Summer Catch

I grew up on Cape Cod. First of all Summer Catch was filmed in North Carolina not the Cape. One Crazy Summer (John Cusack/Demi Moore) was filmed in my hometown on the Cape but I hear the unions make it near impossible to film in Massachusetts now. Some of the pictures of fields and buildings were really from Chatham however. Much of Summer Catch rings true. Very few Cape kids actually have ever played in the Cape League. It is elite baseball. The summer on the Cape is full of babes and booze just like the film shows. The rich of the rich have summer homes on Cape Cod (like Rand in the film)and I was a "lawn boy" just like Freddie Prinz back in the 80s but not good enough to make the Cape League baseball. I could relate to this film and enjoyed it thoroughly. It brought me back to the parties and warm summer nights on the Cape that have a feeling like no where else on Earth. Rent it or catch it on HBO like I did. As for Ms Biel I am a fan for life and I hope she has a great career and maybe comes down to the Cape and parties with us sometime. She burns up the screen. I saw Scooby Doo before this film so seeing Shaggy catching and Fred pitch it made movie a little funny and I ws waiting for Scooby to run on field. Final Analysis...Summer Catch is a Grand Slam!!!

Honestly, this movie would be all right in my book if they would have taken out all the jokes making fun of overweight women and the gratuitous sexual content. It would have been a nice family movie. But no, they had to go and make it crude, and now I've lost all respect for Brittany Murphy! When will they make a movie that's suitable to watch with my little sister? Probably never.

Summer Catch is a romantic comedy about a local college baseball player (Freddy Prinze Jr.) playing in the Cape Cod baseball league, who falls in love with a rich girl, Tenley Parrish (Jessica Biel), who is home in cape cod for the summer and is going to leave to San Francisco to work for her rich uncle because her father told her to. The Cape Cod Baseball league is a league of the finest college baseball players who are bought together to play in a summer league using wooden bats. These players are usually close to making the Major League and getting paid. It is said that 1 out of 6 major league players has played in the Cape Cod league. Many scouts come to watch these games. Prinze plays the baseball player Ryan Dunne who is a Dr. Jeckle and Mr. Hyde type pitcher. He always starts the game well but ultimately comes to the point where he loses his focus and blows it. Prinze is always seen as a failure to his father and his brother. They think that he will end up cutting grass for his father for the rest of his life. Jessica Biel, has rich parents and can have whatever she wants. She falls in love with Ryan Dunne and is caught between choosing her fathers wishes, moving to San Francisco and working for her uncle, or staying with Ryan whether he makes it to the big leagues or not. At first Ryan is not a hit with some of his teammates such as the Dodger Blue, Eric Van Leemer, who turned down a 2 million dollar contract. Eric acts kind of a character foil for Ryan. They are both off the wall pitchers, Eric has a glove that is different colors and has flames, while Ryan just blows up on the field but Ryan found his success in the end by working hard at it. Eric just always had the talent and never had to look deeper to find his pitching groove. But Ryan becomes good friends with his other teammates such as Billy "Bru" Brubaker, Miles Dalrymple and Mickey "Domo" Dominguez (Wilmer Valderama). The movie does have its funny moments such as the times that Ryan and Bru wear the thongs or how Domo's "baseball mother" loves the young cape cod baseball players and gives Domo his own private show which involves a cucumber (lets leave it at that). But baseball and love stories do not mix. The movies ending is horrible, just as the final baseball game gets to its climax, Ryan is 2 outs away from the baseball Mecca of achievements for a pitcher, a no-hitter, he leaves it for Tenley Parrish. I just feel that he should have at least pitched the no-hitter instead of taking himself out. In the end, Ryan Dunne did make the Major Leagues for the Philadelphia Phillies, and ironically, he still has the destruction point in the big leagues because he gives up a homer. After watching this movie, writers have found a way to turn the American pastime game of baseball into a chick flick.

The first aired previews of Summer Catch only showed the bits with Freddie Prinze , Jr. and Jessica Biel and those did not interest me. Only when I saw that the movie cast included Matthew Lillard, Marc Blucas, and Brittany Murphy did I even want to see it. I had low expectations from the outset and so I wasn't disappointed when the bulk of the movie centered on two very attractive, terribly blank actors such as Jessica Biel and Freddie Prinze, Jr. Mr. Prinze seems like a nice enough guy, but he does not project real emotion. Ms.Biel is appealingly American in her stance but her acting lacks conviction.

The script for the movie is pretty banal. The viewer doesn't really care about the primary and secondary struggles of the central characters because we absolutely know that things will work out just fine.

The parts that showcase the rest of the cast are pretty fun. Matthew Lillard is fabulous. Marc Blucas is charming with his affection for chubby chicks. Brittany Murphy is great, as ever. It was nice to see Brian Dennehy, Fred Ward, and Jason Gedrick, though the inconsistent New England accents were kind of pointless.

Summer Catch was not the worst movie I've ever seen, but it could have made it there with a little more trying. The best actors in the movie were either given little to work with in trite, cliched roles, or were not given enough screen time to showcase their abilities. Bruce Davison, Brian Dennehey, and Jason Gedrick, as Jessica Biel's snobbish father, the gruff coach with a heart of gold, and Freddie Prinze's older brother, who settled for a career as a bartender instead of aspiring for more, are, respectively, the former. The latter include Marc Blucas (Riley on Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Christian Kane (Lindsey McDonald on Angel, also Love Song, Crossfire Trail, Broken Hearts Club), and Wilmer Valderrama (That 70's Show). All three do get to show some of their stuff on the diamond and appear to be athletically talented. But they are wasted otherwise. Freddie Prinze Jr. and Jessica Biel don't seem to generate any real sparks. The little girl (Tenley's little sister) who wants to be the team mascot is cute, and Fred Ward acquits himself well as Freddie's father. Beverly D'Angelo should never, never have participated in the excruciatingly bad imitation (perhaps parody should be the better word) of Susan Sarandon in Bull Durham. However, I will buy this when it comes out on video because I can fast forward through Freddie and see just the parts I want!