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Initial Thought: I loved the first one. It's one of my all time favorite kids movies growing up. Then they began to milk it with a part two which I was skeptical about. Lastly they made it a trilogy. This shouldn't have been anything past one film. So I reluctantly watch this only to finish the full story.
Characters/Acting: Only one original actor returns for this sequel which is kind of cool I suppose. Too bad we don't get James Earl Jones again. I assume some of the characters names are meant to allude to the original film. I don't see why Mike Vitar couldn't reprise his role. Danny Nucci is a bit over the top as the replacement for some unnecessary reason. The acting at times is pretty damn awful from these kids. A few of them were good though like Alexander Ludwig or Cainan Wiebe.
Story: Sucessful, arrogant baseball superstar Tommy "Santa" Santorelli travels back in time to 1976 and relives his boyhood days on the sandlot baseball team, and has the chance to this time choose friendship over glory. Seriously now science fiction is thrown into the mix? Well the plot synopsis is sort of misleading in a way. The humor is a bit more slapstick this time around which I didn't like all too much. I mean these movies are goofy, but I just didn't think it needed to be extra off the wall. I wish they didn't bother with the house if they weren't going to include James Earl Jones or a dog. There are a few decent moments, but the are clouded by how horribly cheesy all the kids stuff is. The ending was alright, but it would have been nicer to see everyone all grown up.
Directing/Writing: I'm surprised that David M. Evans and Robert Gunter allowed this to happen. I haven't seen anything by Keith Mitchell, but I have heard of his films. Allie Dvorin also worked with Keith Mitchell on one of his films. Other than that I don't know much about her. The director here is William Dear. He wrote the underrated Rocketeer movie. He also directed the Disney classic Angels in the Outfield which I loved. That is one outrageously underrated film in my opinion. Then comes the horrible Simon Says which he both wrote and directed. I really hope this isn't too horrible, but that might be expecting too much.
Final Thought: This really shouldn't have been a series. The first one is a classic. The second one was only half as good. This one is about half of that. It kind of reminded me of Little Rascals instead of a Sandlot film. Not the worst thing I have ever seen. This doesn't really do justice for the old fans though. It's more of a film for the younger crowd unfortunately. I really hope they don't try to milk another film into this. I don't recommend this.
