36 Inches of Pain.

Rating: Null/10 (31 May 2005)

Entertaining, but somewhat dumb remake of the minimally successful original of 1974. Ex-pro quarterback Adam Sandler is put into a rough Texas prison after a crazed night of driving drunk and breaking his probation restrictions. Inside he meets a wide range of characters (old Heisman Trophy winner Burt Reynolds, wise-crack Chris Rock and thugs Michael Irvin and Nelly) and tries to turn the rag-tag group of cons into a team in a month's time to play a football game against sadistic warden James Cromwell's prison guards (led by ex-pro players Brian Bosworth and Bill Romanowski). The whole set-up is little more than window dressing to get to the film's final act and the big game. This movie's predecessor had a hard edge to it that made it somewhat believable in spite of the ridiculous material. The characters here are not developed well enough and the Sandler/Cromwell combo is just not up to the Reynolds/Eddie Albert duo of the original. The comedy borders on being downright offensive here, but really nothing should be taken too seriously. Not terrible, but honestly not very good either. 2.5 out of 5 stars.