This movie really brings the essence of being a young player hoping to make it and living the cape life!

Released in 2001, "Summer Catch" stars Freddie Prince Jr. and Jessica Biel, the former a Cape Cod baseball prospect with hopes for the Major League who lands a gig playing for the Chatham Athletics, the latter a rich girl pressured by her pompous axx father (Bruce Davison) to move to San Francisco and work for a firm. Brian Dennehy plays the no-nonsense coach while Matthew Lillard, Brittany Murphy, Corey Pearson and Wilmer Valderrama play various youths. Fred Ward and Jason Gedrick are on hand as the baseball hopeful's father and brother.This is essentially a baseball version of 1999's excellent "Varsity Blues" and 1993's solid "The Program." It's not as good as the former, but it's at least as good as the latter. Everything clicks for a quality 'coming-of-age' flick – the cast, story, acting, locations, cinematography, music and editing. The babe factor is strong with Biel leading the way with her stunning bod (actually, blowing all others out of the water); and Beverly D'Angelo still sizzles at 49 years-old in a small role. I'm at a loss as to why "Summer Catch" rates only 4.9/10 on IMDb when it's at least a 7/10 film.The film runs 108 minutes and was shot in Cape Cod, Cincinnati and Southport, North Carolina.GRADE: Borderline B/B+

Local boy Ryan Dunne (Freddie Prinze Jr.) has been mowing lawns and baseball fields for his father Sean (Fred Ward). It's an important time for summer Cape Cod Baseball League as college kids like Billy Brubaker (Matthew Lillard), Miles Dalrymple (Marc Blucas), and Mickey Dominguez (Wilmer Valderrama) come to show their skills to major league teams. It's the first summer that Ryan is going to play despite any distractions from Dede Mulligan (Brittany Murphy). However he has a tendency to self destruct after the death of his mother. John Schiffner (Brian Dennehy) is the coach. One of Ryan's job is for the rich Parrishes with daughter Tenley (Jessica Biel). His big brother Mike (Jason Gedrick) missed his chance and is now the local bartender.It's suppose to be funny but it's just stupid. Everything is a joke to these characters. If they don't take it seriously, then why should the audience. Freddie Prinze Jr. is annoyingly brash. In the first ten minutes, he shows himself to be a whiny idiot. With his big chance on the line, he's got one girl and then chases another. Jessica Biel doesn't have much heat or any chemistry. She's got a beautiful body and that's the only thing on display here. She has one of the cheesiest lines. They get together right away losing any courtship heat. Brittany Murphy has more energy and it would have been interesting for her in the lead. I know it's a rom-com. The problem is that the rom is a bore and the com is pathetic. The jokes are basically hot guys strutting around in a thong. There is also a bad baseball faux-pas when coach Schiffner commented that he's pitching a no hitter. It's just one more thing that annoyed me.

How could a movie with Freddie Prinze Jr. and Jessica Biel be so bad. The script was pointless and apart from the very occasional chuckle there wasn't too much going for it. It was bittersweet seeing Brittany Murphy though as she was her true bubbly vivacious self in the movie. A factor that increased it's star value for me.Maybe a better soundtrack could have helped heaps. It is amazing that a catchy song can make you think you are enjoying a movie more than you really are. Then again perhaps it really was just a poor script and nothing could have saved it. Such a shame it wasn't better because I really wanted to like it even after seeing the low ratings.