Summer Catch came at the peak of Freddie Prinze, Jr. mania. He was sort of the king of sub-par romantic comedies in the mid-2000s, and like the rest of his films, this one, too, is mediocre.
Full of cringeworthy schmaltz and baseball scenes that strain credibility, Summer Catch is exactly what one would expect from a genre that feasts on the contrived.
It's got the local boy (Prinze, Jr.) trying to make it after experiencing a downward spiral; it's got the rich girl (Jessica Biel) who falls for him; and, of course, it has the bad actor, her father (Bruce Davison), who doesn't want his daughter slumming it up with a guy destined to cut grass for a living.
Even more obvious than all these stock characters is the fact that Ryan Dunne, the hometown pitcher, will not only achieve his baseball dreams, but he will also land the girl. Cue the corn!
Anyway, with a plot as stupid as that and a moronic script to match, it is no wonder Summer Catch was lambasted by critics. It sits at 8% on Rotten Tomatoes with 92 reviews. Its box office fortunes weren't much better. It earned just $19.7 million.
Now, sit back, clock a fastball with one hand while holding a cold New Grist Pilsner from Lakefront Brewing in the other, and hand us that cucumber! I, the Thunderous Wizard (@WriterTLK), Capt. Cash, and Bling Blake are workshopping mascot costumes for our beloved Chatham As!
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