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DVD The Longest Yard (UMD Mini For PSP)
Adam Sandler is no Burt Reynolds, but his remake of The Longest Yard is amusing enough to stand on its own. Inheriting the role played by Reynolds played in the 1974 original, Sandler plays Paul Crewe, a scandalized former football star who violates his parole and winds up back in the slammer, where an ambitious, corrupt warden (James Cromwell) manipulates him into forming a convict football squad to compete with a team of bullying prison guards. But where the original (directed with characteristic ruggedness by Robert Aldrich) was a semi-comic study of inmate resistance against powerful oppressors, Sandler's version is a formulaic comedy about winning against the bad guys. That makes it a softer, less meaningful film, and Sandler (reuniting here with Peter Segal after Anger Management and 50 First Dates) lacks the depth to convey anything more than amiable redemption, resulting in a movie that's easily enjoyed and easily forgotten. A co-starring role for Chris Rock could have been electrifying; instead it's just OK, as is Reynolds as the prison team's old-pro coach. That leaves us with a few good laughs on the football field and from Cloris Leachman as the warden's elderly, oversexed secretary, good work from rapper Nelly in a supporting role, and the lovely sight of Courteney Cox (as Crewe's nagging girlfriend) in a dazzling low-cut dress. In unnecessary remakes like this, fringe benefits count for a lot. --Jeff Shannon
Review(s): DVD The Longest Yard (UMD Mini For PSP)
nothing special here.
I can't believe people are giving this five stars. An excessive portion of this movie is devoted to the football game, and it just gets repetitive and boring. The laughs are few and the classic Happy Gilmore, Billy Madison esque humor is not intact. Some of the scenes in this movie are so unrealistic that I wanted to vomit. Like the scene when steve austin shoots that gun, and the pellets ricochet across the room for an unreasonable amount of time. Also, Adam Sandler's reckless behavior that gets him arrested was not very realistic either. The deficit of humor in this one solidifies my negative assessment. Stick to a good Adam Sandler movie.
An instant classic.
I know, you're sick of remakes. I am too. But some of them can be done right. Take the recent Texas Chainsaw Massacre for example. While it, naturally, didn't do the original justice, it was a good movie on its own. It had a decent plot, outstanding production values, and did more right than it did wrong. Then you have Psycho, which, let's face it, was atrocious and should never be mentioned again. In fact, I'm sorry for reminding you of it. But The Longest Yard is one of the good remakes out there. And while Adam Sandler may throw you off, this is quite possibly the only Sandler movie where he doesn't scream every 5 minutes. In fact, there's none of that at all. Water Boy 2 this ain't.
The movie starts out with some nice fan service- Courtney Cox in a low cut dress. Fantastic. She's running a huge, fancy party at home, and doing the usual social thing. Her husband, Paul Crewe (Sandler) is upstairs drunk. He's reliving football glory, since he used to be one of the big shots. But that's all changed. After a little argument with his wife, he goes out in her Bentley, and tears the streets up. Ouch. After more wreckage, he gets arrested, and taken to a pretty bad prison. He doesn't become friends with the warden, which is going to cost him even more, and has an even harder time with the guards. The warden wants him to coach the guards to improve their own football game they have going on, so he suggests that they play a bad team. This means inmates vs guards, and you'll get one guess at who leads the inmates. In the process of making a decent team, Crewe befriends CareTaker, the Longest Yard equivalent of Morgan Freeman's character from The Shawshank Redemption, only minus the manners. He gets things for the inmates, and is thus, everyone's friend. Almost. There are a few ruffians who have their own crew, and it's going to be hard to get them to join. Crewe manages to get some pretty bad-ass players. In fact, most of his team is full of huge guys. One is a psychotic, 7 foot plus Indian power lifter who enjoys ping pong. Eventually, he brings a team together, but as the day of the big game gets closer, the guards try to sabotage any hope the inmates may've had.
Something I particularly liked about The Longest Yard was how Crewe's character was taken out of pro football for throwing games for profit. This is something he's ridiculed for when he makes it to prison, and becomes a huge factor later on in the big game. Chris Rock's character of CareTaker is great too, though he's basically playing Chris Rock as usual. He gets in his jokes as to be expected. The cast is just fantastic though. Every member of Crewe's team is memorable. From the Indian giant to Nelly ('never thought I'd say that) to Bill Goldberg to a McDonald's packin' dealer to Switoski, the black Shrek. On the guards' side, we get two WWF/E superstars in Kevin Nash and Stone Cold Steve Austin. These guys are great, especially Nash, whose character takes estrogen instead of steroids at one point. Burt Reynolds on the other hand, hardly does anything, and shouldn't have had third billing on the box.
Unfortunately, the transfer doesn't hold up as good as the movie does. There's grain and artifacting all over the place. On top of that, there's pixilation and some compression problems as well. I don't know if some of the grain was intentional, but it doesn't help the movie out. The audio's a little better, making good use of surround sound, especially during the football segments. Tackles and hits can definitely be heard.
Surprisingly, there's a good amount of special features here, and most of them are awesome. While there's no commentary track, there are tons of featurettes for making the movie. First are a lot of deleted scenes, all with optional commentary. While some of them were pointless and unfunny, most weren't. One that comes to mind is CareTaker calling Switoski a black Shrek. It was so true- he does in fact, look like a black Shrek. Next is a great 5 minute featurette dealing with the caterers on the set. They had to make healthy foods for all the athletes in the movie, and it's good to see that they don't just stuff their faces with junk. It's also good to see the caterers get some respect here, as it's the only featurette I've ever seen dealing with people in that profession. All of the main athletes add in their two cents here. We also get a 20 minute making-of featurette, which is as fun as it is informative. It's mostly a look on some of the problems the director and designers had making the movie thanks to some weather problems. It's also cool to see how much they put into the sets, making the prison become a character itself. Amazingly, lightning struck the set twice. Take that, Mel Gibson. I was impressed to see how seriously Sandler took the movie, actually training as hard as some professionals. There's a series of featurettes with commentary by the director dealing with the use of CG in the movie. Honestly, I didn't think there was as much CG as there looked. It's a very informative look on how little some movies use CG, regardless of what genre they belong to. Who knew the ping pong scene was CG? There's also a featurette dealing with how real they wanted the football scenes to look, a music video for Errtime by Nelly, trailers, outtakes, and a weird video/collection of clips for the song Here Comes the Boom. While short and pointless, it's kinda fun- playing the song to a ton of action clips.
I didn't expect that much out of The Longest Yard, and ended up with an action packed movie with some laughs thrown in for good measure. But if you're looking for the usual Adam Sandler, then you might want to give The Waterboy another go, and ignore The Longest Yard.
The Longest Yard (2005) vs. the Longest Yard (1974)
The Longest Yard (1974) has been one of the most popular football movies ever made. Director Peter Segal undertakes a major feat to recreate this movie to fit with current times. He uses the same exact story line and most of the original dialogue. With a slight change of setting and characters, the movie draws in all audiences.
In the original, Burt Reynolds plays the role of the main character, Paul Crewe, a former football player accused of shaving points and who ends up back in jail after violating his parole. Reynolds plays his typical macho man role. In the past, it seems that Crewe was a good, honorable man (shaving points to help his father) and later turned bitter. For example, in the first scene of the movie, he throws around his girlfriend during an argument. Shortly after, he assaults two cops trying to question him in a bar.
In contrast, Paul Crewe is played by Adam Sandler in the remake. Sandler has always played underdog roles (trying to take over his fathers company in Billy Madison, the younger brother trying to save his father in Little Nicky, etc.). In The Longest Yard (2005) Sandler tries to reach out past his normal group of viewers to become the lovable bad guy. In the beginning of the movie, rather than arguing back and being physical toward his girlfriend, he explains that he has a present for her and ends up locking her in the closet. When Crewe - played by Sandler - arrives at the prison, he is hated by almost everyone. He works to gain the approval of the inmates (unlike Reynolds in the original, who was not as hated by his inmates). For example, in order to recruit one the basketball players (Megget - played by Nelly), he is forced to play a brutal game of one-on-one with one of the inmates.
One of the biggest contrasts is casting. The majority of the inmates, in the original, are black, and most - if not all - of the guards are white. Similarly, most of the football players on both teams are white whereas all of the male cheerleaders in the audience are black. Also, the main character and his best friend are both white. On the contrary, in the remake, there is a high amount of diversity among the convicts in the prison. In addition, there is a deal of diversity among the football players and the cheerleaders. An element found in the remake that would have been very controversial in the original was the idea that the main character's best friend was black (Caretaker - played by Chris Rock). The new movie reflects the social changes that have taken place over the last thirty years.
Finally, the two versions of the movies draw different audiences. Though there are a few funny parts of the movie, the original is somewhat of a serious, purely entertaining movie. There are some good, well-known actors. The movie is rated R and draws the interest of adults. In contrast, the remake of the movie draws in audiences of all kinds. The cast of this movie is phenomenal: masters of comedy, NFL players, WWE wrestlers, rappers, and popular actors and actresses. Every member of the movie's audience can recognize someone. The new version of the movie is definitely a comedy packed with many one-liners and hilarious scenes.
Both The Longest Yard (1974) and The Longest Yard (2005) are great movies. Trends and time periods are the only thing that sets them apart from one another.
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Co-written by the team of David S.... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Christopher Nolan DVD Release Date: Released the 18 October 2005 This item is currently not available.
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