The Longest Yard (Widescreen Edition)
by Peter Segal
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Adam Sandler, Burt Reynolds, Chris Rock, Michael Irvin, NellyDirector: Peter Segal
Brand: Paramount
Producer: Adam Sandler
Producer: Albert S. Ruddy
Writer: Albert S. Ruddy
Producer: Allen Covert
Producer: Barry Bernardi
Writer: Sheldon Turner
Writer: Tracy Keenan Wynn
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: Spanish (Unknown); English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 113 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-09-20
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Paramount
Movie Reviews of The Longest Yard (Widescreen Edition)
Movie Review: The Longest Yard (2005) vs. the Longest Yard (1974)
Summary: 5 Stars
The Longest Yard (1974) has been one of the most popular football movies ever made. Director Peter Segal undertakes a major feat to recreate this movie to fit with current times. He uses the same exact story line and most of the original dialogue. With a slight change of setting and characters, the movie draws in all audiences.
In the original, Burt Reynolds plays the role of the main character, Paul Crewe, a former football player accused of shaving points and who ends up back in jail after violating his parole. Reynolds plays his typical macho man role. In the past, it seems that Crewe was a good, honorable man (shaving points to help his father) and later turned bitter. For example, in the first scene of the movie, he throws around his girlfriend during an argument. Shortly after, he assaults two cops trying to question him in a bar.
In contrast, Paul Crewe is played by Adam Sandler in the remake. Sandler has always played underdog roles (trying to take over his fathers company in Billy Madison, the younger brother trying to save his father in Little Nicky, etc.). In The Longest Yard (2005) Sandler tries to reach out past his normal group of viewers to become the lovable bad guy. In the beginning of the movie, rather than arguing back and being physical toward his girlfriend, he explains that he has a present for her and ends up locking her in the closet. When Crewe - played by Sandler - arrives at the prison, he is hated by almost everyone. He works to gain the approval of the inmates (unlike Reynolds in the original, who was not as hated by his inmates). For example, in order to recruit one the basketball players (Megget - played by Nelly), he is forced to play a brutal game of one-on-one with one of the inmates.
One of the biggest contrasts is casting. The majority of the inmates, in the original, are black, and most - if not all - of the guards are white. Similarly, most of the football players on both teams are white whereas all of the male cheerleaders in the audience are black. Also, the main character and his best friend are both white. On the contrary, in the remake, there is a high amount of diversity among the convicts in the prison. In addition, there is a deal of diversity among the football players and the cheerleaders. An element found in the remake that would have been very controversial in the original was the idea that the main character's best friend was black (Caretaker - played by Chris Rock). The new movie reflects the social changes that have taken place over the last thirty years.
Finally, the two versions of the movies draw different audiences. Though there are a few funny parts of the movie, the original is somewhat of a serious, purely entertaining movie. There are some good, well-known actors. The movie is rated R and draws the interest of adults. In contrast, the remake of the movie draws in audiences of all kinds. The cast of this movie is phenomenal: masters of comedy, NFL players, WWE wrestlers, rappers, and popular actors and actresses. Every member of the movie's audience can recognize someone. The new version of the movie is definitely a comedy packed with many one-liners and hilarious scenes.
Both The Longest Yard (1974) and The Longest Yard (2005) are great movies. Trends and time periods are the only thing that sets them apart from one another.
Summary of The Longest Yard (Widescreen Edition)
THE LONGEST YARD tells the story of pro quarterback Paul Crewe (Sandler) and former college champion and coach Nate Scarboro (Reynolds) who are doing time in the same prison. Asked to put together a team of inmates to take on the guards, Crewe enlists the help of Scarboro to coach the inmates to victory in a football game fixed to turn out quite another way.Adam Sandler is no Burt Reynolds, but his remake of The Longest Yard is amusing enough to stand on its own. Inheriting the role played by Reynolds played in the 1974 original, Sandler plays Paul Crewe, a scandalized former football star who violates his parole and winds up back in the slammer, where an ambitious, corrupt warden (James Cromwell) manipulates him into forming a convict football squad to compete with a team of bullying prison guards. But where the original (directed with characteristic ruggedness by Robert Aldrich) was a semi-comic study of inmate resistance against powerful oppressors, Sandler's version is a formulaic comedy about winning against the bad guys. That makes it a softer, less meaningful film, and Sandler (reuniting here with Peter Segal after Anger Management and 50 First Dates) lacks the depth to convey anything more than amiable redemption, resulting in a movie that's easily enjoyed and easily forgotten. A co-starring role for Chris Rock could have been electrifying; instead it's just OK, as is Reynolds as the prison team's old-pro coach. That leaves us with a few good laughs on the football field and from Cloris Leachman as the warden's elderly, oversexed secretary, good work from rapper Nelly in a supporting role, and the lovely sight of Courteney Cox (as Crewe's nagging girlfriend) in a dazzling low-cut dress. In unnecessary remakes like this, fringe benefits count for a lot. --Jeff Shannon
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