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Directed by: Peter Segal Starring: Adam Sandler I just got back from seeing the remake of The Longest Yard. Just as a note before my review, I have not seen the original movie, so I cannot compare the two. Because of this, I did not know how for sure how the movie was going to end in advance, which made me enjoy the movie more than I would have if I had known the ending. Sandler does a great job as the former-NFL-star-turned-convict, both with his acting and athleticism. His role is not of the slapstick-variety as in Billy Madison, or even Happy Gilmore, but its far from serious too. I think this is just the right mix of comedy vs. seriousness for Sandler. While Sandler has some funny lines, the majority of the film's jokes come from the rest of the cast. Chris Rock is the main source of one-liners and the rest of the over-exaggerated characters each contribute their own joke (Fat guy can't run. Huge guy acts like little kid. American-Indian guy can't talk). The only thing I found repetitive was the amount of race jokes... but when a movie co-stars Chris Rock I guess you just have to expect that. Burt Reynolds character is the seasoned football veteran that coaches the team. I think its cool that they managed to get him into the remake of the movie he originally starred in, but his role was a throw-away one. It didn't seem like he was necessary in the movie, and as quarterback, Sandler seemed more like the leader or the heart of the team than the coach. James Cromwell plays the heartless warden just as you would expect him to. I think the casting director probably finished re-watching The Green Mile before casting this roll. The action in the movie is good, with lots of loud, hard hits during the practices and final game. Some of the ways the guys get knocked around and fly through the air after getting smashed by some 300 pound player are insane. It makes you wish every play in the NFL actually looked like this. Although if it did, every player would be injured by the end of the first week. There are some cool shots of the plays in action during the game. The director uses a slow-motion technique that has a slight blur around the moving players that I think makes it look more dramatic than if it was crystal clear. Other than that, there isn't much to say about the cinematography in the movie. The music is fitting, mostly rap and hiphop in the training / jail scenes, and then standard sports-fanfare kind of music during the final game. THERE ARE SPOILERS BEHIND THE SPOILER TAG! The plot itself was very decent. In any sports movie you only have two possible outcomes. Your team wins, or your team loses. As I said, I had not seen the original movie so I did not know what happened in the end. I correctly assumed they would win the final game against the guards from the beginning since it seemed like too light of a movie to have a more serious ending. But even in the final seconds of the game, I was not sure how they would pull it off. There was a moment in the final seconds where I started to doubt my original prediction, since it seemed like all was going to go wrong. Plus, the death of one of the main characters was not something I would have assumed would happen in this kind of movie, although it made sense in the story, to act as blackmail for Sandler's character to lose the final game. Because of these few twists, I would not label the movie as *overly* predictable, just as predictable as the average sports movie. All in all, I enjoyed this movie much more than I thought I would. It is certainly not a masterpiece of a film, but entertaining, funny, and a great alternate movie to see this week if Star Wars isn't your thing  RATING: 3.5 PROS: Suprisingly funny and entertaining. Funny secondary characters. CONS: Somewhat predictable sports movie. Lots of 'race jokes'. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0398165/
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May 25, 2005 04:54
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 12:26 |
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