Cinepals - THE SANDLOT (1993) Movie Reaction & Review!

Episode Date: September 11, 2024

Achara and Michael watch the childhood classic The Sandlot for the very first time! The Sandlot is a nostalgic coming-of-age story about a group of boys who bond over their shared love of baseball during one unforgettable summer in the 1960s. In case, you skipped the intro, Michael and Achara watched the film on the day that James Earl Jones passed away and they had not heard the news of his passing until after the recording happened. This is why there is no mention to his passing during the reaction. The Sandlot was directed by David Mickey Evans (Radio Flyer, First Kid, The Final Season). The film stars Tom Guiry (U-571, Black Hawk Down, Mystic River) as Scotty Smalls, Mike Vitar (D2: The Mighty Ducks, D3: The Mighty Ducks, The Sandlot) as Benny "The Jet" Rodriguez, and Patrick Renna (The Big Green, Son in Law, GLOW) as Hamilton "Ham" Porter. Other key cast members include Chauncey Leopardi (Freaks and Geeks, Gilmore Girls, The Sandlot) as Squints, and James Earl Jones (Star Wars, Field of Dreams, The Lion King) as Mr. Mertle. Join us on www.cinejump.com for the full length watchalong to this as well as many other movies and shows. Please be aware that we only show our reaction, and you will need to get your own copy of the movie or content that we are watching :) Our full cutdown reaction of this movie (and others) is available on our youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/@cinepals SOCIAL MEDIA: ~CINEPALS~ YouTube: @CinePals Insta: https://instagram.com/TheCinePals Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheCinePals ~MICHAEL~ Insta: @booseisloose ~ACHARA~ Insta: @AcharaKirk YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/achara

Senna. Michael and I just watched the Sandlot today, and we had no idea at the time we were watching that James Earl Jones had actually passed away. The news of his passing came after we watched the movie, so that's why we're not mentioning it at all as we were watching the film. I'm very sad because, you know, James Earl Jones is a legendary actor. but I think it's very apt to think about the quote that was actually said in the sandlot. Heroes are remembered, but legends never die.

James Earl Jones was a legend, and he will always be in our hearts, and he'll always be remembered and living on in the movies that he made and the impact that he had in our lives. Hello, what's up, everyone. Welcome back. It's Achara Kirk, joined by Michael Boos. Hello, hello. And we are rectifying some childhood mistakes, y'all.

Mistakes. Apparently. I don't know. Okay, so my excuse for missing out on many movies that were the formative films of a lot of people's childhoods is like, I grew up abroad. She's a foreigner. I'm a foreigner. Guys, I grew up in Bangkok. I grew up in Thailand.

I grew up in Indonesia. Yeah. You watched all the formative children movies of Thailand. International people. Like Disney, I got you. But what I don't know I didn't see this one It's from 1993

It's the sandlot What's your excuse? I don't have an excuse Other than it was just not high On my list of things to watch I'm gonna be honest So I'm the real problem here You are

Michael, you're the problem So we're fixing the problem right now We're gonna watch the sandlot I'm very excited Because I hear wonderful things about it It's incredible Aw Aww.

I love that he got to play professionally. Yeah, he went on to play. In the show. Aw, adorable. Besties. He's got all the balls. Aw. Aww

Aww Aww That was so sweet So cute Oh my god Oh my god I love these kind of like childhood movies Where is the box it's okay

It's disappeared It's fine I just got a few tears. But, like, I just love this type of movie. It's so cute. You know, like, and I feel like it perfectly captures the feeling of what it is to be a little kid. Mm-hmm. Okay.

I can't talk. No, but I agree. It does a really, really great job of kind of eliciting that childhood memory and that those childhood times where everything seems more important and time seems to go on forever. Yeah. You know, like, it felt like. In the movie, they did a good job of kind of making it feel like, all right, the summer is just open-ended. Like, you think about it, summer vacation from school is only like three months. And that goes by pretty quick.

When you've got, when you don't have, you've got like work and things that you're doing every day and you don't necessarily get the vacation. But when I was a kid, I remember like my trips to visit my dad in Hawaii between school years. Yeah. Felt like forever. Yeah. It felt like they were never going to end. Like I got there, I got there at the end of May and I'd be there until the beginning of August and it felt like there was so much time in between. And so I think this really captures that feeling as well as the feeling of like, you know, obstacles feeling bigger in the form of the dog.

Yeah, like the stakes are so high. Exactly. Because everything is just, it's so serious. And then like it's all of those things that as a kid feels like it's so, it's a lot, you know. Like, just the notion of knocking on a grown-up's door is terrifying. I was thinking the same thing, yeah, yeah. I was thinking the same exact thing is, like, the kids' ability to be like, no, no, no, we cannot possibly go talk to another grown-up about this problem at all.

Can't even go to our parents and be like, hey, can you go talk to this person and get our ball back? Like, I so relate to that where it's like the moment I have to inconvenience an adult when I was little, I'm like, but that's done. I will go to great lengths to never have to let an adult know that I need assistance for, like, a childhood thing. Yeah, absolutely. Do you know what, though? The funny thing is I still struggle with that as a grown-ass human being. Like, I don't know what it is.

Maybe it's something that I never fully, like, learned as a child. But, like, there's this notion that, like, asking people for things is really scary. and like the idea of like inconveniencing someone. And I think I really relate to that as well because I'd like vividly remember moments as a child where I'm like, oh my God, I absolutely cannot tell my dad that I forgot to get him to sign a form. Like, that's really bad.

I should just forge his signature and sign this form. So he never knew that I forgot to ask him. Really, I should have just been like, hey, dad, I forgot to get you to sign this form. Do you think you can sign it? Yeah, he'll sign it. It seemed like the end of the world.

And, like, it's just so interesting watching the world through kids' eyes. And, like, I think it's so relatable as well because of, I would imagine that most of us, if we're lucky, like, all of us have had that experience of, like, a childhood where you're, like, hanging around with friends, doing things. And whether that is, like, you know, getting. to play outside. I mean, that's something that I can definitely relate to. It's like playing with my friends outdoors every day. For me, it was like after school. Like when we got home from school, there were my neighborhood friends.

And we would like always meet up at the same time with our bikes or like our rollerblades. Or like we'd play badminton together or tag or whatever the game was that day. That was the thing that we would play. And it was like, it was such a happy time. And it's such a small moment in time. Because, like, with these kids, everyone's, like, growing up and everyone's moving away. Doing their thing. Yeah, and then, like, eventually you're just like, wow, what a great memory.

I think back to a lot of those times, similarly, where we, my house was kind of centrally located in my hometown from, like, school, and where everybody else lives. So, like, a lot of us would walk home and just end up in my living room. And we'd play, like, Super Smash Bros. Right. Or Mario Party or stuff like that. Like, my mom just kind of got used to just having a whole bunch of us around. and around the house and would feed all of us and, like, rotate us out for dinners and things like that.

Aw. But, like, you know, those memories are so, like, locked into my body and part of who I am and part of, like, my childhood. But, you know, I think back to it, and it's only, like, four or five years of my life. Yeah. You know, I've had so much more life experience since then, but those memories are still so crystal clear and, like, a central part of who I am that I have. that I totally understand why the sandlot is such a formative film for everybody

because it elicits that joy and those memories and that nostalgia. So, like, anybody that I've ever told that I haven't seen the sandalop yet always immediately goes, you haven't seen the sandlot? It's my favorite movie ever. It's the greatest baseball movie. It's the greatest coming of age movie. It's XYZ. And I totally understand why now, because it really is like the opportunity.

epitome of our summers as children. Yeah. And I think it's like, considering this came out in 93, the idea of setting it in the early 60s is actually really great because it's like this period of time, I think that we romanticize of it like being a simpler time. It was a more innocent time, especially for kids, you know? Like you could actually run around outside. Like you were saying, you know, you just go, hey mom, I'm going to go play with.

with my friends now and then your mom's just like just come back for dinner. Yeah, as long as you're back by the time the street lights come on, you're good to go. Yeah, exactly. And so it was, it was this kind of like magical time where kids just got to be kids and, you know, like his mom was saying, like, I just want you to like run around and get out there. Scrape your knees. Scrape your knees. Get dirty and, like, get into trouble, but like not too much trouble. Like, I feel like that's maybe, I don't know what kids today, what what childhood looks like today, but I would imagine that it doesn't look too similar to

this. No. And it's just like this really lovely thing where you get to watch kids, being kids and living in their world with the things, the silly things that are such like high stakes. The monsters they create themselves. Yeah. The elaborate

things they get up to without parental supervision and just playing baseball day in, day out. That is their life for those summers. I just think that's so incredible. And it's such a little sweet story and so fun. So fun and light.

And just kind of the thing you need, whether you're having a good day, whether you're having a bad day, you're always going to feel good at the end of the movie. Yeah, it is. It's really, really feel good and just like so happy and such a lovely ode to childhood and friendships, I think. And even if those friendships don't last all the way through,

which often they don't, you always have that like special pocket of time that you shared together and like you'll always remember your your special friends from your childhood I think oh yeah sad face sad face oh man yeah yeah nostalgia it like properly gets me these days but I guess that's just a byproduct of getting older I don't know you're only as old as you act I actually like a child maybe that's why I relate to so many of the things there you go yeah yeah yeah I'm young at heart so I relate to the young movies always but this was like it's not saying like it's a kid's movie but it really hits I feel like as a kid I think you can enjoy this and as a

grown up you can look at it and just be hit by the waves of nostalgia like like I'm being hit with and I think it's like one of those great ones because I was thinking about there was like a random movie that Jabby and I were talking about yesterday, which I can't even remember the name, but it was like an animation. And it wasn't good. And I was thinking like, well, if I was to recommend it to someone, I would say, well, you could bring your kids and they'd probably enjoy it. But as an adult, you wouldn't enjoy it. It's kind of boring. But this movie, I feel like, as a kid, you would love it because it's like so relatable and so much fun. And as As an adult, yeah.

But as an adult, you can watch it and be like, I really enjoy it as well. Get hit with that nostalgia bump, you know, the rose-colored glasses and whatnot. Yeah. I agree. And I also am really impressed with how well it holds up because it's a movie that's made in the early 90s about the 60s. Right. But neither of those timelines or times are hugely essential to the movie. It's just about kids being kids and existed during the summer.

Now, you know, like kids today might be like, why don't they have electronics or like video games, you know? But like even, I grew up playing video games. I didn't really play like sports or stuff outside when my friends were over. Like I said, we were inside playing like Smash Bros and things like that. But the same vibe is there, whether it's baseball or it's video games or it's whatever you do with your friends, they elicit the spirit of it. Oh my God, let me just spin all over. Horrible. Anyway, they elicit the spirit of it.

And it's more about, like, the feel of that existence rather than the time and place that they're in. Yeah. So the movie holds up. Like, it's still got legs. You don't need to, like, have lived in that time to relate to the film. Yeah, it's truly timeless. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

This is great. Love it. Love it. I'm so glad we rectified this, I don't know, childhood mistake. Yeah, right? It was about damn time. It was about time. We did it.

And this is a beautiful movie. And I can totally understand why so many people love this. Yeah. Anyway, you guys let us know how, like, what this movie means to you. When did you watch it? And, yeah, we'll see you next time. I'm a Chara Cook.

This is Michael Boose. Ciao.