A remake of that 1974 classic film, this 2005 version features the prior films lead Burt Reynolds in a supporting role. For this outing, we have Adam Sandler as a disgraced NFL quarterback.
Paul Crewe (played by Adam Sandler) is accused of shaving points in his games that he was barred from playing. He is shown as a bum and doing nothing and in one of his girlfriend's parties, he gets drunk and steals her car. Lena (the girlfriend played by Courtney Cox) then got angry and reported her car as stolen. Paul was then pulled over by the police as stolen car when the policemen found him drinking inside the vehicle. He speeds off with the Police after him and he was apprehended after a brief car chase.
He was charged and sentenced to 18 months and was remanded to Warden Rudolph Hazen's prison. A football fanatic himself, he pulled some strings so that Paul will be under his supervision. His prison facility is known to have the best football team composed of his prison guards. He then want Crewe to train and coach his prison guards to be better football athletes.
To better train them, Paul then recommends to the warden that a tune up game would bolster the capabilities of the prison guards. Seeing the value of this, Warden Haden instructs Paul to create his football team using the inmates as his athletes, to battle with the team composed of the prison guards.
Getting a team of cons (inmates) wasn't easy for Paul as there were no football athletes inside the prison with him. He was only able to get them based on their physical abilities. He had to train them to be able to be at par with their rival prison guards. After a few additions and practices, the warden then found out that the inmates' team was improving, he tried his best to dampen the inmate's spirits but to no avail. Paul was able to rally his team to high spirits enough till game day.
On the game itself, after a few misses, the cons team were able to catch up with the prison guards up to half time. This made the warden worry as his team might be defeated by the team of cons. He made an effort to talk to Paul during the break to let his prison guard team win the game. Paul must manipulate this team to lose or else his stay at prison will be a hard one and that his sentence would be extended, pinning an inmates death on him.
So at the start of the second half, Paul sabotaged their plays, throws errant passes and it was obvious to his team to what he was doing. He was taken out of the game and watches how his team falters to the other team. As injuries piled up on the side of the inmates, Paul was eventually let in the game. His team mates were still angry at him intentionally losing thus every play he makes, they don't guard him against the onslaught of the defending team. He then tries to win the game on his own even if he is clobbered no end. He intends to win this time so huddled his team and admits to his point shaving days in the NFL was behind him. He won't make the same mistake with this team. Firing up his teammates behind him, they were able to rout the prison guards and win the game.
The movie is a classic good vs evil in sports. Our lead is tasked of coming up with a team of misfits in end was able to achieve great things, in this one, win over a well seasoned prison guard team. How they won is a mystery but giving up one's petty characterization to achieve a higher purpose is what they needed to begin getting one over the other team.
Adam Sandler's performance here is somewhat different as there were less jokes than the usual and he really did try his drama skills. This movie is not short of banter of jokes though with the help of Chris Rock who did most of the heavy comedic lifting. To add credence in the drama department, we see Burt Reynolds doing what he does best to complement Sandler's acting here. A surprise acting phenomenon here was Nelly the famous rapper. He proved great as Earl Megget here. A running back with great skills in football. He was a great sight to see here both in action and in acting.
A number of heavy hitters with acting chops add to a wonderful and delightful movie, and we have James Cromwell leading them. So if you think a comedic sports action film is something of a pushover, this one ain't that movie. A plot simple yet wonderfully written with a great casting equals to that of an entertaining movie.
We saw this first streaming on Amazon Prime and later in Netflix.
