The Sandlot (1993)

In the summer of 1962, a new kid in town is taken under the wing of a young baseball prodigy and his rowdy team, resulting in many adventures.

Director:

David Mickey Evans

Writers:

David Mickey Evans, Robert Gunter

Stars:

Tom Guiry, Mike Vitar, Art LaFleur

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Art LaFleur	...	The Babe (as Art La Fleur)
Tom Guiry	...	Scotty Smalls
Mike Vitar	...	Benjamin Franklin Rodriguez
Patrick Renna	...	Hamilton 'Ham' Porter
Chauncey Leopardi	...	Michael 'Squints' Palledorous
Marty York	...	Alan 'Yeah-Yeah' McClennan
Brandon Quintin Adams	...	Kenny DeNunez (as Brandon Adams)
Grant Gelt	...	Bertram Grover Weeks
Shane Obedzinski	...	Tommy 'Repeat' Timmons
Victor DiMattia	...	Timmy Timmons
Denis Leary	...	Bill
Karen Allen	...	Mom
James Earl Jones	...	Mr. Mertle
Marley Shelton	...	Wendy (as Marlee Shelton)
Herb Muller	...	Young Mr. Mertle

Storyline

Scotty Smalls moves to a new neighborhood with his mom and stepdad, and wants to learn to play baseball. Rodriguez, the neighborhood baseball guru, takes Smalls under his wing - soon he becomes part of the local baseball buddies. They fall into adventures involving baseball, treehouse sleep-ins, the desirous lifeguard at the local pool, the snooty rival ball team, and the travelling fair. Beyond the fence at the back of the sandlot menaces a legendary ball-eating dog called The Beast, and the kids inevitably must deal with him.

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Plot Keywords:

original story | one piece bathing suit | voyeurism | baseball | kiss on the lips | 

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Taglines:

They're more than a team. They're the best buddies in the entire history of the world.

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Family | Sport

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG for some language and kids chewing tobacco

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 April 1993 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Sandlot

Filming Locations:

1388 Glenrose Drive, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$4,918,712, 11 April 1993

Gross USA:

$32,968,362

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$34,366,669

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox, Island World

Technical Specs

Runtime:

101 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Black and White Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The dog "Hercules" was an English Mastiff.

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Goofs

At several points in the movie we see lights on at Mr. Mertle's house. However, Mr. Mertle is blind and lives alone, so having lights on would be useless to him. However, contrary to popular belief, most people who are legally blind still retain a small amount of residual vision, and they do tend to rely upon it in their everyday lives. Thus, Mr. Mertle having the lights on in his house to assist with what little vision he would have left is not an error.

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Quotes

"The Babe": [looks at baseball card] Henry Aaron. I don't know why but can I have this, kid?

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Crazy Credits

The opening 20th Century Fox logo plays in complete silence.

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Alternate Versions

AMC broadcasts in the US slow down the film's audio pitch and speed at 4%.

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Connections

Referenced in Witnesses (2019)

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Soundtracks

Wipe Out
Written by Robert Berryhill, Jim Fuller, Ronald Wilson (as Ron Wilson) and Patrick Connolly
Performed by The Surfaris
Courtesy of Dominion Entertainment, Inc.
By arrangement with Celebrity Licensing Inc.

User Reviews

Likable family film with plenty of amusing moments and the young cast are appealing.

Tommy Smalls (Tom Guiry) is the new kid, who moved with his mother (Karen Allen) and his stepfather (Denis Leary) is a suburbans area of Salt Lake City in the summertime. When Smalls becomes curious with a group of kids (Mike Vitar, Patrick Renna, Chauncey Leopardi, Marty York, Brandon Quintin Adams, Grant Gelt, Shane Obedzinski and Victor DiMattia), who plays Baseball all day long in a old baseball field. Smalls is hoping to play with them but he knows nothing about the game. When he tries to play, he's quite bad at all. He can't even throw a ball to the catchers. When he becomes friend with the leader of the game and Smalls starting to like the game. But when his stepfather goes away for business, Smalls take a baseball from his stepfather trophy room. Which without realizing that the ball, he took from the room is actually signed by the Baseball Legend "Babe Ruth". Smalls hits his first home run, the ball went over the fence of a old house. But that old house, it has an mean-spirited junkyard dog. Which the kids called him "The Beast". Now the kids have to help Smalls to get the ball back before his stepfather comes back from the business trip.

Directed by David M. Evans (First Kid) made an likable family comedy that plenty of funny moments, a good cast and a lot of imagination. The narration of the film will certainly make you remember of the late Bob Clark film "A Christmas Story", although the narration of "The Sandlot" is sightly heavy-handed at times. This film has a surprise hit, when it was release in the spring of 1993. Fox had another fantasy film about Baseball, which it was "Rookie of the Year". James Earl Jones, Art LaFleur and a young Marley Shelton have memorable bit parts in this pleasant comedy as well.

DVD has an sharp anamorphic Widescreen (2.35:1) transfer (Also in Pan & Scan) and an good Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. DVD also includes an featurette, trailer and TV spots. This film went on to be an modest classic over the year. All the kids have their moments, especially Renna and Leopardi have their comedic moments. The movie slows down a bit during the second act. But it's well made and this picture pleases everyone as well. It's one of the better family movies of the 1990's. Don't miss it. Co-Written by the director. Arliss Howard appears Unbilled. Followed by Two Direct to DVD's. Joe-Dunton-Camera Scope (J-D-C Scope). (****/*****).