CNS Movie Review: The Longest Yard

The Longest Yard

By David DiCerto
Catholic News Service

NEW YORK (CNS) -- In what is yet another example of a needless Hollywood recycling job, Adam Sandler stars in "The Longest Yard" (Paramount), a revved-up remake of Robert Aldrich's 1974 sports comedy which starred Burt Reynolds.

Reynolds has a part in the new film, but as a grizzled and graying ex-jock, not as the cocksure former pro quarterback, Paul "Wrecking" Crewe. Those shoulder pads are filled by Sandler.

As in the original, Crewe's recklessness lands him in a state penitentiary (located in Texas this time rather than Florida) where the gridiron-obsessed and politically ambitious warden (James Cromwell in the Eddie Albert role) blackmails him into organizing an all-inmate football team to take on his semipro squad of sadistic prison guards.

The warden views the game as an opportunity for the guards to build the confidence needed for a winning season by beating up on "easy" competition. Crewe, however, sees it as a chance at personal redemption. (He had thrown a game during his NFL career which, in addition to a gambling conviction, had earned him a lifetime ban from the sport.) The other prisoners just want to stick it to the guards and play as dirty as possible.

This is not the first time the movie was remade. In 2001, British director Barry Skolnick switched the sport from American football to English football (soccer to us Yanks) and released it as "The Mean Machine" (which had been the title of the 1974 U.S. film in England).

Reynolds takes the part of Nate Scarborough, a former Heisman Trophy winner doing jail time, who becomes Crewe's head coach and helps him assemble the toughest and meanest front line since, well, 1974. Chris Rock plays Caretaker, a fellow prisoner who can "get" things from the outside.

To give the football sequences their bone-crushing intensity, director Peter Segal has recruited real-life Super Bowl winners Michael Irvin and Bill Romanowski to play for the inmate and guard squads, respectively. Other sizable cast members include WWE wrestlers Bill Goldberg and Steve Austin. Rap star Nelly gets playing time as the jailbirds' fleet-footed running back. But perhaps the biggest -- literally -- impression is made by 7-foot-2-inch Indian goliath Dalip Singh in the part originally played by Richard Kiel (the villainous giant Jaws of James Bond fame).

Sandler brings his signature "Happy Gilmore" likability to the role, which helps soften the film a bit. But while sympathies will obviously lie with the underdog inmates, viewers may find it difficult rooting for hardened convicts who, for the most part, are motivated by long-simmering rage -- though understandably so -- against their vicious and racist keepers, which Crewe selfishly uses to his advantage (at least initially).

The new movie captures the spirit of the original (some scenes play out verbatim), but unfortunately it also ratchets up the brutality and vulgar humor, including a running gag involving transvestite inmates who form a cheerleading squad. The film is also made edgier by its wall-to-wall soundtrack and MTV-style editing (MTV had a hand in the production). Surprisingly, there are fewer "f-words" used in the new movie than in the earlier version, but the prison-yard banter is inappropriately raw for a PG-13 film (for which the filmmaker deserves a penalty flag).

And while it has its crowd-pleasing moments, "The Longest Yard" falls far short of a touchdown.

The film contains strong prison and playing-field violence, an instance of rough language and much crude and sexual language and humor, including an ongoing joke involving some gay inmates, racial remarks, drug references, fleeting rear nudity and a scene of drunk driving played for laughs. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 -- parents are strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

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DiCerto is on the staff of the Office for Film & Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

END

Copyright (c) 2005 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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