Barnes & Noble

One of the year’s most pleasant surprises, Adam Sandler’s remake of the hugely successful 1974 prison drama not only does justice to the original but, arguably, improves upon it as well. Disgraced former gridiron star Paul Crewe (Sandler, in the Burt Reynolds role), sent to prison on a reckless-endangerment conviction, is ordered by hard-bitten Warden Hazen (James Cromwell) to organize a football squad made up of convicts, and then engage the guards’ team, headed by sadistic Captain Knauer (William Fichtner), in a televised exhibition game. Expected to lose badly -- while giving the guards some much-needed practice -- Crewe gets unexpected help from another imprisoned football player, old-timer Nate Scarborough (Reynolds), and a well-connected inmate, Caretaker (Chris Rock). Like the original, this Yard juxtaposes the brutish quality of competitive football with the equally brutish reality of prison life. The hardened inmates initially reject Crewe’s recruitment effort -- until they realize that a game would give them the opportunity to inflict physical punishment on the guards who mistreat them. What’s genuinely surprising is how credibly Sandler handles the physicality of a very demanding role. He does most if not all of his character’s onscreen gridiron stunts, handling and throwing the football with a lot more skill than anybody has any right to expect from a Saturday Night Live alumnus. And he lets his fellow cast members, especially Rock, get most of the laughs -- of which there are many. This is yet another indication that Sandler is trying to distance himself from the imbecilic screen comedy that made him a top box-office draw. Nobody will ever confuse him for a classically trained Shakespearean actor, but he’s definitely maturing. As for the Big Game, even if the outcome is never in doubt, you’ll find yourself swept up in the same rush of enthusiasm felt by the characters themselves. Ed Hulse

All Movie Guide

One of the toughest and best-remembered sports movies of the 1970s gets a humorous makeover in this comedy. Paul "Wrecking" Crewe (Adam Sandler) was once a famous professional football player, but after several years out of the limelight and an alcohol problem have taken their toll, Crewe is arrested for a serious traffic accident aggravated by the fact he was drunk. Crewe is sentenced to Allenville Penitentiary, where Warden Hazen (James Cromwell) is something of a football fan. Hazen had organized his guards into an impressive football team, and clears a healthy profit by taking bets on their games. Looking to make the competition more interesting, Hazen suggests that Crewe put together a team from the inmate population to play his guards. With the help of fellow prisoner Caretaker (Chris Rock), Crewe recruits the heaviest hitters from the cell block for the team, but the guys don't play like a unit until Crewe and Caretaker get some help from Nate Scarborough (Burt Reynolds), a former college and NFL coach doing hard time. Adapted from Robert Aldrich's 1974 box-office smash of the same name, The Longest Yard also features rap star Nelly and Nicholas Turturro; the film has previously been loosely remade in 2001 as Mean Machine, with the action moved to England and the game changed to soccer. Mark Deming

Product Details

• UPC: 097363434948
• Source: PARAMOUNT
• Region Code: 1
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Language: English
• Time: 1:53:00
• Sales Rank: 1,841

This DVD is also available as part of a box set:

• Football Double Feature

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