7.8 | / 10 |
Users | 3.9 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.8 |
It's the early 1960s and fifth-grader Scotty Smalls has just moved into town with his folks. Kids call him a dork - he can't even throw a baseball! But that changes when the leader of the neighborhood gang recruits him to play on the nearby sandlot field. It's the beginning of a magical summer of baseball, wild adventures, first kisses, and fearsome confrontations with the dreaded beast and its owner who live behind the left field fence.
Starring: Tom Guiry, Mike Vitar, Patrick Renna, Chauncey Leopardi, Marty YorkComedy | 100% |
Family | 76% |
Sport | 27% |
Coming of age | 21% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 2.0 (224 kbps)
Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0
French: Dolby Digital 2.0
English SDH, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
If you ever played baseball as a kid, you know the smell and texture of a supple, well-oiled mitt, even if it’s been years since you last held one. You remember taking swings outside the batter’s box and leaning forward off of first base, waiting to steal second. With a dull ache, you can recall the head-hanging agony of striking out, and the heart-swelling joy of watching the ball fly over the left fielder’s head a split second after the crack of the bat. Arguably more than any other sport, America’s Pastime is a vehicle for nostalgia, and The Sandlot—the baseball-centric 1993 coming-of- age comedy by writer/director David Mickey Evans—takes that sense of childhood summer wistfulness and runs with it. As a film, it’s not exactly a homerun—it’s often too indulgent with its enlarged memories and cornball narration—but if you can set aside your adult cynicism and embrace your inner junior slugger, The Sandlot is at least as satisfying as an over-the-wall ground-rule double.
The sandlot kids...
The Sandlot swings onto Blu-ray with a 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer that's sharp, colorful, and—if I'm honest—much better than I had expected. My only quibble worth mentioning is the use of occasionally noticeable edge enhancement, which can add thin halos around certain hard outlines. It never gets to the point where the image looks artificial, though, and DNR—edge enhancement's kissing cousin—is nowhere to be found. The film's grain structure looks natural, and with the exception of a few darker scenes, it stays fine and unobtrusive. (The print itself is in great condition, with only a few minor specks and no major scratching, staining, or debris.) Clarity, for the most part, is excellent, and you'll pick up on detail you never noticed in the DVD edition. Facial textures are well-resolved, clothing has near-palpable presence, and background details—corrugated fencing, trees, etc. —are strongly delineated. Color is richly represented as well, with a bright, warm, summery palette heavy on green grass, pale blue skies, and sun- drenched dust. Black levels are solid, contrast is tight, and skin tones are consistently natural. Besides a few patches of noise, I didn't notice any blatant compression problems or encode issues. Fans probably couldn't ask for more.
Like most 20th Century Fox releases, The Sandlot sports a capable DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track. The surround channels are only sparsely used for score and quiet ambience, but this mix gets all the essentials right: Dialogue is clear and comprehensible, with no muffling or peaking. The various period pop/rock tunes—like the ubiquitous "Tequila"—have clarity and presence. And the sound effects—the crack of a bat, the monster roar of The Beast, fireworks bursting in air—have appropriate heft. Some additional rear channel involvement would be appreciated, especially in key "action" scenes—I don't recall any distinct cross-channel movements—but this is likely a direct, lossless copy of the film's original sound design, so I have no real complaints. The disc also includes an English Dolby Digital 2.0 fold-down, Spanish and French 2.0 dubs, as well as English SDH and Spanish subtitles.
A straight port of the bonus features from the DVD edition, here you'll find a short featurette (SD, 5:51), the film's theatrical trailer (SD, 2:31), and a handful of TV Spots (SD, 3:44).
Do you, or have you ever, played baseball? If yes, you'll probably find a lot to love in The Sandlot, which has its problems, sure—it wants to seem grander and more profound than it actually it—but also side-skirts many of the clichés that often go along with kids' sports movies. This is pretty much a straight port of the DVD edition, but the film looks great on Blu-ray, so if you're a fan, it's probably worth the upgrade. Recommended.
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