Summer Catch

2001 Comedy

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. more..

Director: Mike Tollin

Starring: Freddie Prinze Jr., Jessica Biel, Fred Ward, Bruce Davison, Jason Gedrick

Reviews

  • It's no surprise, and it's trite, but sometimes fun -- and not magic -- is more than enough.

    - Charlotte Observer

    27 April 2013

  • Freddie Prinze Jr. has a look in his eye that is equal parts self-infatuation and boyish flash of fear.

    Owen Gleiberman - Entertainment Weekly

    27 April 2013

  • The screenplay, with its relentlessly schematic characters saying relentlessly schematic things, is so moronic that it makes you long for a documentary on the real Cape League.

    Jay Carr - The Boston Globe

    27 April 2013

  • Too bad the movie didn't take its own advice and risk coming up with a fresh story.

    - USA Today

    27 April 2013

  • Neither drama nor comedy, Summer Catch is a long, slow lob of a movie that never crosses the plate.

    Robert K. Elder - The Chicago Tribune

    27 April 2013

Awards

No awards