Go Sandler!

Rating: 7/10 (15 December 2005)

Adam Sandler is back in the game and we receive him with our arms wide open. With his pal Peter Segal's camera and a screenwriter named Robert Sheldon, he recreates the prison football movie "The longest yard", riskily leaving his acting partners behind (not all of them, Rob Schneider gets a stupid cameo: he's not funny!) and gathering a whole new team that includes the heavy Chris Rock, the experienced Burt Reynolds and the rapper Nelly.
The story, I believe, is quite the same as the original one, but probably with some updates here and there. Failed football star Paul Crewe (Sandler) gets drunk and in big troubles with the law. Ends up in prison where Warden Hazen (James Cromwell) likes football and wants him to train the inmates and play against the guards' semi-pro team led by the evil Captain Knauer (William Fichtner).
Rock plays the black friend (why does that character always have to die?) Caretaker, Reynolds plays the pro Coach Nate Scarborough and those three will try to get their team complete, including the "neighborhood", where fast guy Megget (skillfully played by Nelly) and partners reside. The rage every inmate has for the guards will make them play; with effort and dedication. The matter will grow wider, and the match will be televised by ESPN, and the team
The team is the core of the film. It includes the extremely big and with problems for speaking Turley (Indian power lifter Dalip Singh), the supposedly not gay but not strong or talented Brucie (Nick Turturo), the enormous enough to kill you with a friendly hug Switowsky (Bob Sapp), the arrogant and strong Deacon (Michael Irvin), the Mc Donald's fan Cheeseburger Eddy ("White Chicks'" Terry Crews) and others.
With them you experience the events, with them you sympathize, for them you want the best. Sandler finds himself in his best moment, telling the people he's still funny or even truer, that he never stopped being, and that he's doing Hollywood's best comedies (leaving "Mr. Deeds" aside). Chris Rock provides all of the fun, but the loud way of speaking doesn't work the same in live flesh as in animation; and the racist commentaries tire a little bit.
The pros; Reynolds sets himself in a type of role that suits him perfectly and could help him during the last phase of his late career, if he doesn't wan to take risks. And Cromwell manages to look very young and to keep us entertained as he uses a very monotone and serious tone of voice throughout the entire ride. While not a pro, William Fichtner also highlights as the bastard Knauer.
Unexpectedly, Peter Segal is at his best making his piece look beautiful, at least, for what a prison declares. Also unexpectedly, MTV Films and Sandler's Happy Madison company, dedicatedly make us happy (without the need of any female pressence...), as they accomplish another one of those good contemporary comedies.