Good movie for a sports fan.

Rating: 8/10 (14 December 2005)

Revenge is the one thing on the mind that every prisoner wants to impose on the guards. This idea of revenge is exactly what Paul Crewe (Adam Sandler) does to help motivate other inmates to organize a football team in an inmates vs. guards football game.
The movie opens up with Crewe being chased by cops after he stole a Bentley. The car chase ends with Crewe getting arrested and bragging to his girlfriend by jumping up and down in front of the media helicopters that were covering the chase. Immediately we get to see the personality of Paul Crewe as a cocky spotlight loving person. Crewe is a former NFL player who is the only player to be banned from the league for point shaving. When he enters the jail, he is hated by everybody because he caused so many people to lose bets from the point shaving incident.
An NFL player, or any celebrity usually has special treatment in prison. Crewe's opportunity arises when the prison Warden, Hazen, (James Cromwell) offers Crewe a chance for a nice cell and good words in parole hearings. The offer was to organize the inmates to play the guards in a football team. The point was for the inmates to have such a horrible team, that the guards would win easily and have high enough spirit to be able to compete in their organized league. After vowing to never be involved with football again, Crewe declines the offer. The guards beat up on him, and he is unable to socialize with any inmates. After not wanting to take anymore beatings from the guards, Crewe accepts Hazen's offer.
The first friend that Crewe makes is Caretaker (Chris Rock). Caretaker had already spent a long time in prison and knew most of the inmates. Caretaker helps Crewe with tryouts for the team, but there was no talent. As are most prisons, the Old Main prison is racially separated. Crewe wanted some of the black players on the team, but they wanted nothing to do with football. Megget (Nelly) had a respect for Crewe, and was the first player to join the team. He was an extremely fast runner, but there were not enough players to make a decent team.
Enter Nate Scarborough, (Burt Reynolds) a Heisman Trophy winner, who still lived for football. He helped train the team, but the lack of talent made it so that there is no chance for the inmates to win. After several racial incidents involving guards, many other black players join the team, and the inmates become a decent team. The inmates are ready to face to guards in the battle of revenge they have been waiting for. Most of the inmates only want to play so that they can impose as much pain as possible on the guards. Crewe and Scarborough want to take the respect out of the guards by beating them. They train the teams until the Warden asks Crewe for something that he will not do again; shave points off the score so that the guards can easily defeat the inmates.
The cast of The Longest Yard has many big names. Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Burt Reynolds, James Cromwell, and Nelly are the main characters of the movie. On both teams there are many NFL players such as Michael Irwin and Bill Romanowski. One of the best roles in the movie is Chris Berman's cameo as the ESPN announcer during the big game. Berman is the benchmark for football commentating, and for such an important game, it is fitting to have such a personality as Berman.
The visual effects of the film are fantastic. The bone crushing hits are presented well in slow motion and with up close camera shots. The set of the prison gives a realistic sense of a jail as well. It is in the middle of New Mexico with absolutely nothing but desert near it. The sense of isolation is similar to what the prisoners probably feel.
The Longest Yard has the same basic premise as Happy Gilmore but football rather than golf. Adam Sandler is trying to get revenge, but turns to a sport rather than fights. In both movies, I found myself rooting for Sandler's character, and hating the antagonists. This film is not as crude as other Sandler films, but still has plenty of laughs. Chris Rock's humor is similar to his standup as most of the things that Rock says in The Longest Yard has something to do with race. Burt Reynolds is not given a lead role in this movie, but he still has a "tough guy" attitude through his character.
I have not seen the original The Longest Yard, so I cannot compare the remake to the original. While watching the movie, I found myself cheering for the teams as I do when watching the Bears beating the Packers. Chris Rock's character adds a lot of humor to the movie. The one complaint I have with the movie is that the conflicts at the end are not completely resolved, and it is unclear about what will happen in the future. The Longest Yard is not an Oscar worthy masterpiece, but for a typical sports fan, The Longest Yard is a great movie. In all, I give it a rating of 8 out of 10.