Customer Reviews

Sugar

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

PREFACE: This 1-star review is not of the film Sugar (as I have yet to even see it) but of the decision that was made to cut this film down from an R to a PG-13 for its DVD release.

Sugar was released theatrically with an R, and is on Blu-Ray with an R, but the DVD version has been sanitized into a PG-13 order to reach a 'wider market.' This so-called 'wider market' neglects grown-ups and teens who are allowed to see R-rated movies but don't own a Blu-Ray player, which in actuality, is the WIDEST demographic!

Blu-Ray is not the standard yet. One day it will be, but it is not yet what the majority of people own. This was an atrocious marketing decision, as was the studio's decision to castrate one of the BEST-REVIEWED movies of the year.

There have been sanitized versions of films released on DVD in the past, but always alongside a separate unrated or theatrical version. However, this is the FIRST time, in my memory, that a sanitized version has been released on a format ONLY. Think about it like this-- this is the equivalent of Huckleberry Finn being only available abridged in print form, and only available unabridged on Amazon Kindle. It's insane, it's anti-art, it's anti-artist.

The word needs to be spread. Standing idly by will only mean more films receiving this same unfair treatment in the future. If you disagree with such practice, vote that this review was helpful, and post a review of your own.

The original theatrical release of Sugar was rated R, as is the Blu-ray version. Sadly, the standard DVD version has been censored in order to get a PG-13 rating. It is not obvious in the Amazon listing that the standard version has been modified, so beware. Buy the Blu-ray version if you want to see the film as originally released.

Sugar was beautiful, heart-felt, and realistic. I loved the flow of the movie, showing Miguel "Sugar" Santos' journey, from his days in Dominican Republic to the US. It felt I was watching an actual documentary. You'll see him struggling with the language barrier, finding his own identity as a person while traveling in the U.S., being a "product" for the Minor Baseball League. Compelling and it'll make you wonder how the Major/Minor Baseball Leagues recruit these players, understanding the process of choosing certain players AND the politics behind it.

Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck are fantastic once again with the story-telling, dialogue and the care with research (back stories of real life ballplayers) to tell this story so perfectly. And the lead actor, Algenis Perez Soto was impressive, considering this was his 1st acting role. I highly recommended this movie!!

I always appreciate a film that relays the story you hear nothing about in the headlines, or sometimes anywhere. As stated in the special features numerous times, this is not a baseball movie, but a film about those that love the game, while barely making a living at that.

The story follows one prospective big league dreamer as he works from the fields of the Dominican Republic to the minors in the US. When the movie ends, I think it helps one learn so much about so many people you never hear about on the sports page. Believable performances beginning to end.

The picture clarity is as expected from a Sony BD release: the colors are vibrant, the clarity well defined, even in most of the night footage and the sound is decent as they went the TrueHD on this. The supplements are thorough and include:
* Making of, 14:32 minutes: filled with plenty of background interviews and thoughts behind the story and production.
* Domincan Dream, Playing Baseball 13:00 minutes: covers more about the film festival in the DR and how it helped highlight this story. Some Sammy Sosa interviews and red carpet footage for the cast/crew.
* Casting, 4 minutes: Soto's casting tape, heck of a job for never acting before.
* Deleted scenes, 7 minutes: five scenes that showcase the usual original quality of film prior to going Blu, would have preferred to see them in the film, especially once you know this is about him, not just the sport.

An A/B/C coded BD that lives up to being a great film preserved adequately like HBO Films and Sony usually do.

(THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS)

On one level, this movie follows a well-trodden path -- the quest of a young hotshot kid for fame and fortune in the big leagues. But it is a notch above that in its exploration of the exploitative world in which U.S. baseball franchises milk a small Caribbean nation for talent, hoping to find the next Sammy Sosa. For every major league slugger or golden arm unearthed, scores of lives lay shattered -- the lives of the wannabes who for one reason or another don't quite make it.

Sugar is an aspiring pitcher with a 97 mph fastball and a bamboozling curve ball. In the Dominican Republic, we join him at a training camp where teenagers eat, drink and sleep baseball, all hoping and dreaming for a shot at the big time. Their regular education forgotten, they are drilled in the basic English vocabulary of the game -- "home run, double play, I got it, etc etc."

Sugar gets his shot at training camp and is sent to a minor league team in the cornfields of Iowa where he boards with an elderly couple who provide a home for a different young player every year. Hardly knowing a word of English, he's fish out of water. But everything goes well at first as he wins his first few games. Then, all of a sudden, he loses his form, loses his cool and eventually walks out on the team and makes his way to New York, just another illegal immigrant trying to build his life. At that point, the movie also loses its focus.

It's an interesting take on the seamier side of the baseball industry but the characters are not sharply enough drawn for the movie to be truly involving. Sugar seems like a pleasant young man but we hardly know what, if anything, is really going on inside his head. The movie is pleasant -- but one feels it hardly scratches the surface. It takes no risks and never tries to go deep.

Why is it that the majority of baseball movies of the past 20-25 years are comedies? Think about it: Bull Durham, Major League, Little Big League, Angels in the Outfield, etcetera, have all been played for laughs. Frankly, most of the baseball movies that HAVE gone the serious route just haven't cut it, but "Sugar" works...and it works well.

"Sugar" is about Miguel "Sugar" (or "Azucar") Santos, a teenaged pitcher from an impoverished background in the Dominican Republic. You get to watch how Sugar progresses from a baseball academy in the DR to his signing with the fictitious Kansas City Knights, who then send him to the equally fictitious Bridgeport Swing of the very real Class A Midwest League. In this movie, "Bridgeport" is actually Davenport, Iowa, home of a real Midwest League team that plays its home games in John O'Donnell Stadium (one of the little jewels of minor league ballparks).

The movie then shows the culture shock Sugar experiences in Bridgeport: His English is weak, he doesn't understand midwestern social norms, and is very homesick. He hurts his arm while pitching, but keeps quiet because he is afraid he'll be sent back home if the team knows about it (they eventually figure it out). Ultimately, Sugar's optimism gives way to disillusion, and the flick makes its way to the finish on that note. I won't give away the ending.

This is perhaps the most realistic baseball movie I've ever seen, and I have spoken with a Yankees scout from Mexico who agrees that what happens in "Sugar" is very typical in Latin America. It's a real meat market down there when it comes to baseball, and this movie nails that aspect of the game as well as the very real culture shock young Latino players experience when they come to the USA.

There is humor in this movie, but it's incidental. The baseball as played in the movie is quite good, and Algenis Perez Soto, who plays Sugar, is actually pretty good as a pitcher...he is not some actor who tries to look like a ballplyer. He's pretty charismatic, too. There are subtitles, too. I highly recommend this to anyone who wants a REAL baseball movie, and only wish I could give it more than five stars. "Sugar" is a winner.

Sugar is an intruiging story of a young man from the Dominican Republic whose only dream is to play in the American baseball big leagues. He is a talented pitcher who was signed by the KC Royals organization, but has to prove himself in his native Dominican Republic before he can get a shot in the majors farm leagues. Then after a KC Royals training camp he is called up to play 1A ball in Iowa.

Imagine this, you speak very little English...make that, well, no English, not enough to get along in the states anyway. You leave your friends, family, girlfriend, and the only life you have ever known for a life of practice, high-level competition, player rivalry, sometimes unreachable levels of self-expectations, and a must-win mentality, plus this all happening to and around you in an unfamiliar culture that provides a confusing background for your new life.

This film provides an extremely insightful view of life for talented, but very young foreign players and their eventual fates. No, this is not a fairytale story of overcoming challenges, it's a dose of reality.

If you are a baseball fan - I mean more than someone that just likes to sits and watch games, then you will enjoy this film, I guarantee it. This is not a Disney-ized story, but it's a compelling one.

I guess you could say this film is as much about NOT playing baseball as it is about playing baseball. And that is the main attraction for me.

If you are ready to go beyond sports films like "Remember the Titans" or "Miracle" then this film may be for you.

4 solid stars.

For those of us who've been around the minor leagues, "Sugar" is a very realistic and accurate depiction of minor league life, especially for Dominicans.

Although it's fiction, the second act is set in Davenport, Iowa with the Quad Cities River Bandits, only in the movie it's "Bridgetown" and the team is called the Swing because they wear the uniforms worn by the River Bandits before their latest name change (to save production money, no doubt). Parts are also filmed in other Iowa Midwest League towns.

The third act is not what you expect, and I'll just leave it at that.

Sugar is no doubt a wonderfully told, slowly but interestingly paced, realistic tale of the difficulties Major League Baseball (MLB) has with aspiring young talent. These problems are magnified in Caribbean countries where baseball is shown as the only opportunity, and boys as young as 13 engage in the possibility of saving their family from poverty via a baseball signing bonus and eventual pro career. Sinewy and receptive to advice, Miguel "Sugar" Santos is a Dominican star whose fire-balling right arm may just provide the gold at the end of the rainbow.

Portrayed methodically like a documentary, the daily life of struggling Dominican ball players is exposed for what it is: a life changing possibility hinged on genetic lottery. With the legacy of MLB stars from San Pedro de Macoris alone (covered fairly well by Mark Kurlansky with his book "The Eastern Stars"), it's easy to see how this becomes the primary choice and opportunity. Athletes eat, sleep, and breathe baseball, American culture, the English language - only phrases pertinent to baseball - while being mindful of the back-breaking plantation work awaiting the unsuccessful. Thanks to a newly acquired, knee-buckling "spike" curveball (i.e. knuckle-curve), Sugar is one of the lucky few who gets his shot in the Minor Leagues. Upon traveling to Iowa, however, he soon realizes all fields are not made of dreams.

While sympathy can certainly be felt for someone in Sugar's situation, the illegal immigration aspect is severely glossed over in this film. That, in and of itself, lessens the impact for me. If the shady side of baseball recruiting is to be exposed, rightfully so, then those who are exploited by the MLB farm system should also look in the mirror from time to time. Glass houses.

Anyway, the reserved performance by Algenis Perez Soto creates a heart-warming atmosphere easy for viewers to support. The athletic performances are completely legitimate, and there are no ridiculous "Nuke" Laloosh pitching motions. For sports fanatics this is essential. While I didn't necessarily like the ending, the overall pacing and filming of Sugar made it difficult to cheer for the opposing team.

If you like baseball, you will surely enjoy this movie that follows a Dominican
boy who is a pitcher and like all, he want to make it and go to the USA.
This movie does'nt follow the Hollywood hype and will not give you a ending that
will make you shed a tear or two, but this film will show you the work and pressures
of trying to making it to the big league.
I rented this movie and i enjoyed it.....