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Summer Catch
Warner Bros. // PG-13 // December 4, 2001
List Price: $19.98 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
I find myself inexplicably attracted to Freddie Prinze Jr. movies. Shamefully, I caught Boys and Girls and Wing Commander theatrically, and both I Know What You Did Last Summer and She's All That have managed to creep onto my DVD shelves. As painful as it is to admit, I've seen all three of the collaborations between Prinze and Matthew Lillard, and I'm doomed to find myself sitting through their fourth, Scooby Doo, at some point in the coming year. Perhaps this is some sort of deep-rooted masochism, and I feel some innate need to subject myself to the brand of torture Prinze so consistently provides. Just to offer some indication how troubled a young man I am, the thought of buying Head Over Heels on DVD actually crossed my mind. Buying. To own. Forever. Summer Catch wound up in my collection earlier this week, and though I'm still working effortlessly to sift through the sordid details that led up to that fateful moment, my psychiatrist recommended penning a DVD review to help work through my anguish.
Cape Cod has become an intermediate step for quite a number of famed baseball players on their way to the big leagues. It's virtually impossible to toss a ball in city limits without six or seven scouts clocking its speed. Being invited to play at the Cape is considered an honor all its own, and Ryan Dunne (Freddie P.) is the first local boy to join their ranks in seven years. Ryan's had a rough go of it lately, forced to deal with the untimely death of his mother, an overbearing, alcoholic father, along with the traditional temptations of youth. When he's not practicing, the southpaw pitcher mows lawns for his father's tiny landscaping business, and it's through one of these gigs that he meets-cute with bikini-clad rich girl Tenley Parrish (Jessica Biel). I would make some offhand reference to the two lovebirds falling head over heels for one another, but referencing other Prinze movies is destined to dredge up memories I've spent months trying to repress. Not only does Ryan have to overcome his all-consuming inconfidence on the field, but no father who would name a child Tenley would tolerate his daughter's slumming with the lawn boy, and a lengthy stay thousands of miles away in San Francisco is imminent.
I'm still reeling from the fact that Jessica Biel's character is named Tenley. I felt obligated to do a few quick searches to see if anyone throughout the course of history has been similarly unfortunate, and Google turned up a character in My Stepmother Is An Alien as well as world champion figure skater Tenley Albright. I suppose the name does have an appropriately classy 'rich girl' ring to it. It's a shame that the producers weren't similarly inventive with the movie's title. The fluffy and insubstantial Summer Catch is the celluloid crêpe of August 2001. While I'm rattling off vapid culinary analogies, the cast is the equivalent of tapwater and white bread; certainly edible, but dull and hopelessly bland. The plot attempts to mesh the teen romance genre with sports, rehashing the most banal of each. Will Ryan's ERA increase dramatically with each passing game? Will some catastrophic event put an end to Ryan and Tenley's relationship? How many excessively dramatic slow-motion pitches will Ryan throw in the climactic final game? Anyone whose cinematic experiences are in the double digits shouldn't encounter any difficulty whatsoever determining each step Summer Catch sluggishly takes.
If the plot bores you to tears, I'll introduce you to a fun game I invented to pass the time called "Hey, that's the guy from...". Summer Catch has a monstrous supporting cast, all of whom are easily recognizable third tier actors. It's only natural every couple of minutes to shout something along the lines of, "Hey, that's the guy from Josie and the Pussycats! Tremors! That '70s Show! Get Carter! X-Men!" Hours of unbridled joy are at your fingertips as you consult the Internet Movie Database to figure out just who 'that guy' is. I guess this is the point in the review where I rant about how much I disliked the cast. Freddie Prinze Jr. plays the same wooden, one-note character he portrays in every movie, and Matthew Lillard, to my surprise, isn't quite as grating as usual. Lillard's minimal screentime doesn't allow him quite as many opportunities to munch on the scenery, a trend I wouldn't mind seeing continue in his future projects, should I find those movies somehow forced upon me. Jessica Biel, whose dialogue appears to have been lifted verbatim from Tony Robbins' The Impossible Just Takes a Little Longer: Living With Purpose and Passion, is your average slumming rich girl with a mild naughty streak. Not surprising considering her controversial spread in Gear Magazine, Biel isn't the least bit apprehensive about showing off her figure, caught in slow motion wearing a bikini and later jiggling about in a wet t-shirt. Brittany Murphy is the standout here as Dede, the local skank with a tendency to end every word in each line of dialogue with the letter 's'. That, and an exceptionally thick accent provides such memorable bits as, "Sos, wheyaes mys undahweyahs? I's wants its nows." One of Summer Catch's few running gags is that after sleeping with a guy, Dede switches underwear and makes the hapless dude strut around in a thong. I am fully willing to endure these sorts of movies, but an unobstructed view of Freddie Prinze Jr.'s butt was not at any time part of the deal. I also found it curious that Dede and Ryan went all the way in plain sight of their friends, but apparently things (not to mention people) are done differently in New England.
In the way of random bitching, the cover art is horrendous, and Jessica Biel looks as if she should be challenging He-Man for sovereignty of Eternia. Following so soon after American Outlaws, I'm curious if a marketing exec at Warner deemed it necessary that box office disappointments be given Wal-Mart-grade makeovers. Summer Catch isn't nearly as awful as the trailer and cover art had me expecting, but that's not much of a compliment if you could fathom just how bad I thought it would be. There are what, fifteen thousand DVDs either on store shelves or slated for release in the next few months, correct? Summer Catch isn't the worst way to kill 108 minutes, but with so many other options available, what'd be the point?
Video: The 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen image is as flat and two-dimensional as the movie itself. Colors are occasionally striking, particularly the cerulean skies and the lush greens of the ballpark field. Fleshtones seem largely natural, and black levels are rock-solid. Though Summer Catch rarely diverts from the tenets of modern teen romances, its avoidance of the oversaturated palette visible in every other movie geared towards its audience in the past six years is welcome. As is to be expected from a movie just having wrapped up its theatrical run, there are few of the usual flaws associated with DVD releases. A couple of shots exhibited some scarcely visible white specks, leaving me wondering if I'm becoming more discerning or if studios have lowered their standards ever so slightly. If any edge enhancement or compression artifacts were present, they successfully snuck under my nitpicking radar. Summer Catch is a good effort, but I've become so accustomed to being wowed by the rich, film-like appearance of many new releases that a merely decent transfer almost seems substandard.
Audio: The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio has the same subdued quality as all too many of its teen movie brethren, generally only coming alive when the score or its carefully selected Modern Rock Soundtrack™ rear their head. The surround channels are used sparingly, providing minimal ambiance outside of the chatter of baseball crowds. A torrential downpour and a handful of voiceovers also squeak from the rears, and my subwoofer rarely offered more than the occasional low-frequency burp. This isn't an overwhelming surprise considering that Summer Catch is driven by dialogue, not by baseballs whizzing across the soundscape or thunderous explosions. For those who are interested, Warner has seen fit to include English closed captioning, as well as subtitles in English, French, and Spanish.
Supplements: The packaging and the disc menus neglect to mention that co-star Jessica Biel contributed to the commentary track with director/producer Michael Tollin and co-writer alum John Gatins, whose résumé also includes a turn in Leprechaun III. Gatins and Biel lurk in the background as Tollin, who sees baseball as more than the mere backdrop of Summer Catch, speaks at length about the sport and the intense attention to detail paid throughout. There's an excessive amount of just relating what's happening on-screen instead of real discussion, and the sort of on-set hijinks usually related in commentaries for teen-driven movies are sparse. The idle chatter will be of little interest for most. Ten deleted scenes, each running about a minute a piece, can be viewed individually or in the context of the movie via extended branching. The only other supplements are cast/crew bios. No theatrical trailers are included.
Conclusion: Three short months after beginning its unremarkable stint in theaters, Summer Catch has been dumped on DVD by Warner at the bargain basement list price of $19.98. A lower price tag doesn't make this disc any more worthy of a purchase, and I'd recommend tagging and releasing Summer Catch if you for whatever reason feel obligated to give it a look. Rent it.
Cape Cod has become an intermediate step for quite a number of famed baseball players on their way to the big leagues. It's virtually impossible to toss a ball in city limits without six or seven scouts clocking its speed. Being invited to play at the Cape is considered an honor all its own, and Ryan Dunne (Freddie P.) is the first local boy to join their ranks in seven years. Ryan's had a rough go of it lately, forced to deal with the untimely death of his mother, an overbearing, alcoholic father, along with the traditional temptations of youth. When he's not practicing, the southpaw pitcher mows lawns for his father's tiny landscaping business, and it's through one of these gigs that he meets-cute with bikini-clad rich girl Tenley Parrish (Jessica Biel). I would make some offhand reference to the two lovebirds falling head over heels for one another, but referencing other Prinze movies is destined to dredge up memories I've spent months trying to repress. Not only does Ryan have to overcome his all-consuming inconfidence on the field, but no father who would name a child Tenley would tolerate his daughter's slumming with the lawn boy, and a lengthy stay thousands of miles away in San Francisco is imminent.
I'm still reeling from the fact that Jessica Biel's character is named Tenley. I felt obligated to do a few quick searches to see if anyone throughout the course of history has been similarly unfortunate, and Google turned up a character in My Stepmother Is An Alien as well as world champion figure skater Tenley Albright. I suppose the name does have an appropriately classy 'rich girl' ring to it. It's a shame that the producers weren't similarly inventive with the movie's title. The fluffy and insubstantial Summer Catch is the celluloid crêpe of August 2001. While I'm rattling off vapid culinary analogies, the cast is the equivalent of tapwater and white bread; certainly edible, but dull and hopelessly bland. The plot attempts to mesh the teen romance genre with sports, rehashing the most banal of each. Will Ryan's ERA increase dramatically with each passing game? Will some catastrophic event put an end to Ryan and Tenley's relationship? How many excessively dramatic slow-motion pitches will Ryan throw in the climactic final game? Anyone whose cinematic experiences are in the double digits shouldn't encounter any difficulty whatsoever determining each step Summer Catch sluggishly takes.
If the plot bores you to tears, I'll introduce you to a fun game I invented to pass the time called "Hey, that's the guy from...". Summer Catch has a monstrous supporting cast, all of whom are easily recognizable third tier actors. It's only natural every couple of minutes to shout something along the lines of, "Hey, that's the guy from Josie and the Pussycats! Tremors! That '70s Show! Get Carter! X-Men!" Hours of unbridled joy are at your fingertips as you consult the Internet Movie Database to figure out just who 'that guy' is. I guess this is the point in the review where I rant about how much I disliked the cast. Freddie Prinze Jr. plays the same wooden, one-note character he portrays in every movie, and Matthew Lillard, to my surprise, isn't quite as grating as usual. Lillard's minimal screentime doesn't allow him quite as many opportunities to munch on the scenery, a trend I wouldn't mind seeing continue in his future projects, should I find those movies somehow forced upon me. Jessica Biel, whose dialogue appears to have been lifted verbatim from Tony Robbins' The Impossible Just Takes a Little Longer: Living With Purpose and Passion, is your average slumming rich girl with a mild naughty streak. Not surprising considering her controversial spread in Gear Magazine, Biel isn't the least bit apprehensive about showing off her figure, caught in slow motion wearing a bikini and later jiggling about in a wet t-shirt. Brittany Murphy is the standout here as Dede, the local skank with a tendency to end every word in each line of dialogue with the letter 's'. That, and an exceptionally thick accent provides such memorable bits as, "Sos, wheyaes mys undahweyahs? I's wants its nows." One of Summer Catch's few running gags is that after sleeping with a guy, Dede switches underwear and makes the hapless dude strut around in a thong. I am fully willing to endure these sorts of movies, but an unobstructed view of Freddie Prinze Jr.'s butt was not at any time part of the deal. I also found it curious that Dede and Ryan went all the way in plain sight of their friends, but apparently things (not to mention people) are done differently in New England.
In the way of random bitching, the cover art is horrendous, and Jessica Biel looks as if she should be challenging He-Man for sovereignty of Eternia. Following so soon after American Outlaws, I'm curious if a marketing exec at Warner deemed it necessary that box office disappointments be given Wal-Mart-grade makeovers. Summer Catch isn't nearly as awful as the trailer and cover art had me expecting, but that's not much of a compliment if you could fathom just how bad I thought it would be. There are what, fifteen thousand DVDs either on store shelves or slated for release in the next few months, correct? Summer Catch isn't the worst way to kill 108 minutes, but with so many other options available, what'd be the point?
Video: The 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen image is as flat and two-dimensional as the movie itself. Colors are occasionally striking, particularly the cerulean skies and the lush greens of the ballpark field. Fleshtones seem largely natural, and black levels are rock-solid. Though Summer Catch rarely diverts from the tenets of modern teen romances, its avoidance of the oversaturated palette visible in every other movie geared towards its audience in the past six years is welcome. As is to be expected from a movie just having wrapped up its theatrical run, there are few of the usual flaws associated with DVD releases. A couple of shots exhibited some scarcely visible white specks, leaving me wondering if I'm becoming more discerning or if studios have lowered their standards ever so slightly. If any edge enhancement or compression artifacts were present, they successfully snuck under my nitpicking radar. Summer Catch is a good effort, but I've become so accustomed to being wowed by the rich, film-like appearance of many new releases that a merely decent transfer almost seems substandard.
Audio: The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio has the same subdued quality as all too many of its teen movie brethren, generally only coming alive when the score or its carefully selected Modern Rock Soundtrack™ rear their head. The surround channels are used sparingly, providing minimal ambiance outside of the chatter of baseball crowds. A torrential downpour and a handful of voiceovers also squeak from the rears, and my subwoofer rarely offered more than the occasional low-frequency burp. This isn't an overwhelming surprise considering that Summer Catch is driven by dialogue, not by baseballs whizzing across the soundscape or thunderous explosions. For those who are interested, Warner has seen fit to include English closed captioning, as well as subtitles in English, French, and Spanish.
Supplements: The packaging and the disc menus neglect to mention that co-star Jessica Biel contributed to the commentary track with director/producer Michael Tollin and co-writer alum John Gatins, whose résumé also includes a turn in Leprechaun III. Gatins and Biel lurk in the background as Tollin, who sees baseball as more than the mere backdrop of Summer Catch, speaks at length about the sport and the intense attention to detail paid throughout. There's an excessive amount of just relating what's happening on-screen instead of real discussion, and the sort of on-set hijinks usually related in commentaries for teen-driven movies are sparse. The idle chatter will be of little interest for most. Ten deleted scenes, each running about a minute a piece, can be viewed individually or in the context of the movie via extended branching. The only other supplements are cast/crew bios. No theatrical trailers are included.
Conclusion: Three short months after beginning its unremarkable stint in theaters, Summer Catch has been dumped on DVD by Warner at the bargain basement list price of $19.98. A lower price tag doesn't make this disc any more worthy of a purchase, and I'd recommend tagging and releasing Summer Catch if you for whatever reason feel obligated to give it a look. Rent it.
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