`THE SANDLOT' BRINGS BACK MEMORIES

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, April 10, 1993                   TAG: 9304100228
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: B7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MIKE MAYO CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
`THE SANDLOT' BRINGS BACK MEMORIES
"The Sandlot" attempts to do for pick-up baseball games what the recent sleeper "Matinee" did for low-budget horror films. It's a nostalgic celebration of growing up in small-town America in the early 1960s.
This isn't subtle stuff. Writer/director David Mickey Evans smacks you over the head with his rose-colored vision of yesteryear, complete with emotional voice-over narration. Viewers looking for historical realism or insights into adolescence won't find them here. "The Sandlot" is an old-fashioned good time at the movies.
It's the story of the best summer in young Scotty Small's (Tom Guiry) life, 1962. That's when his mother (Karen Allen) and his new stepfather moved the family to a little California town. Scotty's a bookish kid who has never fit in easily. In fact, he doesn't even know who Babe Ruth is, or how to throw a baseball.
But he becomes friends with Benny Rodriguez (Mike Vitar) and joins the non-stop game that Mike and seven of his pals play at the sandlot. These misfits are closer to the Little Rascals than the Bad News Bears. They don't keep score; they just play until someone knocks the ball over the short centerfield fence.
Then they have to stop until they can scrape together 98 cents to buy a new ball because The Beast lives on the other side of the fence. This Beast has taken on the mythic proportions of the Minotaur. He's the Godzilla of junk yard dogs. No ball that goes into his territory has ever been brought back; no kid who climbs the fence has been seen again.
Between games, they go to the public swimming pool where they lust after the lifeguard, Wendy Peffercorn, or they make the mistake of chewing tobacco before they go on the rides at the amusement park.
The last third of the film tests the limits of nostalgia with some material that's shamelessly lifted from "The Natural" and "Field of Dreams." But why be hard on a little movie with such honest intentions?
"The Sandlot" is meant for kids in general - boys in particular - and they'll love it. Adults who remember those years and that time in their lives will love it just as much.
\ The Sandlot: *** A 20th Century Fox release playing at the Valley View Mall 6 and Salem Valley 8. 110 min. Rated PG for some cussing.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB