Summer Catch

Theatrical Release Date: 2001 08 24 (USA)

UPC: 085392110025

Studio: Warner Home Video

MPAA Rating: PG13   Contains:[Adult Language, Substance Abuse, Sexual Situations]

Summary: This blend of sports and youthful romantic comedy is from director Michael Tollin, who previously produced the sports drama Varsity Blues (1999). Freddie Prinze Jr. stars as Ryan Dunne, a ballplayer who's spending the summer as a pitcher for the famed, highly prestigious Cape Cod League, a non-professional farm team that has turned out numerous baseball legends. Ryan's under special pressure on a number of fronts. He's the first local boy to earn a slot in the league in years, and his blue-collar status earns him the enmity of a hot-shot college teammate, Eric Van Leemer (Corey Pearson). Although he's backed up by his best friend and team catcher Billy Brubaker (Matthew Lillard), Ryan adds more stress to his life by embarking on an affair with a beautiful, wealthy young Vassar graduate, Tenley Parrish (Jessica Biel), who's spending the summer on the Cape with her parents. Tenley is facing her own crisis as her father (Bruce Davison) pressures her to move to San Francisco and work with her uncle, though she'd rather remain in the East and become an architect. Summer Catch is the third onscreen teaming of Prinze and Lillard, and also stars Brian Dennehy, Wilmer Valderrama, Jason Gedrick, Fred Ward, and Brittany Murphy. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

Category: Romance

Features: ccFeature-length commentary with director/producer Michael Tollin and writer John Gatins
Additional scenes
Interactive menus
Cast/directer film highlights
Scene access
Languages: English & Fran?ais [dubbed in Quebec]
Subtitles: English, Fran?ais & Espanol

Summer Catch

Format: DVD

Release Date: 12/04/2001

Audio: DD5.1 Dolby Digital 5.1

Runtime: 104 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) English,French

Subtitles: English,French,Spanish

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Chapters: Side #1 --
1. Their Turn. [2:34]
2. Garment Swap. [3:33]
3. Strike Two; Foul Territory. [2:11]
4. Lawnboy's Ladies. [:04]
5. Hard Throws. [:01]
6. Where Rich Girls Live. [:01]
7. Season Opener. [:07]
8. Butts and Uniforms. [:04]
9. Big Mistake. [1:37]
10. Short Cut to the Bus. [1:20]
11. Big Risks Necessary. [:04]
12. Golf Date; Nice Thong. [:01]
13. Diving In. [:01]
14. Way to Go. [:07]
15. The Nothing You Picked. [:04]
16. The Invincible Feeling. [2:36]
17. Dunne Undone. [3:02]
18. Matter of Pride. [2:52]
19. Lawngirl's Invitation. [2:30]
20. Rand's Threat. [:04]
21. Passion and Flames. [:01]
22. Morning After. [:01]
23. Hand Me the Cucumber. [:07]
24. Ryan's Game. [:04]
25. Got a Problem? [1:29]
26. Let Yourself Be Great. [3:37]
27. Everything Clicks. [:38]
28. Finishers. [:04]
29. Play Ball. [:01]
30. Welcome to the Show. [:01]

Derek Armstrong

The Freddie Prinze Jr. movie has become a category unto itself: constructed with basic genre efficiency and zero sticking power. That's a good way to summarize Summer Catch, an agreeable enough but totally predictable baseball romance that has all the impact of a foul-out to the catcher. Because audiences have grown bored of this lazy enslavement to the status quo, Summer Catch took a beanball to the head from critics. Obviously inspired by Bull Durham -- to the point of having a pitcher don ladies' undergarments, a la Tim Robbins' Nuke LaLoosh -- Summer Catch does occasionally scrounge together some of that film's baseball-in-the-sticks charm. The renowned Cape Cod league for college players is a nice focal point for this brand of sentimentality, and the characters are not all egregious stereotypes. Prinze is fine, perennial collaborator Matthew Lillard is plenty goofy, and Jessica Biel is just enough more than a pretty face to connect. But it all adds up to very little, because nothing feels challenging, funny, or memorable -- just tepid and safe. One can barely mount the energy to curse the film up and down for its faults, because no one moment inspires howls of disbelief. It's just vanilla -- not the good kind of vanilla, but rather, the stale pint at the back of the freezer case, ignored and unseen. ~ Derek Armstrong, Rovi

Cast and Crew: John C. McGinley  Actor 
John Gatins  Screenwriter 
Brian Robbins  Producer 
George Fenton  Composer (Music Score) 
Mike Tollin  Director 
Mike Tollin  Producer 
Sam Weisman  Producer 
Kevin Falls  Screenwriter 
Herbert W. Gains  Executive Producer 
Freddie Prinze, Jr.  Actor 
Jessica Biel  Actor 
Fred Ward  Actor 
Jason Gedrick  Actor 
Brittany Murphy  Actor 
Gabriel Mann  Actor 
Bruce Davison  Actor 
Matthew Lillard  Actor 
Marc Blucas  Actor 
Brian Dennehy  Actor 
Wilmer Valderrama  Actor 
Corey Pearson  Actor 
Christian Kane  Actor 
Cedric Pendleton  Actor 
Jed Rhein  Actor 
Zena Grey  Actor 
Curt Gowdy  Actor 
Pat Burrell  Actor 
Dave Collins  Actor 
Doug Glanville  Actor 
Grif Griffis  Actor 
Jeff Kellogg  Actor 
Mike Liberthal  Actor 
Mike Aaron  Actor 
Mike Lieberthal  Actor 
Dick Allen  Actor 
Randi Layne  Actor 
Traci Dinwiddie  Actor 
Susan Gardner  Actor 
Courtney Driver  Actor 
Jack Baun  Actor 
Tammy Christine Arnold  Actor 
Tim Lucason  Actor 
Kenny Gasperson  Actor 
Mark Robert Ellis  Actor 
Herbert W. Gains  Actor 
Thaddeus Hill  Actor 
Brock Keene  Actor 
Mike Ribaudo  Actor 
Matt Hobbie  Actor 

Country: USA