Featured Blu-ray Review: Sandlot: 25th Anniversary Edition
April 6, 2018
The Sandlot: 25th Anniversary Edition - Buy from Amazon: Blu-ray
The Sandlot is a movie about nostalgia that is old enough that people can feel nostalgic about it. Has the film aged well in the past 25 years? Or has time not been as kind to it?
The movie begins at the end, with Scotty Smalls, a color commentator for the Los Angeles Dodgers getting ready for work. The Narrator tells us about how Babe Ruth went from a mere baseball player to a legend. He then explains how his own friend, “Benny the Jet” Rodriguez became a neighborhood legend.
We then flashback to the summer of 1962. Scotty Smalls has just moved to town and he’s looking for friends. He’s also dealing with a new step-dad after his mother remarried after his dad died. He sees some kids from the neighborhood playing baseball one day and his plan is to just sort of sneak onto the field and see what happens. What happens is, he’s not very good at baseball and all of the kids laugh at him, all but one: “Benny the Jet” Rodriguez. Benny points out that the rest of the gang aren’t that good at baseball either and give the kid a chance. Benny is so good at baseball that he is able to make Smalls look good and Smalls is accepted by the group.
We are about 20 minutes into the movie, but it gets really episodic at this point and I don’t want to give too many details. Smalls learns about The Beast, the monster dog who lives next to the sandlot and who eats any baseball that gets hit into his yard. Michael “Squints” Palledorous has a crush on the local lifeguard, Wendy Peffercorn. (On a side note, originally, this was a cute moment in the movie; however, it hasn’t aged well. It is at least borderline creepy.) The night game on July 4th. Playing against the official little league team. Bertram sharing his chewing tobacco. All of this leads up to the big event.
The movie focuses on a bunch of kids in the 1960s and none of them have jobs, so they can only afford to buy a single baseball per day. If they knock it into Beast’s backyard, that’s the end of the game for that day. This day, something special happens. Benny hits the ball so hard the cover flies off. It’s an amazing sight to see, but it also means there’s no more baseball for the day. Then Smalls realizes his step-dad has a baseball on the mantle and they could use that. It isn’t until someone hits a home run into the Beast’s backyard that he realizes how big of a mistake he’s made. He tells his friends he needs that ball back. He needs it back. It isn’t until he explained it was signed by some some, Babe something that the rest realize what just happened. They hit a Babe Ruth signed baseball into the Beast’s backyard. They all need to get that ball back.
The Sandlot doesn’t have reviews and a lot of critics complain it is a slight movie without a lot of weight to it. It relies too much on nostalgia and doesn’t do anything to stretch the genre or take any chances. All of this is true, but while it doesn’t aim high, it is really effective at what it is trying to do. It conveys a sense of summer that I think no longer exists, so nostalgia holds a lot of appeal and it has a fun cast of kids. I like the diversity of the cast and how none of the other characters comment the best player on their team is Hispanic and the second best is African-American. That would be noteworthy in 1962, but the film doesn’t even mention it. Not all of the episodes work. The part of the chewing tobacco doesn’t fit the tone of the rest of the movie and “Squints” crush on Wendy Peffercorn hasn’t aged well. That said, the attempts at thwarting The Beast alone makes this movie worth watching. There’s almost a Looney Tunes-level energy to this section of the movie and that really helps its replay value.
The only extra on the Blu-ray is a six minute archival featurette. That’s disappointing. There’s also some baseball cards, short pamphlet, and a poster in the Blu-ray box, but this is still light, especially for an anniversary edition.
The Sandlot: 25th Anniversary Edition feels more like a budget Blu-ray release. There are almost no extras on the Blu-ray itself, while there are a few physical extras included in the case. It only costs $13 to buy, so is worth picking up.
The Movie
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The Verdict
Filed under: Video Review, Karen Allen, Tom Guiry, Arliss Howard, Denis Leary, Marley Shelton, David M. Evans, Chauncey Leopardi, Mike Vitar, Grant Gelt