So where is the catch in Summer Catch?

The period between the first week of December up to the day before Christmas is the worst playdate that may be given to any film – whether local or foreign.

You see, even if a film hits it big in the box office around this period, it will have to be pulled out to give way to the entries in the Metro Manila Film Festival which begins on Christmas day. And even without the Metro Filmfest, this playdate is really bad for business because watching movies is at the bottom list of peoples’ priorities around this time – more concerned as they are with their Christmas preparations and expenses.

Big local movie companies and major distributors of foreign films therefore do not want this slot which automatically goes to small-time producers who do not wield that much power when it comes to bargaining with theater-owners. So, if you scan the entertainment pages these days and look at the movie ads, you will see the titles of some obviously cheap films like Dalawang Pisngi ng Langit (with Nini Jacinto and Alma Soriano) and Masakit ... Huwag Mong Ipilit (with Rita Magdalena and Hazel Espinosa).

In the list of foreign films currently showing, I thought that the most promising was Summer Catch (with Freddie Prinze, Jr. in the lead).

Looking at its layout in the papers, one would think that this movie is about sex. It is not. Summer Catch is actually about baseball. But it is not a Field of Dreams-like baseball movie. Oh, far from it. You’d even cringe at the thought of comparing the two.

Summer Catch is set during the baseball season in Cape Cod in Massachusetts and Freddie Prinze, Jr. is a promising pitcher of a popular baseball team in the amateur league. (He’s all set to go pro the following year.) Unfortunately, he does badly in this season – to the chagrin of his teammates.

On the side, he also operates a small mowing business with his father (Fred Ward) who was a failure as a baseball player. One of their clients is the wealthy family of Jessica Biel, a really nice girl who becomes supportive of his baseball career.

Although he and Jessica are madly in love with each other, their romance still sours because Jessica’s snooty father wants her to marry some rich guy in their own league.

Of course, they still end up with each other (what did you expect?) and we see Freddie Prinze, Jr. getting close to his dream of becoming a professional baseball player.

Summer Catch actually doesn’t seem to know what it wants to do with itself. It tries to be a sports movie, but its baseball senses aren’t all that spectacular.

Then, there are scenes when it tries to be funny. But a comedy film it is not. (All the jokes in the movie fall flat.)

A large part of the film really devotes itself to the romance between Prinze and Biel, which is really just okay – except for the fact that its love angle (about rich girl falling for poor boy) is older than Hollywood.

In the acting department, there’s really nothing much to expect from its cast members – expecially not from Freddie Prinze, Jr. how is a certified ham actor. (He’s a heartthrob, all right, but that’s it.) But even if he were a brilliant actor, he’d probably also have a difficult time rising above such mediocre material.

Summer Catch, of course, isn’t really an out-and-out bad movie. At least, it doesn’t insult the sensibility of the audience.

But there’s nothing special about it that should make you brave the holiday traffic and squeeze yourself through the mall just to see it. Trust me, it’s not the season’s catch.