The Sandlot parents guide

The Sandlot Parent Guide

It's just a summer of honest fun, where mistakes are made, consequences are felt, and lessons are learned.

Overall B+

A group of neighborhood boys form a baseball team and some life-long friendships as they spend their hot summer days at The Sandlot.

Release date April 7, 1993

Violence A-
Sexual Content B
Profanity B+
Substance Use C

Why is The Sandlot rated PG? The MPAA rated The Sandlot PG for some language and kids chewing tobacco.

Run Time: 101 minutes

Parent Movie Review

The Sandlot is a story full of sentimentality. It is also one of the very few stories that really seems to portray the way life was for young boys thirty years ago.

In the fashion of the television show, The Wonder Years, Scotty Smalls (Tom Guiry) begins the movie as an adult, and starts reminiscing about a summer when baseball was the only reason for a young boy to live. At this point we drift back to the past, with Scotty providing voice over commentary through a series of bizarre, but through the eyes of memory, believable events.

This movie has good values and presents an accurate portrayal of life, with only a couple of exceptions. One is where Squints, a boy on the team with very thick glasses, decides to get the lifeguard’s attention at the pool. After too many closeups of her chest, Squints finally takes the plunge into the deep end, hoping to be rescued. Sure enough, he gets to meet his infatuation mouth to mouth. She is not amused, but still treats Squints to a bit too friendly wave goodbye. Not very likely, especially with a male lifeguard also present.

However, the good points far outnumber the bad, and even the language is accurate. When I was a kid, we didn’t use the profanity we hear from kids now, and this movie remembers that. Along with a string of double-dares and other grossities, the worse thing you could tell anyone is they played like a girl, and that line is issued in the script, complete with the shock it demanded. Another scene has the boys treating themselves to a bag of chewing tobacco, and paying for it for days to come.

The Sandlot is a movie that finally shows how much fun kids can have. The environment, AIDS, and violence on the street are non-existent. It’s just a summer of honest fun, where mistakes are made, consequences are felt, and lessons are learned.

Directed by David M. Evans. Starring Tom Guiry, Mike Vitar, Patrick Renna , Karen Allen, James Earl Jones. Running time: 101 minutes. Theatrical release April 7, 1993. Updated

Watch the trailer for The Sandlot

The Sandlot Parents' Guide

Squints tricks the lifeguard into a kiss. Do you think his behavior is funny? How do you think you would feel in her place? Why is it so important to have someone’s consent before you kiss them?

Home Video

The most recent home video release of The Sandlot movie is March 26, 2013. Here are some details…

Home Video Notes: The Sandlot

Release Date: 26 March 2013

The Sandlot releases in a Combo Pack (Blu-ray and DVD), with the following extras:

- Featurette

- Theatrical Trailer

- TV Spots

The Sandlot has previously released to home video: to Blu-ray on March 22, 2011 and to DVD on 29 January 2002.

Related home video titles:

The Sandlot 2 is the follow up to this movie.