Review of The Sandlot (1993) by Ethan H — 16 Oct 2010

"The Sandlot" was simply just a highly entertaining movie. It's style was so classy, and so easily intriguing, that the movie just feels entertaining from start to finish. If your not laughing, your cherishing the friendship that the characters are having with each other, and if your not doing that, your admiring the beautiful game of baseball, and how it draws people together.

Tom Guiry plays this kid, who has just moved into the neighborhood. He has absolutely no friends, but he wants to make some. He sees a bunch of kids playing baseball, and he wants to join in, only discovering that he is horrible at the game. The whole group of kids make fun of him, except Mike Vitar, who wants to help him out, and teach him how to play. Eventually he is accepted into the group, and the audience witnesses the best summer that this character ever had, along with the eight other kids. This movie is great because it truly makes you just feel something...it gives you kind of a nostalgic feel of when you were that age...and the addition of the best sport of all time just makes the movie all the worth while.

The performances from the child actors are actually quite good. Guiry does a good job, so does Mike Vitar. Patrick Renna was good, and everyone else. Denis Leary didn't really do anything, but his style and personality were a good pick for him to play the step-father. I particularly liked James Earl Jones's performance, even though he was only in the movie for about 8 minutes. He still left a huge impact on me when I first saw the film as a child, and to this day, it still does.

When I was little and I watched this movie...I felt various different things. This was one of the reasons that I became a huge fan of baseball, and this movie also made me miss the season of summer on a level I couldn't begin to describe. My favorite sequence is the end, but in case you haven't seen it, I won't spoil it. All you have to know is that this movie can be parallel to anyone viewing it, whether your a boy or a girl, or if your a sports person or not. This movie just makes you feel good, and that's all that you could ask for in a movie like this.