Decent Remake

Rating: Null/10 (13 September 2012)

The Longest Yard (2005)
** 1/2 (out of 4)
Remake of the 1974 classic has Adam Sandler playing the quarterback who gets sent to prison where he gets involved in a football game between the guards and the convicts. If you've already seen the original movie then there's really nothing going on here that you're not going to see coming from a mile away. This remake pretty much uses the same story outline and we get the same twists throughout the film. With that said, overall I thought this was a fairly entertaining film even if it doesn't come anywhere close to the original. Sandler actually manages to be quite believable in his role as a former NFL quarterback who was accused of throwing a game (just like the original). Sandler can certainly deliver on the laughs but he manages to work very well with the supporting cast. This includes Chris Rock in his role as well as Burt Reynolds who of course was the star of the original. One wishes that he had been given a better role but it was still fun seeing him here. Another plus is that there are some pretty funny jokes aimed at the various groups of people inside the prison. There really aren't any mean moments or anything like that. Even the stuff dealing with the murder and racism inside the prison is toned down compared to the original movie and the majority of the stuff is just played for laughs. Being a Sandler film you can expect some crude humor, which there's plenty of but it's all done in good fun. There's a lot of things that missing from this film but the biggest thing is just the overall rawness that the original had. It was a pretty straight-forward and raw film where this one here is pretty much watered down.