Cast: Adam Sandler, Burt Reynolds, Chris Rock, James Cromwell.
Dir: Peter Segal.
The Longest Yard is the story of pro quarterback Paul ’Wrecking’ Crewe (Adam Sandler) and former college champion and coach Nate Scarborough (Burt Reynolds) who are doing time in the same prison. Asked to put together a team of inmates to take on the guards by Warden Hazen (the ever duplicitous James Cromwell) Crewe enlists the help of Scarborough to coach the inmates to victory in a football game ’’fixed’’ to turn out quite another way. The men at Citrus State prison have little or no chance for a second, but with the inmate/guard grudge match the cons get a second chance to recapture their pride. As the movie tagline states ’’If you can’t get out, get even!’’.
This isn’t just derivative of them, but of every other prison movie and every sports film, with underdogs coming good and every stereotype under the sun. It’s somewhere between another bawdy Adam Sandler comedy and a dramatic study of self-discovery and rebirth. It’s harmless enough, with most of the best moments coming from Chris Rock.
While the 1974 original starring a brooding Reynolds in the Sandler role was a tough comedy from visionary director Robert Aldrich (itself remade in Britain as ’The Mean Machine’ with Vinnie Jones) the 2005 remake fits into the Sandler mould of ’The Waterboy’ and ’Happy Gilmore’. Although that may disappoint some after Sandler’s compelling star-turn in ’Punch Drunk Love’, the crowd-pleasing comedy of ’The Longest Yard’ is eating up the green bills at the American box-office. Coupled with Sandler’s fellow ’Saturday Night Love’ chum Chris Rock and ’Naked Gun’/’Anger Management’ director Peter Segal and this could rival ’Wedding Crashers’ for the summer’s funniest pic. That said the bone-crunching showdown between the cons and the guards is not for the fainthearted, with NFL players and WWE wrestlers including Bill Goldberg and ’Stone Cold’ Steve Austin providing the physical muscle. While the football played is sadly with an egg-shaped ball, ’The Longest Yard’ nonetheless contains enough locker room banter and high jinx to keep both sport and cinema fans entertained until the final whistle.