Movie Review: "The Sandlot" (1993)

Image Source

Movie: "The Sandlot"
Director: David M. Evans
Year: 1993
Rating: PG
Running Time: 1 hour, 41 minutes

Scotty Smalls (Tom Guiry) just moved into a new town two weeks before start of summer vacation. This has left him no time to make friends before the end of school. One day, he gets the courage to try to make friends with a group of 8 baseball loving kids who play on a run-down field called The Sandlot. He wants join in and complete the  but he has just one problem: he doesn't know how to play baseball. After making a fool of himself, he figures he is doomed to spend the summer alone tinkering with his Erector set. That is until one of the kids named Benny (Mike Vitar) takes pity on him and lets him join in and teaches him the game. He makes friends with the group and learns of the evil beast dog that lives behind The Sandlot. This monster keeps any ball that goes over the fence. One day, Smalls brings a very special ball to play with and when it gets hit over the fence, it becomes a matter of life and death to get it back. The kids must match wits with the beast in order to retrieve this special ball at all costs.

This movie is a nostalgic look at America and what has been called its favorite pastime. It is also a very idealized look at small-town suburban life in the early 1960's, the good and the bad. We as Americans like to remember our past fondly (minus all the crappy stuff). As children, we have times in our lives that we remember the fondest filled with our own local legends and myths. "The Sandlot" grabs those feelings and magnifies them, portraying them in a fun film that makes audiences happy to watch it over and over again. Though very cheesy and sometimes secondhand embarrassment inducing, it's all part of this movie's charm. The best parts of the movie revolve around the kids' perception of events surrounding "The Beast," the gigantic monster/kid-eating dog that lives behind The Sandlot. Through the eyes of a child, this dog will devour them whole, when in reality, it's just an English Mastiff. It adds a lot to the movie that we see these scenarios play out in their minds through the retelling of urban legends surrounding the dog.

This isn't the type of film to win any type of award, but it is a movie that you can watch a dozen times and still smile when Ham says, "You're KILLING ME, Smalls!" It's most certainly entertaining for the entire family, critics be damned, and is another one of those movies our generation will show their kids so they can enjoy it. We love it even if other people don't. It's very funny, very touching, and has a lot of heart. To us, this movie is a classic.

My Rating: 10/10
BigJ's Rating: 10/10
IMDB's Rating: 7.8/10
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 57%
Do we recommend this movie: ABSOLUTELY YES!!!