So Bad It’s Good: Romance in the Outfield: Double Play

Tyler shows up to the baseball field to ask his pitcher why she’s at the field. She’s working on all the non-specific pointers he’s been giving her. Then Kenzie shows up to be sassy about his ability as a baseball player. We learn he was in the majors, that he’s coaching as a favor for a friend, and that his star pitcher is Kenzie’s sister. Why are the sisters not a part of the same team? Well, mostly so someone can relay information and motivation to Tyler…

Kenzie clunkily alludes to their past, and says that he’s afraid to kiss her before they stroll over to the dirt to reenact the flashback they showed earlier.

As a callback, Tyler decides to hit left handed, though it doesn’t make any sense for him to do that. Does he want to kiss her? Did they bet a kiss? What is this showdown determining in this moment? A memory of Heather appears, and Tyler strikes out. Kenzie walks away, and nobody kisses anybody or resolves anything. Fortunately, Brandon shows up so we can get more backstory explication. 

“You two have history?” he yells from across the field. He didn’t know about the woman his best friend dated before the first girl he kissed?

That was before movie one when these two best friends were living together while attending Salt Lake Community College. Brandon’s memory didn’t have to be wiped for the sake of the audience’s understanding that these two have history. He can discuss it with his buddy as if he’s also aware.

Then the filmmakers show their ineptitude for constructing parallel conversations. The man and woman are separately talking to someone about their love interest, and the conversation back and forth flows… naturally?

Brandon (to Tyler): She likes you, bro.
Kenzie (to Chelsie): He does not!
Chelsie (to Kenzie): Then why was he flirting?
Tyler (to Brandon): That wasn’t flirting, it was competition.

Instead, the characters generically describe their former romance. “It didn’t work out,” or “he’s a nice guy, but…” are not what they should be saying. Tell us the story.

The movie would be devoid of content if they did, so they ramble at each other with no rhyme or reason. All it establishes is that the former love interests are interested in each other. And that these two people nearly got married! Chelsie has to remind the characters of this because no actor’s performance makes it clear.

So up until this point, the big question looming over this film is “where is Heather?” Lala is too big for the movie, so she’s definitely not coming back.

How have they written her out? Did she get a chance to go play softball professionally? Their relationship was supposed to be meaningful because she was Tyler’s first kiss, so surely her exit from the franchise was handled with care…

RIP Heather

Tyler goes to weep at the cemetery, and then he remembers the first movie while holding her purity ring. She died in 2018, and Tyler feels responsible. He asks her to relieve his burden of guilt, and says that he misses her. This will be what holds Tyler back in his relationship with Kenzie, in addition to baseball – this is lazy emotional conflict, and the sudden introduction borders on brilliant dark comedy.

The film cuts to a kitchen where Tyler is just wringing out a rag for no reason. Whose kitchen is he in? Don’t worry about it, Brandon is here with a purse and a cell phone. He’s really coy about where they came from, and he shrugs or shakes his head instead of having things to say. It’s Tiffany’s stuff (no shoe), and Brandon is acting really suspicious. This is the performance you’d want if Brandon killed Tiffany because it’s super weird. He stumbles through an awkward story about how he was praying when a lady brought him the stuff. Tyler starts questioning, and we’ve realized that everyone’s improvisation limit has been reached 20 minutes into the movie. Tyler remembers he has to go to the next scene (he literally just walks off and says he forgot), so this one is over.

Tiffany cannot seem to get out of her wedding dress. Chase has arrived because he left his phone on the counter, which is an insane excuse. Who wouldn’t immediately come back for their phone? Why wait until the next day? Did he leave it on purpose to have an excuse to come by? If you go back and watch, you’ll see him place it on the counter before wandering off to leave. It seems to be the only reason he wandered into the house at all. She offers him water, and he drinks it. She watches him drink it. We watch him drink it. Chase gives her his car salesman business card to explain why he has that sweet new Mazda. Tiffany is so excited that she wants him to help her get out of the wedding dress in front of the main entrance to the house at least one person is going to return to.

Tyler bursts through the door to act all judgy about Tiffany daring to be within a foot of another man. Doesn’t she know that spending time with the other sex is a sin? He doesn’t think to ask about the implications of this discovery until after he’s yelled at her for having a romantic life. She lies and says Chase is her wedding designer, and he’s delivered it here to the family vacation home where their aunt has stored her dog. Why doesn’t her brother know she was supposed to get married? To his best friend? What’s happening? What kind of movie does this think it is? Tyler has come to feed the dog, and here’s his main qualm with Chase:

Tyler: You don’t look like a designer, aren’t most of them uh-

His issue is that this male wedding dress designer doesn’t conform to his vision of that sort of person.

Who knows what stereotype would be filling in that blank in this Christian movie about the need for adherence to the heterosexual lifestyle with God’s chosen spouse.

Chase has to get going, Tyler is angry and jealous, and Tiffany tells Tyler that he’s being annoying. This scene is absurd, and there are serious Lannister sibling vibes between these two characters. Tyler leaves, and Chase asks Tiffany if he, a stranger, needs to spend the night with her.

I don’t think there is a less appropriate way to have played that scene. Why is everyone shoddily lying to each other about the plot? Does Tiffany know Heather died? Why can no one have a full, productive conversation?

Tiffany fiddles with her cross necklace to show that she is conflicted. She tells the strange man to leave her home, but he reveals that he wasn’t at the church for her. This coaxes her out of the bathroom, but she will not respond to him. Why is it played like a mystery? Why can’t he tell her now? Maybe that could affect the plot and move it forward.

“I shouldn’t have walked out on him,” Tiffany says. “He doesn’t even know why.”

Neither do we!

Nothing makes sense without that context.

All we saw was you escaping into the arms of a Mazda salesman with whom you have decentish chemistry compared to anyone else.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10