Longest Yard, The (2005)

The Longest Yard was one of those movies that I'd missed this past summer.  I wanted to see the movie, but I just never was able to get down to the theater to do so.  Luckily, for those of you like me who missed it, only a few months after the theatrical release, it's available on dvd.   The movie is the Adam Sandler starring remake of the 1974 Burt Reynolds movie of the same name.  

There has also been a British remake of the film since the original, which also could be interesting if you're a fan of the original film.  That one's entitled Mean Machine by the way.  But we're not talking about that remake, we're talking about this one.   So, was this one a missed gem in its theatrical release or was I better off just sticking to my memories of the original?  

The movie starts out with Paul "Wrecking" Crewe (Adam Sandler), a disgraced former pro quarterback going on a drunken joyride with his girlfriend's (an uncredited Courtney Cox-Arquette) car.  He gets arrested, and the football obsessed warden of a Texas prison calls in some favors to get Paul sent to his prison.   The warden's reason for his actions is a desire to get Paul Crewe's help in training his team of prison guards for their upcoming season against the other guard teams.  Crewe  inadvertantly gives the warden the idea of playing a game against the prisoners to warm up his team.   The warden then jumps all over the idea and has Crewe set up his own team of prisoners to play against the guards.   And hilarity ensues. 

I definitly think that this is one of Adam Sandler's best performances.  It's a far cry from his last football movie, 1998's funny but stupid The Waterboy.  In this movie he definitely shows his growth as an actor.  He's still funny, but his role in this film is more wise ass than dumbass.   Chris Rock also does a great job in his supporting role as Caretaker, Crewe's best friend in prison.   Burt Reynolds shows up in the movie as well, playing the coach of the prisoners team.  He does a pretty decent job, though it felt to me like he was just playing Burt Reynolds, star of the original movie, rather then a character in the story here. 

The cinematography by Dean Semler, who also worked on XXX and one of my favorite movies, Young Guns 2, really brings you right into the game with an almost hand held style that makes you feel as though you're on the field during the climactic game.   That goes hand in hand with the editing by Jeff Gourson, who cuts the film together to make it a fast paced movie that makes it as good to watch as the cast itself does.    Though it's the direction of Peter Segal, who also worked with Adam Sandler on two of my favorite Sandler flicks 50 First Dates, and Anger Management that makes everything click together as it should to make The Longest Yard truly a must see movie.  It seems as though there's something about Segal's directing style that brings out the best in Sandler's work.  Though credit also has to be given to Adam Sandler's increasingly better acting with each film, I'd be remiss if I didn't point out the seeming connection between the two. I don't know what he's doing but he should keep doing it, because the Sandler/Segal connection makes for some damn funny movies. 

As a wrestling fan, I loved to see the appearances by Bill Goldberg, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, and Kevin Nash in the movie as well.   They all put forth competent performances in the movie, and their prescence is never distracting, though Austin's character being a racist prison guard took me by surprise at first.    On the same subject, Kevin Nash is hilarious in the movie.  He should really get more comedy work.  He already displayed some comic flair during his days in WCW.  A particulary memorable storyline for me from Nash's wrestling days was in which he was commisisoner of the federation and had amnesia so he thought he was Commisioner Gordon from Batman.   Well,  it doesn't sound funny when I'm reading it here, but trust me it was.  You had to be there and you have to see him here to believe how funny he can really be. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie as a football fan, and as an Adam Sandler fan, though if you're a fan of neither there is still a fun time to be had.   Myself, I dug the hell out of the football star appearances throughout the film like Michael Irvin and Brian Bosworth, and it wasn't until after I'd watched the movie that I'd realized there were so many NFL stars in the movie since I was just seeing them as their characters which says a lot about their work here.    

Final

After I'd watched The Longest Yard for the first time, my brother in law, who came in midway through the film, put it on again.  I watched almost the whole thing with him, right after watching it the first time.  I don't see movies that often that can make me want to watch the film immediatly following my initial viewing, but this is one of them.  And that's the strongest testament I can give you about what a pleasant viewing experience this movie is.  It really is, to quote HHH (one of the few wrestlers that actually doesn't appear in the movie), that damn good!   So till next time guys, be sure to keep it reel.