The Sandlot 2
The Sandlot 2 | |
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![]() DVD cover | |
Directed by | David Mickey Evans |
Written by | David Mickey Evans Robert Gunter |
Produced by | David Bixler Vicki Sotheran |
Starring | Max Lloyd-Jones Sean Berdy Neilen Benvegnu James Willson James Earl Jones Cole Evan Weiss Greg Germann Samantha Burton |
Narrated by | David M. Evans |
Music by | Laura Karpman |
Production company | |
Distributed by | 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment |
Release date |
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Running time | 97 minutes |
Languages | English American Sign Language |
The Sandlot 2 is a direct-to-DVD 2005 sequel to The Sandlot.
Plot
The start of the movie flashes back to 1962 when Benny becomes the Benny the "Jet" Rodriguez. The main part of the movie is set in 1972, 10 years after the events of The Sandlot. New kids have moved into the neighborhood of San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles. They have started playing baseball in the sandlot. The previous kids have all grown up and moved away. A young boy named Johnnie Smalls, the little brother of Scott Smalls (the first film's protagonist), has heard the legend of "The Great Fear," (a beastly mutated dog, as he puts it when he later on tells the group about the beast) owned by Mr. Mertle, who lives behind the crater. David Durango (Max-Lloyd Jones) is the leader of the boys. Behind the crater; next to Mr. Mertle's home lives the Goodfairer family. Hayley Goodfairer (Samantha Burton), the daughter and her two friends befriend the other boys at first in a census to share the Sandlot, but their relationship burgeons potently into a friendship when they find themselves in a big problem with the beast next door, despite Hayley calling David a little baby, and David calling Hayley a spoiled brat.
One day, when Mac gets an aluminum baseball bat, he hits the ball over the junk wall and afterward they try to retrieve it. But just when they were about to cross over through a passage in the fence, Johnnie stops them and tells them the story of "The Great Fear": how it was born to bite and was different from its sibling puppies. There was a boy who loved the comic book hero named Rapid Rocket, and believed he ran as fast as him. On his first day of school, he went past Mr. Mertle's house (who forgot to lock the back gate where the Great Fear was), and The Great Fear got out and chased the boy. It was unknown what happened to him after he was cornered by "The Great Fear". Soon afterward, a wall made of assorted junk was built. Ever since, if anything went over the fence, it would never come out.
The main conflict comes when the Space Shuttle for the future of NASA and the United States space program built by Hayley's father is accidentally launched by Johnnie, who initially thought he'd be test launching it with Mr. Goodfarier, is perplexed by the delay of Haley's father and launches it on his own by total misfortune when the rocket comes back it lands in Mr. Mertle's backyard (home of the great fear) and Hayley along with everyone else frantically try many things to get it back, including hiring the boy called "The Retriever" (Griffin Reilly Evans), but he fails, and decides to retire. Then, just like Benny Rodriguez from the first movie, David decided to go over the wall himself to retrieve the rocket. Here it is revealed that the little boy from the story who was bitten by "The Great Fear" was David. He retrieves it and escapes the Great Fear's yard. The Sandlot kids soon find out(just like The Beast) The Great Fear got loose. David then hops on his bike and rides out of the sandlot. The Great Fear then chases after David. David then goes through a construction site, and then David gets off his bike and runs back to the sandlot. David hops over the junk wall back to Mr.Mertle's yard and falls through the tunnel that Mac used to try to get the rocket back. The dog knocks over the wall and saves David from suffocating. When David defeats the dog, it's revealed that the dog's real name is Goliath. After that the kids can be seen running to the sandlot because Goliath got away and realize that he only wanted to get out to see his girlfriend dog, Tiny, who was also behind a fence. As all the kids are leaving Hayley and David share their first kiss and Mr. Mertle decides to not build a new fence because he's tired of kids thinking he's grouchy.
In the final moments of the movie the narrator tells what happened to all the sandlot kids. Mac joined the army after high school, was wounded in the Gulf War, won a Purple Heart and joined the Peace Corps. Saul and Sammy started a record company for hip-hop music and called it Def Jam Records. Sammy used the money he made from Def Jam to start a gum company known as Kissing Booth Bubblegum. Penny and Jenny raised three kids with their families. Tarquell was abducted by aliens in 1986 and was never seen again. Hayley became a super model and a pitcher for the United States olympic softball team; she won two gold medals. David and Hayley went all the way through High School together, then went their separate ways. Ten years after college they met again. At that meeting, it was just like the first time he had ever had a chance to talk to her in grade school—he was so nervous he couldn't speak. So she spoke for him and said, "You're supposed to say, 'Will you marry me?'" and he did. Johnnie Smalls grew up and worked for the jet propulsions lab. Rockets were his life and they always would be. David's PF Flyer's stayed on a telephone high wire for a long time. Then some kid found them but that's 'another story'.
Reception
The Sandlot 2 has received mixed reviews from critics. It currently holds a 40% "rotten" rating on the review aggregator website, Rotten Tomatoes.[1]