F This Movie! - The Sandlot
By request, Patrick and Adam Riske take the field, fight the Beast and find the gay subtext in the 1993 baseball comedy The Sandlot.
Download this episode here. (31.9 MB)
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Also discussed this episode: Miami Connection (1986), Monsters University (2013), World War Z (2013), Before Midnight (2013), Observe and Report (2009), The Kings of Summer (2013), Jack the Giant Slayer (2013)
Labels: 1993 movies, baseball movies, podcast, the sandlot
Tom Bartman June 26, 2013 at 7:26 AM
Havent listened to the podcast yet but positive or negative thanks Patrick and Adam, YAY!
John Murphy June 26, 2013 at 8:34 AM
I think Adam is right on point with the idea that you either have a love affair with baseball as a kid that then follows you into adulthood, or not at all.
I tried going to a Tampa Bay Rays game a little while back, and if didn't help that they lost horribly to the Red Sox, but I just couldn't have been more bored and uninterested. I was just thinking "I don't really see what the big deal is."
It's interesting because that's something I can't say about football, which I didn't really start to love until college-ish age, but now as an adult I definitely do.
I haven't seen The Sandlot in a long time, but I definitely saw it as a kid (I think in the theater) and have some fond memories of it even though I wasn't a baseball kid. I'm scared to watch it again now, haha.
GreyWeirdo June 26, 2013 at 10:27 AM
Ford Lincoln Mercury guys, C'MON!
Patrick Bromley June 26, 2013 at 10:43 AM
I came up with it as soon as we finished recording. I'm ashamed.
GreyWeirdo June 26, 2013 at 10:42 PM
It's cool.
BTW - Valkyrie is ok. Not great, not bad, good enough to spend two hours watching.
AND!
I liked the Babe Ruth stuff, you guys are best when you loose it.
Patrick Bromley June 26, 2013 at 10:46 PM
Then you would have really enjoyed the 90 seconds of laughing I had to cut out when Freddy Krueger started making baseball puns.
Adam Riske June 26, 2013 at 11:06 PM
Sandlot Freddy missed the most obvious one - "Hey Smalls! I got a glove you can borrow!"
JP June 30, 2013 at 8:47 PM
Not to be critical, but if we don't get a commentary track for one of the Nightmare movies featuring Adam and Patrick's dueling Freddy's voices during Scary Movie Month, you're doing it wrong. That was absolutely hysterical.
Kathy June 26, 2013 at 4:51 PM
Haven't listened to the podcast yet but...
Briefly stuck my head into a showing of World War Z. Immediately had Tom Cruse/War of the Worlds flashbacks and ducked right out again.
Cameron Cloutier June 26, 2013 at 8:23 PM
When you two started into the real reason Babe Ruth sneaks into the kid's room, I had to literally pull the car over this morning. I was laughing that hard along with you.
Brad L June 26, 2013 at 9:57 PM
Is this a new thing with the show? To have story cliffhangers?
What did Adam's dad say about whether LA kids would idolise Babe Ruth? I NEED to know (dont ask why)
We're saving it for when we do a podcast on The Sandlot 2. Just kidding.
My Dad disagreed with me and said they would have liked Babe Ruth.
Dear god don't see The Sandlot 2, the Sandlot sequels are just pure piles of burning vomit. My thoughts on this podcast coming up soon, I got a lot of them :)
Steve June 27, 2013 at 8:49 AM
Easily the funniest podcast I remember. I was listening while out walking this morning and literally laughed out loud (lol'd for the layperson) for the last thirty minutes... I think it started with liking movies about young boys, then just rolled through the Great Bambino and Freddy.
Sol O. June 27, 2013 at 2:36 PM
Great podcast, I wish I could hang out and riff with you guys sometime - what are you up to this weekend? I've got some Sandlot Freddy jokes ready to go (e.g. Hey kid, come play with Freddy's foul balls).
I have fond memories of The Sandlot - I remember watching it several times during a rainy weekend at my Nana's cottage - but I think I'm glad that I passed on buying the blu-ray recently, as it doesn't sound like it really holds up. Plus I'm not really into baseball anymore - was a huge fan of the Toronto Blue Jays and their back-to-back World Series wins were highlights of my youth, but I never went back after the baseball strike of 1994 and now I'm a football guy.
It is the kind of movie I'd watch if I stumbled upon it on TV, so maybe I'll get "lucky".
Steve K. June 27, 2013 at 2:53 PM
Speaking of Bryan Singer, I dearly hope that his new X-Men movie will be good (I was going to write "be a success," but that's not the same thing at all). It's based on one of the more beloved X-Men storylines, "Days of Future Passed," and will feature both the "old" cast of the first 3 movies and the "young" cast from First Class. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!
I'd actually rather watch the first X-Men movie over the second. The first half of X2 is crazy awesome, but the Alkali Lake sequence goes on for-freaking-ever. I really feel trapped in that dank, lime-green set. By the time Magneto gets into Cerebro and resets the machine, I want to start crying - "We have to do this all AGAIN???" The worst crime, however, was not following the ending up with an X-Men 3 that's all Dark Phoenix (and if you haven't read the original comic series, you're missing out - it's one of the best storylines ever).
Joseph Finn June 27, 2013 at 2:59 PM
A) I don't get the Brave dislike. It's a very good movie with a good story based on classic legends, a well-done lead character and no songs. What's not to like?
B) Of course Paul Greengrass is a good action director. Evidence: Bloody Sunday and United 93. Granted, then there are the Bourne movies which do not help my case, but that's work for hire.
Adam Riske June 27, 2013 at 3:19 PM
@Joseph - I didn't like Brave but I'm not trying to say you're wrong for liking it.
RE: Greengrass, I think he is much more than a director for hire on the second and third Bourne movies. That's a director's vision. My gripe with him is mostly related to those two Bourne movies which (just my opinion) has hurt action movie filmmaking drastically in the past 10 years. A lot of people learned bad habits from his choppy staging.
As for Sandlot, I saw it in the theater when I was 20 and reject the Goonies law on this one; it's a solid, corny movie with some missteps that I still enjoy a lot. Goonies, on the other hand, I saw as a kid and despised and despise it even more now.
(But jesus, the Babe Ruth dream sequence jokes killed me; I love the idea that he was stealing Benny's shit.)
Oh The Sandlot. I saw it as a kid and loved it and still do to this day but I wanted to take Patrick to issue on a few of his complaints about the movie so here we go.
1. The Beast-Until we reach the end of the movie where the Beast chases Smalls and Benny around town, I believe the Beast is awesome. He's overplayed in the minds of the kid's heads which is something I did a lot as a kid when it came to threat that weren't really that scary. The story of the Beast in its overdramaticness just gets me every time. I guess I will have to call Liam Neeson to save your inner child cause its obviously been TAKEN.
2. Kids Swearing- I'll admit it would have been nice to hear a few shits in there but for the most part I thought it was pretty accurate to the way kids talk, I don't remember swearing up a storm when I was a kid.
3. Benny and Smalls "relationship"- They are NOT gay for each other just because Smalls follows Benny around for his entire life than Benny gives him a thumbs up at the Dodgers game doesn't mean- okay they are kinda gay but at least they had the sense to cut the scene when they are teenagers and Benny gives Smalls his first condom.
4. Babe Ruth Dream-This one I agree with you completely, my least favorite scene in the movie is this one by far. If jumping over the fence to get a baseball from a dog is the accomplishment needed to become a legend than I demand a series of pyramids be erected in my honor.
5. Why aren't they on a little league team?- I always believed the reason the sandlot kids weren't on a little league team was because they were too poor to be on one. Whenever they lose a ball they always have to scrounge around for bottles to get money for a new one, life wasn't handed to them on a silver platter. They aren't a part of the establishment, they don't want to be labeled and have to listen to parent coaches like they would on a real little league team. They arent doing it for the fame they are doing it For the Love of the Game (worst Sam Raimi movie ever)
6. Nightmare on Sandlot- I loathe the Sandlot sequels so a Sandlot sequel starring Freddy Krueger would be a dream come true! A few choice lines for your consideration
"Guess what? I'm Killing you Smalls!"
" Your gonna stay down here in my dugout for-ev-er, for-ev-er!"
" Here comes a line drive to hell!"
At the end of the day this movie got me as a kid and I admit it's faults but will defend it to my dying day. That being said if James Earl Jones sold some of his baseball crap maybe he could live in a better house and get some new eyes or something.
I watched Observe and Report for the first time based on your recommendations here, and my god, that pervert chase down scene was so great. Very cool movie. Thanks for the nod
Yes! Glad you liked it. That movie deserves more fans.
AJ Muller June 30, 2013 at 11:47 PM
I guess my experience is different; raised by a single mom until I was 10, my life was all movies, all the time. Sports? Fuck that. Looked hard.
But when she remarried, here came sports. . .and turned out they were pretty cool. Football was great, basketball better (the one sport I took to somewhat naturally), and baseball was total boring shit. I had no patience for it; it seemed to be the epitome of delayed gratification, even if I wouldn't have described it as such in my early teens.
Long winded setup to point out that as I matured, my appreciation for baseball only deepened. By the time I hit my mid-twenties, I'd fallen in love with the game. Might have something to do with noticing the importance of the "little things" in life as I grew up, simply because baseball rewards attention to detail more than any other sport.
So, at least I'm one dude who couldn't stand the chick on SIGHT. . .only to have her phenomenal qualities and a Tom Petty "Walls"-sized heart win me over completely.
Paul Greengrass is the best director of action of all time. That is all.
Hey, Paul Greengrass' mom is on F This Movie! That's pretty cool.
Adam, as a White Sox fan, you have to admit that Hawk Harrelson gets a thumbs up from Sox players at least once an inning (at least in Hawk's head).
Benny as a pinch runner is a dead-ringer for Dave Roberts being brought in by the 2004 Red Sox to steal a base against the Yankees. He's lost a step or two, but none of us were surprised to see the fireworks.
Most importantly, I'm really surprised you guys entirely missed the point of this movie. It's not about the kids playing baseball. It's a spin off of the Indiana Jones franchise where we see that Marion Ravenwood has escaped her abusive relationship with Indiana Jones and has started a new life with her adoring husband, Dennis Leary. We are assured that Scotty has no lingering daddy issues from his terrible father figure (other than being terrible at baseball and wearing real dumb hats). We do see that he has acquired his father's penchant for retrieving hard to come by artifacts, but he does it in his own nerdy style, not a Nazi punching/sexing style that we know Henry Jones Jr. would employ. This is like the James Bond Jr. to the Indiana Jones franchise.
Daniel T May 1, 2014 at 1:54 AM
"Benny has a Sports Authority in his pants, and Smalls wants to go shopping": absolutely hysterical.
I think The Sandlot appeals most to baseball fans, who appreciate its reverence for the sport and its history, and to children, who enjoy the adventure the kids have when pickling the monstrous junkyard dog. As an adult looking back, who has no particular proclivity for baseball, The Sandlot succeeds best during its aimless, episodic middle section -- which includes kissing the lifeguard, beating the little leaguers, puking on the roller coaster, and playing the Fourth of July night game -- when the movie shows signs that it understands that particular freedom of being an American kid in the summer.
Dennis August 28, 2014 at 10:26 AM
#Adamriske
The Patrick Bromley curve
I like that. He's very convincing. Even if he's wrong ;) its like a bloody jedi mind trick
Hey. I really liked that movie.
No you didn't
Yeah your right. I didn't
You forgot about Hoosiers.