Wholesome family fun folks, oh yes, WHOLESOME!
What Kinda Sorta Really, Really Sucks:
As I was saying earlier, because it's a KIDS MOVIE first and foremost, and because we are not kids here (well...uhh...hopefully! ;) lol ) there are a couple of parts in the film that are annoying and very "Cartoon...ish." Unbelievable and silly...particularly when we get into the flick prime predicament concerning "The Best."
But, in all honesty, I've seen far worse in terms of kid movie implausibility and hamminess (SEE previously mentioned screaming kid actor link above! :P )
The plot is pretty simple, you can probably figure out how it's all gong to shake out within 20-30 minutes before it all ends (as in the movie of course, not Time Space, and The Universe...didn't mean to scare you! ;) )but if you're watching it that long, I doubt you'll care.
Oh, and in case maybe you hadn't already guessed, these kids were C-list or D-List actors when they made this, they're now GROWNUP C-list actors, and there's probably a reason for that...BUUUT still the performances are mostly fine in this flick. Just saying you won't find a lot of star power here or deep universe-bending plot twists. Kids movie....yeaaaah....
Overall Film Grade: C +
This is a sweet little baseball movie. nice dorky ordinary kids playing baseball in a sandlot that was likely later turned into a strip mall or a super Meglo-Wallyworld's. If you like baseball, if you played Sandlot ball with "the guys" when you were a kid (Like I did) or if you ever got thrown out of a public pool or got a wee "stiffie" checkin' out the hot older babe Lifeguard (Like I ALSO did!) OR if you're a red-blooded AMERICAN...
.....Then you'll probably dig this flick.
Bottomline folks, it'll bring back memories of baseball and good times...just don't expect anything deeper than that. Watch it with the fam and the folks and the kids. You'll all do fine with it.
God Bless America...now go play frickin' ball already!! :P
---Chet
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