Review of The Sandlot (1993) by Quinten P — 24 Sep 2013

The Sandlot is one of those movies that, since the first time I saw it when I was a kid I would almost never turn down watching, unless it was a life or death situation. This is one of the most classic movies of the 90s with some of the most memorable scenes and quotes of any film I can think of. From Squints getting mouth to mouth from the life guard, to the Babe Ruth dream sequence, to the final showdown between Benny and the Beast. This is a film that my parents show'd me, I'll show my kids and hopefully they'll show their kids after that. It's a timeless tale about growing up and getting over your childhood fears.

It seems that every other reviewer is comparing this film to Field of Dreams to which the only connection I could find was the inclusion of Darth Vader himself, the fantastic Mr. James Earl Jones in the cast and the fact that it has baseball in it, and Stand By Me, which I could see a somewhat stronger connection to, if only in the narration and the fact that the film has children in it. But the fact of the matter is The Sandlot is neither of those films, it is lighter in nature than Stand By Me and is more about things that would go on in most regular children's lifetime like moving to new places, making friends and playing baseball, rather than the incredibly morbid concept of looking for a deceased friend's body. It also, has literally nothing else in common that I could think of with Field of Dreams than the two aforementioned things. The Sandlot is a classic stand alone movie about kids being kids in a most similar fashion, for the sake of reference, to the likes of similar 90s coming of age classics such as Dazed and Confused and it tells its' story in such a way that both children and adults can appreciate.

In the words of the Great Bambino, the Sultan of Slam, the King of Crash himself's ghost in Benny's dream, "Heroes get remembered, legends never die..." This film is full of my childhood heroes and is a legendarily classic film in my eyes so, for that, it's a 5 out of 5. For Hercules's Foundation for the Recovery of Lost Baseballs, this is The Truth You Can't Handle, signing off.