About As Bad A Mr. Deeds

Rating: 4/10 (12 December 2006)

Crewe was a football superstar back in the day, but cast a black eye on the sport when he sold out his team-mates. Then a drunk driving accident sends him to prison, but the thing is the Warden specifically requested he be sent to his prison. Now Crewe has been giving the duty of putting together a football team, full of the inmates. Recruiting is hard, until the inmates find out that they are playing the guards.
Let me just say that I've never seen the original, so my views on this film are not in comparison to it, but as a film on it's own. I'm sitting here asking myself if I should judge this film against other football films, or even other Adam Sandler films. I can't really do that with the latter because it's not like any other Sandler film. It seems that he has grown up out of the stupid jokes that involve him yelling a lot and hitting little kids. This seems to be a softer side, a side that wants to show that he is not just a comedian, but a money making star. If this is a side of Sandler that we will be seeing, then I want to shun him out of the business right now.
I've never seen "Punch Drunk Love" or "Spanglish", so I can't comment on those films, but other then the recent "Click", Sandler hasn't had a good, or even funny, film since The Waterboy. The Longest Yard, if I were to describe it in two words it would be, NOT FUNNY. Now I know it's not suppose to be a flat out comedy, but with comedic actors like Chris Rock and Adam Sandler, you would expect to maybe laugh every once and a while, this is not the case. Mr. Deeds was Sandler's worst film in his career (not including that boat one) and The Longest Yard seems to be giving it a run for it's money. I had a more enjoyable time watching Little Nicky then I did this.
The film is full of clichés. I was rolling my eyes when the mean prison guard gave Sandler the "you're okay" speech at the end, not to mention the useless and meaningless character of Chris Rock, who is only there for sympathy, only there to get a few tears, but it doesn't even work. It's sad really. Let me tell you this, just because there are stars in the remake that were in the original, does not make it "okay" or "good". Does having them in the movie signify some kind of blessing? Give me a break. I can see having wrestlers in the film to play football players and guardss, but they didn't add anything to it. No star value of "Hey, look who it is" because there are so many of them. Also, Nelly makes an appearance, yet another rapper trying to make it in Hollywood. Again, I'm asking myself, what's the purpose? Couldn't get real actors? So you try to reach out to the young crowd, "Hey look, it's NELLY kids."
Now after telling you that the film is full of stupid clichés, that it's not funny and that it tries to pass of rappers and wrestlers as actors, what else is there to tell? How about how it's not even a good football movie? Not once did I ever think that they would lose and not once did I ever think that any of this would ever actually happen. Never would the inmates be wondering around the prison at night. Basically you need to pass on this film, all it consists of is poor McDonald's jokes that never hit the mark. Go watch the original insteadand I haven't even seen it.