Summer Catch (2001)

An Exercise In Nonsense

A Brilliant Conflict

A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Enjoyable. Yes.Predictable. Yes.Nothing much here but a nice little movie about baseball. Yet another film that looks and sounds like it was supposed to be a made for TV movie. The movie's saving grace is "eye candy" Freddie who looks great in - and out - of uniform. Make this film a drinking game: down a shot every time the writers find another way to get Freddie naked, shirtless or running around in his underwear.Lots of minor characters with uninteresting story lines. The trailer makes this film seem like another teen sex romp but it really is more focused on baseball.

A few minutes into this movie, we see Freddie Prinze prancing through water sprinklers wearing Brittany Murphy's thong and we know what kind of movie this is going to be and the empty-headed audience it takes aim at. The slow motion scene of Jessica Biel's swim suit bottom confirms this. There are two cute kids, one poor and one rich, who are going to fall in love despite the usual complications of class distinctions, parental control, and confusion about what each other wants in life. The film is fairly predictable and boasts a strong supporting cast, which actually makes the film watchable. Brian Dennehy is Prinze's hard-nosed coach. Fred Ward is his working class dad, and Bruce Davison is Biel's controlling dad. Matthew Lillard provides much needed comic relief and Curt Gowdy is on hand as the press box announcer. John C. McGinley appears as a pro scout, and Beverly D'Angelo has a funny cameo as a sex-starved house mother hosting the Wilmer Valderrama character (in his film debut). Director Michael Tollin utilizes his beloved Philadelphia Phillies in a brief bit at the end. Former baseball players Hank Aaron and Dick Allen have cameos as pro scouts. Allen's appearance may be an inside joke, intentional, or ironic because he had a troubled career, or it may be simply because he's identified as a former Phillies player. Ken Griffey Jr. appears at the end. Innocuous teen fare. ** of 4 stars.

First there is a fella on this section that said the movie was shot in Ohio and it wasn't because of weather constraints, the ball field was built and shot on in North Carolina, and some shots actually done in Chattam. I have several friend who live in Chattam and they loved the movie and actually understood why it could not be shot in Mass. I really enjoyed the whole movie and thought most of the music was very different but music shouldn't be about a number one hit in film to sell it and the sound track,BUT the music was very stirring in areas and I really had some musician friends who commented that the tracks were awesome for the movie and set the tone of the movie too. Jessica Biel was awesome and HOT and so was Brittney Murphy. I would have figured it to be a lot bigger at the box office cause I have only had 2 friends not like it but they only like sci fi and horror so go figure. I rate it 10 stars and hope they make a sequel.

What have they done for this movie. This is a very corny film with no laughs at all. I think that Matthew Lillard should just quit acting. He's not good and he's a complete pervert. This is also a bad romantic movie that doesn't follow the movie very well. It's just like all those other romantic movies when someone meets a person, then has a deep relationship with them. Also Brian Dennehey is a good actor but shouldn't of done this movie. But why i did like about this movie were the baseball games. They were pretty cool, but this won't change my idea of the movie. I think the director needs to think a little bit better on movies like this.4/10