The Sandlot 2 (2005) Reviews

• Ruins the memories

  KingMFreak2006-06-16

  When you're tired of having fun on a Cruise ship and want to relax with the movie and the only thing on is The Sandlot 2, you take the opportunity. Hey, the movie is free, and I can sleep when the sun goes down (though that rarely happens in Alaska during the summer days). At first, The Sandlot 2 looked like it could turn out to be a decent kid movie. Sure it was evident they had rehashed the first one based on characters (the smart-ass fat kid, the look-a-like brothers, the leader of the pack, and the nerd who doesn't fit in). And I don't remember what it was, but at first, the movie tricked me into thinking it was going to be good. I have fond memories of the first Sandlot movie. I first saw it when I was nine and was instantly wrapped up in its story of one summer for kids in 1962. That movie also had some very un-clichéd elements, including the fact that it was a baseball movie that didn't end with the big game, but rather, a kid running from a "killer dog." What is so sad about this film is that it is a reconstruction of the first one scene for scene. The only new addition are female players, who are so annoying that you want the boys to win, especially when David (Max Lloyd-Jones) and Hayley (Samantha Burton) face off in a pitching-hitting match. The movie also includes a character that is supposedly the younger stepbrother of the original film's narrator (the narrator in both films is director David Mickey Evans). His role is to get something (a spaceship model) lost in the "Great Fear's" backyard (this movie's The Beast). Why the model is so important is not something I will divulge, as it will take too long. This sets up the movie to spend the next twenty minutes showing the kids coming up with improbably difficult ways to retrieve the item with no success, until finally the hero steps up and gets the item back, and ends up running (or in this case the wuss bikes) for his life (we even get a scene where he is running through an alley knocking over trash cans). Then the kids find out they just could've asked a blind James Earl Jones to retrieve the item, instead of putting us through all that pain. Why did I endure the movie when I was on a cruise ship and had the option of turning the movie off and doing something cooler, like sit in a hot tub? I don't really know. I was drawn in to see how much of the movie was copied, and if you've seen the first movie, you no doubt already know everything was stolen. They even have a rivalry team that wants the Sandlot, and whom they have a verbal contest with (the insult "Plays like a girl," is even thrown in, though this time from the other side). Overall, The Sandlot 2 is a terrible movie. Terrible. Awful. Dreadful. Appalling. Dire. Bad. And poor.

• Just Plain Insulting

  Jonesgrl52007-03-12

  I grew up on the first Sandlot and you know what? THEY SHOULD HAVE LEFT IT ALONE! The Sandlot is a fantastic movie(one of my top favorites) and it has been by itself for 12 years and now they have to go and make one of the world's worst TV movies for its sequel. Where should I begin? 1) THE PLOT IS EXACTLY THE SAME AS THE FIRST ONE! Group of kids lose something over the fence and spend their summer trying to come up with a clever plan to retrieve it because of some unknown "monster" on the other side. Also the feud between the rookie team and the league team. "You play ball like a girl!" That entire scene was exactly the same as in the original. Exactly the same... 2) CHARACTERS ARE BASICALLY THE SAME! One baseball hot-shot, a fat kid, one black kid, two brothers, Smalls (Scott Smalls younger half-brother) and they did mix it up a little bit, they threw in three girls who play softball. They only decided to give these characters different names. Like in the original, the dog was called "The Beast" and in this movie the dog is called "The Great Fear." What is that? 3) NOBODY IN THIS MOVIE COULD ACT! With the exception of James Earl Jones of course, he was awesome as he always is. I'm still trying to figure out why in the world he would take this role... This movie is just plain insulting to anyone who has seen and has fallen in love with the 1993 movie "The Sandlot" because how they have basically taken every single scene and twisted it to fit the 70's. I'm afraid to even think about what "The Sandlot 3" is going to be about... I give this 1/10 stars because that is as low as the scale goes.

• No.

  Mimi_Oya_Dante2006-01-31

  This movie was awful. Period. Anyone who had seen and loved the first Sandlot would be ashamed to see this movie beside it on the shelf. Firstly, the storyline is terribly predictable and almost exactly the same as the first one, only a lot worse because it wasn't nearly as funny. Secondly, the acting throughout the whole movie was terrible. The actors seemed to be picked more because of their body than because of their acting abilities. Character development was beyond embarrassing, a character would simply show up, spill their life story and all of the sudden we're trusting them with the fate of the movie? You could not pay me to sit through this movie again, the only reason I didn't turn it off in the first place was because I was amazed at how the film got progressively worse! I urge you strongly NOT to see this movie, not only would it be a waste of money, but a waste of time. I want an hour and a half of my life back!

• A sequel?!

  Enchilada1052006-06-25

  More like remake.The acting was just horrible!Putting girls in the story was a bad idea because The original was about friendship but this version was about love (12 year olds don't need to know about love wait until there 14-15.).They where RACIST about tarquell.I mean he was the only one where Phychadelic clothing and was the only one with an afro.But the biggest thing was that they named him tarquell(you don't see Caucasian men named Tarquell).Plus everyone had a great future but Tarquell was abducted by aliens!Thats just racist! The reason I said this is more like a remake because it has the: 1.same situation (when the object goes over the fence) 2.Arguement between the fat kid and the jerky kid 3.Trick kiss scene with the weakest kid and someone very attractive It has Nothing to do with baseball.In the original it had to do a lot with baseball (baseball is my favorite sport).But this had nothing to do with baseball.It even said in he movie that it had nothing to do with baseball. overall:A bad movie

• A hateful experience

  Ronald_Mexico2006-01-25

  Oh Dear Lord: somebody somewhere must have been offended by the original movie (which was obviously a fiendish plot to perpetuate the stereotype that a group of school boys could play sandlot baseball games without following preconceived notions of gender equity and politically correct behavior). The result of this brutish insensitivity manifests itself in "Sandlot 2", which is quite possibly the worst sequel ever made. Hey anonymous narrator guy who agreed to reprise his 'Sandlot 1' role for this atrocity...have you no shame? This film's offenses to all of moviedom are far too numerous to adequately catalog. First and foremost, "Sandlot 2" is not so much a sequel as it is a B level remake of the original. Virtually every situation from the first movie is clumsily recreated by a far less talented cast and group of writers: the scene where Squints kisses Wendy Peppercorn is transformed into bizarre (yet utterly predictable) slapstick involving a kissing booth, another 'Beast' must be outrun (this time by the uninspiring Max Lloyd-Jones), another outfield wall collapses...you get the picture. And what this shameless ripoff cannot steal from the original, it manages to plunder from other movies (such as the scene in "Bad NewsBears" where Amanda takes a cheap shot to the chest near home plate). The cast itself is incredibly lackluster. Max Lloyd-Jones is an inadequate replacement for Mike Vitar's benevolent Benny "The Jet" Rodriguez, although to be fair, the writing doesn't help him any; whereas Rodriguez selflessly places his own reputation on the line to take a shy, gawky kid under his wing for the summer, Lloyd-Jones' "David Durango" has little concern for the plight of misunderstood Johnnie Smalls (yes, the little brother of Scotty Smalls) and appears far more interested in being aloof and ultra-cool while scouting out love interests. Brett Kelly's "Hamilton Porter" impersonation begins and ends with his physical appearance. Even little James Wilson sounds suspiciously like Marcy from "The Peanuts Gang" as Johnnie Smalls, and he was probably the most talented of the bunch. And then there is Teryl Rothery appearing in a hackneyed feminist role that undoubtedly had Susan B. Anthony turning in her grave. No cliché is left unturned as she chides her husband for calling his daughter by a pet name ("Female children are every bit as good as male children" she pronounces, providing an unsuspecting Johnnie Smalls with a smarmy look just oozing with resentment and general creepiness. *shudder*) and responds to her daughter's romantic uncertainties by telling her that "women need a man like a fish needs a bicycle". Sadly, the writers did not manage to have Rothery work a single utterance of "Burn your BRA for the ERA" into the mother/daughter dialog, but perhaps they will correct this glaring oversight in time for "Sandlot 3: The Gloria Steinem story". Coming soon to a theater near you? The rest of the movie provides a quick cure for insomniacs far and wide as the writers desperately try to make amends for the first film's over-indulgence of testosterone (the phrase 'Male Chauvinist Pig' was repeated, I think,about eighty-six times). The movie's objective can probably be summed up in a single line, where the insult fest between the sandlot kids and the little leaguers is recreated. "You play ball like a GIRL!" one of the kids snarls. "Ex--CUSE me?" chirps one of the newfound female ballplayers. The only thing missing from the moment was a scrolling disclaimer at the bottom of the screen with the producers not only apologizing for the original scene but for everything else wrong with the world up to and including dishwater spots. Which is all well and good. My only question is, when will these same producers get around to issuing an apology for stealing ninety-seven minutes of my life that I can never, ever get back?