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Description
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.
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