Your face is painful to watch!
Dam I'll miss being able to contribute meaningful thoughts and content like this to IMDB

"If you want to compare this to another kid movie, compare it to A Christmas Story."
The Sandlot and A Christmas Story is a great comparison.
They both involve a grown man looking back on his childhood several decades earlier. They are nostalgic and set during a time that is usually special to children (summer and Christmas, respectively). The narrator tends to exaggerate and and makes his story seem larger than life.
It's a tv show but The Wonder Years is probably a better comparison to Stand By Me. They also involve a grown man looking back on his childhood several decades earlier but are more realistic and deal with heavier and more serious themes.

There was nothing to let us know it was 1962? Other than the music, the cars and the way they dressed, you mean? What was it about your precious Stand By Me that made you think 1959?
Your argument that Stand By Me is superior because a bunch of 11/12 year olds talked about their broken homes and their hopes and dreams? Yeah, that's really realistic, isn't it? I don't know about you, but my summers were pretty much like the Sandlot guys, the only difference was we played in a open piece of land behind the Food City grocery store in the late 60s/early70s. And the yard where we lost our balls and Frisbees was the yard of a spinster and her widowed mom.
Yeah, the slide whistle was kinda lame, but heII, they use lame sound effects on FOX sports highlights.
I didn't see this movie until today, and it is great nostalgia. The baseball, the bikes, the pool, playing army, the Erector sets, those big plastic action figures on Ben's dresser, PF Flyers (I was a Red Ball Jets/Keds guy, though) but mostly, the entire day spent outside without an adult in sight. That was summer vacation in the 60s, man.
If you want to compare this to another kid movie, compare it to A Christmas Story.

The acting was extremely flat. Yes, I'm aware that these kids were obviously very young, but so was Jerry O'Connell of Stand by Me (not saying he was the best of the four, but he WAS the youngest).
The acting was definitely not great, but it was anything but flat. These kids had fun and you can tell. This was a
comedy
, not a drama like Stand By Me.
The idea of the supernatural dog was annoying in itself. How was a dog supposed to outsmart a large group of kids over and over?
Suspension of disbelief(just go with it).
Once it escaped, why did it only chase down Benjamin Rodrguez and not the rest of the kids?
Supposedly, the dog liked to play and only wanted the ball and that's why it chased only Benny.
How was it able to jump through a pane of glass and walk out unharmed?
I agree that was a little much. It looked like Cujo.
Once the boys freed the dog from under the fence, how could it have just taken a liking to them?
That's what happens in real life when you ease an animals pain, they appreciate it(not all of them, but many do).
Why was the dog hoarding kids' baseballs anyways?
Dog's hoard things all the time. They even bury them.
What was up with those annoying sound effect that was played whenever a pop-fly started to drop?
Have to agree to disagree on that one. I thought those sound effects were cool and funny.
There was little in the movie to let us know that it took place in 1962.
Agreed. There was some things, but very little.
Perhaps one of the more major annoyances was the fact that the kids never really matured.
Once again, this was a comedy..
As a movie connoisseur, I know this isn't a great movie, but it has great moments and built up to those great moments beautifully.
That's my corn out there! You guys are guests in my corn!

seriously. did anybody read all that nonsense?

Definitely not going to bother reading this long bull**** post. This movie is a classic and an absolute joy to watch.

So is this a review of the Sandlot or "Stand By Me"?

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"The fact you took any of this in literal terms that somehow ruined the enjoyment and believability of this coming-to-age movie, is pretty laughable. "
INSANELY LAUGHABLE.

"The idea of the supernatural dog was annoying in itself. How was a dog supposed to outsmart a large group of kids over and over?"
The idea that "The Beast".aka "Hercules"and that name alone should give you a cluewas some supernatural and super-aware dog, was all done
from
the kids' perspective. That is why the dog was always filmed with some surreal, dreamlike lens quality.
The fact you took any of this in literal terms that somehow ruined the enjoyment and believability of this coming-to-age movie, is pretty laughable.
Whose idea was it for the word "Lisp" to have an "S" in it?

I think Stand by Me needs to get a restraining order against you. If I were Stand by Me, I'd be worried everytime I was alone in a dark alley, parking garage etc.. I'd fear that it was you and you were in the same creepy, "I love you so much that I can't help raping you" mood you were in when you wrote the original post!! If Stand by Me suddenly disappears or gets murdered Im sending the police immediately your way you weird ass creeper.

Its a kids movie bro. Your thinking too deeply. This movie is a classic

Or friendship. I love this movie loathe sports
No respect you make me sick!! You give a aspirin a headache!!!

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Grim, do you or did you ever play sports as a child? If so, which?
The Sandlot is one of my all time favorite movies, even now as an adult, i have trouble changing the channel when it's on TV. However i would never claim it to be an award winning film, nor would i compare it to Stand By me. As others have already said, it's all about nostalgia. maybe you had to be an active kid growing up to appreciate it, or maybe where you grew up matters. i relate to the block parties they throw, to the town pool, the heat, local legends etc.add on a great score (for the movie that it is, ie Ray Charles' "America the Beautiful") and it just keeps a smile on my face.
My assumption is that your childhood does not relate to this movie at all, and if that is the case i understand why you didn't care for it. Either way it's too bad for you. The Sandlot is one of the best kids movies of all time!

No way an adult can give a proper review of a child movie plain and simple. I loved this movie as a kid but as an adult it isn't as good, wonder why?

Thanks for your review.
Had a few points of my own to make:
I was a child of the 60s, lived in a small town and played baseball as a kid (organized and scrub). So, this one struck a chord with me.
To your point that it wasn't period enough for you. How many cars did you see from the 90s or later? The U-Haul trailer was spot on. The costumes, spot on (particularly the baseball uniforms and safety equipment used by the rich kids). The music track.fits perfectly. Even Squints' homemade spy telescope is made from a period Wheaties box.
From what you wrote you either didn't play ball, or didn't enjoy playing it. The references to baseball lore and history are too numerous to list and the manner in which they are presented brought back many a memory for me.
Sure, the acting is second rate. They weren't shooting for an Oscar here. It's more like a live action Sunday comic. Even so, they hit all the marks for those who enjoy baseball and life as a young boy, learning to play the gameof baseball, and life.
I think you simply were over-thinking this one, and missed out on a simple, fun time of movie viewing. Try watching it again, but, this time, set your expectation meter to that of "Sunday Comics". I think then, you'll enjoy it much more.
Take care!

If you didn't see this as a kid, you're probably not able to enjoy it it's not a perfect film, but on a nostalgic level, it brings you back to your youth.

Grim, I'm with you. I finally sat down to watch and I had to force my self to finish. I had heard how good it was, how people couldn't believe I didn't see it. It was average at best. 7.8 rating blows my mind. This is coming from a man who loves baseball, and loves to reminisce about days past as a boy. It just didn't have the magic I was told it had.

I think OP just over-analyzed the movie. It's a cute story about a group of kids who lose their ball over the fence and have an adventure getting it back. That's all it is.

The OP is 19 now
The reason he didn't like this movie is probably because he spent his childhood playing video games and didn't go outside and have adventures in his neighborhood.
He can't relate to this movie because he probably didn't have many of those types of experiences.
Before anyone thinks I'm making fun of him, I'm really not.
I have a younger brother who hated this movie. I could never figure it out, but thinking back on it it's probably because while I was outside playing sports with my friends in the neighborhood, he was inside with the same 2-3 friends playing NES or SNES.
It wasn't that my brother was weird, it was just the eras we grew up in. NES came out when I was in 2nd grade, all of my friends and I were used to playing sports outside so we only played video games when it rained.
My brother and his friends would be inside all the time (even on beautiful days) playing Mario Bros/Duck Hunt/Final Fantasy.
I'm not saying I'm better or worse than him, it was just the way it was. Kids his age played video games. Kids my age played sports. The cut off was about 1984.
I would guess that if you polled people who were born prior to 1984, they would love this movie. If you poll people who were born after 1984, you're going to get many more negative reviews. Just a theory.

One of the best movies ever. How can you not like this? Classic.

Pfff, the Sandlot is fantastic. It stands the test of time for me - it was my favorite movie when I was a kid, next to The Goonies, and it is awful that they made those horrendous sequels to both movies. But those are other directors, other screenwriters, etc. The people involved in the original most likely had little to do with the sequels.
I love this film because it shows a summer through a kids eyes. It's relatable. There was always that one neighbor on your block that had a bunch of ridiculous stories about them. There was always that one dog you were TERRIFIED of in your neighborhood (for me it was Baloo, a monstrous and not very nice Chow-Chow). I didn't have a problem figuring out the time period of the movie - the houses, the clothes, the cars, and the entire music score made it rather obvious for me at least.
As for why was the dog hoarding baseballswhy not? He's a dog. A ball flies over his fence, he's PROBABLY gonna play with it, chew on it, and dogs are pretty possessive of their toys, so he would most likely bring it under the house with him as he did in the movie. And, due to their possessive natures, he would be very hard pressed to bring it back. All the schemes the kids devised to try and get his toys either made him defend the baseball (he'd claimed it) when they sent in Yeah-Yeah, and if you were a dog, you'd probably be curious and end up destroying a robotic moving catapult too. The way the kids saw things happen though is the way we all saw stuff happen when we were little - dramatically.
I do not think a Bull Mastiff would be able to chase someone as long and far as The Beast chased Benny, but the entire sequence is still entertaining to me.
I dunno. Think what you want - it's your opinion after all, but this movie, for me, was my childhood, and it represented every summer break adventure I had. It's very nostalgic for those of us who grew up with this film. Even if it isn't Casablanca, it's still something I'll always have on my movie shelf.

your childhood clearly sucked..