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Sunday, September 1, 2024

TOMORROW'S GAME (2022)

There must be a wave of nostalgia for ‘90s Nickelodeon Live-Action comedy.  How else to explain the high IMDb rating and awards (from sports, kids & Latino niche film fests) for this condescending kiddie film about the clueless nephew of a baseball legend (the first Dominican in the Majors), who time-travels from 2002 to 1957, to witness his Uncle’s debut game.  Suddenly stuck in the past thru a fluke in antique technology (a reel-to-reel tape recorder that holds the old radio broadcast), he’ll need to recreate the exact setup & circumstances to get back to his 2002 ‘present.’  Sounds cute, if awfully derivative, but with good opportunities to spotlight progress in social/racial attitudes, technology & pro ball; all largely missed.  Those not missed, dumbed-down for 7-yr olds . . . back-of-the-class 7-yr olds.  At least we don’t have to put up with that Nickelodeon laughtrack mechanically chortling when the nephew proves so baseball-ignorant he thinks players wear tights and kick the ball.  On the other hand, we do have to put up with Nickelodeon’s negligible production values & amateur indicative acting.  (The techno-savvy girl he meets in the past a particular horror.)  Making their feature debut, co-directors Jonathan Coria & Trevor Wilson couldn’t have imagined film school studies would lead to making a modern equivalent of a 1960s charm-free/force-fed Disney-style family-friendly write-off.

WATCH THIS, NOT THAT/LINK:  While parallels to BACK TO THE FUTURE/’85 are obvious, a better model would have been PLEASANTVILLE/’98.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2022/10/pleasantville-1998.html

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