If you have read some of my other Adam Sandler movie reviews (such as Grown Ups or Murder Mystery), you will know that I am a huge fan of his. I get that he is something of an acquired taste and that his 90s stuff is the best, but I still enjoy most of the stuff he has put out over the last couple of decades. I watched The Longest Yard for the first time in what must be over a decade recently and I had a lot of fun with it.
How to Download The Longest Yard
The Longest Yard was released on May 27, 2005. You can download or stream the film from a digital platform. Click on the Download button at the end of this review and make your choice.
The Movie Review
Fond Memories
I have a bit of a weird memory about The Longest Yard and it has nothing to do with the original, which I have not seen, although I have seen Mean Machine. Anyway, I saw this in the theatre opening weekend and there was this group of teenage girls who would start swooning and freaking out about how hot Nelly was each time he came on screen. It sounds like it would be annoying, but it was actually hilarious.
Plot Synopsis
The Longest Yard is about a former NFL football star called Paul Crewe who is played by Adam Sandler. Paul got into some trouble for shaving points in a game for gambling purchase and he was put on probation as a result. Not knowing anything about American Football, I do wonder if people felt that Adam Sandler was believable as a football player.
Prison Drama Unfolds
After getting drunk and going on a joyride in his girlfriend’s car, Paul is going to be sent to jail. Warden Hazen who runs a prison in Texas pulls some strings and gets Paul sent to his prison. Warden Hazen is a huge football fan who has a team that is made up of his guards and he thinks that Paul will be able to help them on the field.
Building the Team
The guard team is run by one of the main guards, Captain Knauer. It is decided that for the guard’s team to get better, they need to play a warmup game and Paul is put in charge of making a team out of other convicts so that the guards have someone to play with. Paul is helped by a fellow inmate called Caretaker who is played by Chris Rock and they are joined by former college football star, Nate Scarborough, played by Burt Reynolds who helps coach the team.
Highlights and Laughter
What we have is a series of training montages as the convicts bond and start to become a team. It is all fun stuff and the comedy is pretty much right around what you would expect from an Adam Sandler movie. I will say that I remember this being one of those movies that did spoil a lot of the gags in the trailer which is something I always hate.
Cameos and Comedy
Being a huge wrestling fan, I got a massive kick out of Stone Cold Steve Austin, Goldberg, Kevin Nash, and even The Great Khali being in the movie. Steve Austin and Kevin Nash are freaking hilarious in this movie and they are a massive highlight of it for me. In watching this again recently, they were even funnier than I remembered them being.
Final Thoughts
Even though I am not an American Football fan, I still enjoy this movie and am able to get invested and want to see the cons kick the guard’s butts. It has some fun slapstick comedy, but I do feel like they did a good job of also making you care about the characters too. I class this as a good movie, but having never seen the original, The Longest Yard, I do not have anything to compare it to. Still, if you are in the mood for a comedy, I suggest giving this a watch.
