The Longest Yard
By Michael Rechtshaffen
Bottom line: More Mirth Machine than Mean Machine, this agreeable remake still manages to go the distance.
A surprisingly faithful remake of the well-regarded 1974 prison pigskin movie, "The Longest Yard" trades Burt Reynolds for Adam Sandler and goes for the broader attack with generally pleasing results.
First, however, you have to be willing to buy Sandler as a former pro football player -- an MVP no less -- and while he's been convincing in the past as a waterboy and even a hockey player turned-golfer, this one's a taller order.
Get beyond that, and you'll likely be amused by this genial action comedy, even as you're reminded how perfectly cast the top-of-his-game Reynolds was in the Robert Aldrich-directed original.
For Sandler fans who haven't exactly been thrilled with some of his more grown-up choices of late, like "Spanglish," his latest marks a return to the kind of vehicle that scores big points at the boxoffice while still showcasing the comedian in a more mature light.
He manages to get the smart-ass part down cold as Paul Crewe, a washed-up quarterback who was booted from the league for his part in a point-shaving scandal. After a drunken joyride in his demanding girlfriend's (Courteney Cox) Bentley (it was a much cooler Maserati in the original) escalates into a messy police pursuit, Crewe lands in a scary Texas prison.
There, he not only has to contend with taunting inmates who regard point shaving as shamefully un-American, but also a sadistic guard (William Fichtner) and an egotistical warden (James Cromwell ably filling Eddie Albert's shoes), who methodically persuades Crewe to put together a football team made up of his fellow convicts.
With some expert facilitating from Caretaker (Chris Rock, cracking wise) and some seasoned coaching from an old-timer (Reynolds in the Nate Scarborough role), Crewe turns his motley crew into the aptly named Mean Machine, ready to take on the prison guards in a bone-crunching game to end all games.
Collaborating with Sandler once again after "50 First Dates" and "Anger Management," director Peter Segal works off of a script credited to Sheldon Turner that, more often than not, is a scene-for-scene copy of the original, right down to snatches of dialogue.
While Segal opts for a lighter touch and broader characterizations, the film occasionally struggles to find the right balance between reverence for the Reynolds version and adherence to the Sandler formula, but an agreeable pace and a colorful cast helps smooth out some of those bumps along the way.
Rock's in fine comic form, while hip-hop artist Nelly makes a natural transition to movies as the team's star running back. Taking a cue from the original, a number of the prison guards are played by such real-life gridiron players as Bill Romanowski and Brian Bosworth, while others are better known from the pro wrestling circuit, including Steve Austin, Kevin Nash and Bill Goldberg.
And Sandler's "Spanglish" co-star Cloris Leachman is a hoot as the warden's oversexed secretary, a part played in the original by a very young Bernadette Peters.
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The Longest yard - w/Adam Sandler
MTV Films has winning season with 'Longest Yard' (Reuters)