The Longest Yard: Remake

Domestic: $158,119,460
Foreign: $32,201,108
Grade: B

In 2005, the world saw Adam Sandler don a football uniform and helmet and run screaming down the field. No this wasn't The Water boy 2 and no Sandler was not the soft hearted beast Bobby Boucher. He played ex-football star Paul "Wrecking" Crewe. Paul got himself into some trouble when he drunkenly stole his girlfriend's car and went on a destructive joy ride.


After he was arrested he was sentenced to a penitentiary in Texas. Dismissed and disgraced from the NFL for point shaving, his reputation didn't go so well with the other inmates. Paul is enlisted by the warden to help out the guard's football team in an exchange for not having an extra 5 years attached to his sentence for stopping a guard from beating on an inmate. Paul insists that the guards have a tune-up game and the warden gets the idea to have chosen inmates to play against the guards. With the help of his new friend dubbed "The Caretaker", played by Chris Rock, the inmates are chosen after a bit of roughing up and training begins. Burt Reynolds steps in as imprisoned veteran NFL player Nate Scarborough who agrees to help coach Paul's crew (Get it?!) Long story short, the inmates beat the crap out of the guards, Paul's point shaving past comes back to haunt him but is then over come, and the inmates win the game!


Now, those of you who have seen the film may have though that it was pretty good. I have to humbly and respectfully agree! One question always stuck out in my head after seeing the movie, well...two questions. First, why does Terry Crews always dance in every role he plays? Secondly, why Burt Reynolds? His addition as the coach seemed a little weird, while it was a good surprise to see him in the movie (obviously I didn't watch many previews), I had to keep asking myself why him. Well, any movie goers who are over the age of 45 or just very avid movie watchers may remember a little film back in 1974 called..well..The Longest Yard. This movie domestically grossed $43,008,075, which is more than the current film grossed foreign, and basically told the same exact story almost to the tee. The role of Paul Crewe was played by a young and spry actor named Burt Reynolds. Yes, the coach used to be the star (hows that for irony).

The story as I mentioned above doesn't waver much from the first movie's story. Paul Crewe gets arrested the same way, except in the old version, Paul's sentence was only for 18 months while in the remake, the sentence was for 3 years.


The role of the impressive 7 foot monster Samson stays in tact. Richard Kiel played this role in 1974 and WWE wrestler "The Great Khali" played the role in 2005. The caretaker still dies the same charred death by the psychotic pyromaniac Unger, except in the old version, Unger was a blatant homosexual and was trying to kill Crewe on his own impulse, while in the remake Unger is coerced by the guards to kill Paul, and Caretaker dies by accident. There is the same racial tension in both movies when Crewe tries to enlist some black inmates to play. The movie ends the exact same way with the warden almost shooting Crewe because he believed he was escaping, only to see that Crewe was grabbing the game ball, and the same last phrase is there when Crewe hands the ball to the warden and tells him to "Stick it in his trophy case". In the remake, some inmates douse the warden with Gatorade.

Both the original and the remake tell the same story and hold true to the same elements that made the movie a joy to watch. I see no reason to retell the story again, except if there are very good actors and directors that will be committed to telling the story as is. And hey, maybe if that happens, we will see an aged Adam Sandler as coach Nate. Then again, I don't have to see Adam giving one of the coach's talks and then blurts out a random "YOU CAN DO IT"! It's Adam Sandler, and yes it would happen!