THE LONGEST YARD

I’ll be honest straight away: Adam Sandler is not my favorite comedian. He always plays the same old character: the ‘funny’ irresponsible low-self-esteem guy who makes jokes about everything including himself and always gets the pretty girl. That’s the character he plays in 95% of his comedies.

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Sandler has made some drama flicks, too (none of which I’ve ever watched): Punch-Drunk Love (2002), that everyone says is his best work; Reign Over Me (2007), with Don Cheadle; and Judd Apatow’s latest film, the dramatic comedy Funny People (2009), which I really want to watch.

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But the big majority of his movies are comedies. Some of them are total disasters, like the horrible You Don’t Mess with the Zohan, officially the worst film I’ve ever watched. Others are weak, but not trash, like 50 First Dates. Some of them are okay, like Click and Big Daddy.

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But I must admit, he has a few good films. Actually, I’ve only watched two of them! The first is I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, a good comedy that actually made me laugh! The other is The Longest Yard (USA, 2005), by Peter Segal, our new subject. (Wow, what a huge opening text!)

Sandler plays Paul Crewe, a retired football player accused of manipulating game results for money. Hated by 10 out of 10 football fans, he’s arrested after stealing his girlfriend’s car and driving drunk in a high-speed traffic chase – just for the record, a fun opening sequence.

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Right after arriving jail, everybody is against Crewe. As his only friend Caretaker (Chris Rock) says, “you can be a killer, a rapist, a thief, anything, and people wouldn’t care about what you did. But selling game results is a crime against nation!” So Crewe just wants to pay his time and leave.

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But (quelle surprise), that’s not gonna happen. The prison director wants to form a football team with the prisoners for a match against the hateful guards, and he asks Crewe to be the coach. Crewe accepts (under blackmail, of course) and starts casting a team.

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Attracted by the possibility of kicking the guards’ asses (uh, I mean: playing a casual football match with their fellow friends!) the prisoners start training, providing some quality entertainment and a few laughs. Sure, there are 100 stereotypes, but it doesn’t matter. After all, it’s all for the sake of fun.

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Most of the humor in The Longest Yard doesn’t come from Sandler, but from the prisoners themselves, specially the “cheerleaders” (!) group. The cast works very well. There are good moments and even a moral lesson, when Crewe has to make a crucial choice by the end of the game.

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I had a good time. My vote is 3.

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>> ZÉ B. [3/5]

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IMDB link: HERE