Great Film: The Longest Yard
It made HOW MUCH????
People who lined up to bash this film had better get used to seeing
more like it. Hollywood these days is stuck in a rut where three types
of films account for nearly every film they release. Those are:
remakes, sequels, and films based on comic book characters. The Longest
Yard would of course fit into the first category. It is a slightly
updated, but fairly faithful remake of the 1974 film of the same name.
This time, we have Adam Sandler who plays the incarcerated quarterback
that Burt Reynolds played in the original. Reynolds is on hand to play
a minor role which the original film also contained. The plot is still
the same. Prisoners vs guards in a game of football. Pretty simple.
Did the film make me laugh? Sure it did. There are more than a few
chuckles, but not much in the way of side-splitting material. Sandler
is actually not that memorable in this film. Some of the best
performances actually come from people you might not expect. I was
truly impressed with Nelly and Michael Irvin. Both men had their
characters down, and really proved they could actually act. Chris Rock
is about as good as you'd expect. Your own personal opinion of him will
determine how you rate his performance. James Cromwell plays the
corrupt warden about as well as you might expect. He's pretty much got
the market cornered on evil white guy roles, since J.T. Walsh's
untimely death. The rest of the cast becomes a game of "see if you can
spot the NFL player, WWE combatant, or famous sports journalist". And
what on earth was Cloris Leachman doing in the Bernadette Peters role
from the original? Did she lose some kind of bet with Sandler on the
set of Spanglish or something?
Should this film have been made? Well, we film critics can argue that
point all day. The truth of the matter is that this film grossed over
$150,000,000!!! As far as the studio bosses are concerned, this film
was more than worth it. This was actually one of the more profitable
comedies released this year, so you can expect more like it in the near
future. I'll give it 6 of 10 stars. Don't expect anywhere near the film
we got in 1974. But there are plenty of worse films on the shelves at
your local video store.
The Hound.
Cast
- Paul Crewe played by Adam Sandler
- Switowski played by Bob Sapp
- Caretaker played by Chris Rock
- Cheeseburger Eddy played by Terry Crews
- Unger played by David Patrick Kelly
- Coach Nate Scarborough played by Burt Reynolds
- Megget played by Nelly
