The Replacements

Rating:
Summary: Unoriginal but hilarious
Review: Despite the fact that this film is a totally unoriginal and predictable retread of a dozen "losers to winners" sports stories, it is so hysterically funny that I didn't even care. The story is thin at best. The NFL is having a players strike and scabs are called in to finish the season. Our heroes are low on ability but high on desire and peculiarity. The quarterback, Shane Falco (Keanu Reeves), once had a promising career, but he fell apart psychologically when his team was pummeled in a college bowl game and he was labeled a player that folds in the big game. Of course, while visiting the NFL, Shane falls in love with the head cheerleader (Brooke Langton) who never dates players (except of course this once).

All this is merely a mundane excuse for a raucous and silly comedy that has some sidesplitting moments. To enjoy this film you really need two things. You need to love football and you need to enjoy slapstick, banana peel comedy. I realize that this limits the audience considerably, but for those who qualify (and I am one), this movie is a scream.

Director Howard Deutch (Pretty in Pink, Grumpier Old Men) did a great job on the football sequences. He hired 45 professional football players (Former NFL players, Canadian Football League, etc.) to do the football scenes and sent the actors to a three-week football camp. The action looked real because it was real. The players were told to play and hit the way they normally would. Of course, the plays were choreographed, but they were real football plays.

The comedy was lowbrow, outrageous and crass, with a great deal of physical comedy. The cheerleader scenes were a riot, especially the cheerleader tryouts. The scene where they started pantomiming sex acts to distract the opposing team was priceless. There was also sharp-witted football humor that required more than just a passing knowledge of the game.

There isn't much serious that can be said about the acting. Keanu Reeves tried to play an earnest comeback and romantic role amidst all the foolishness and it really didn't fit with the rest of the film. However, he was an excellent athlete. He did most of his own on-field shots and looked very believable as the quarterback. Gene Hackman was good when he was making snappy wisecracks, but his inspirational "Hoosiers" imitation was misplaced.

This film really belonged to the supporting actors like Orlando Jones (Clifford Franklin), Michael Taliferro and Faizon Love (The Jackson Twins), Ace Yonamine (Jumbo Fumiko), Rhys Ifans (Nigel "The Leg" Gruff) and all the cheerleaders who made the comedy work. Jon Favreau gets a special mention as the crazy S.W.A.T. officer turned linebacker who took the wild man role to the next level. The scenes with an incredulous Pat Summerall and John Madden were also fabulous.

This film won't be fun for everyone, but it will have certain people falling off their chairs. I rated it an 8/10. Subtract two points if you aren't amused by slapstick and boorish behavior, and another two if you aren't a football fan. For the rest of you, be prepared to split a gut.

Rating:
Summary: A fun movie, but not as good as the team it's based on.
Review: I enjoyed The Replacements. It's pretty silly but still a lot of fun. Gene Hackman, as the coach, is good -- as he always is. Keanu Reeves is just right as the replacement quarterback, and Brooke Langton is terrific as the beautiful head cheerleader. The fact that she and Reeves' character fall in love is predictable but nice.

I would like to note, however, that this movie is very-loosely based on a real replacement team that played for the Washington Redskins during an NFL players' strike. (Because this movie is a comedy, not a documentary, the team in the movie is called the Washington Sentinels.) The Redskins were the only NFL team that did not have a single player who crossed the picket line during the strike. Nevertheless, their replacements won all three of their games and helped the Redskins make the playoffs where they ultimately won the Superbowl that year. The finest game played by the replacement Redskins was their last one -- an improbable victory over a Dallas Cowboys team, many of whose regular players had crossed the picket line.

So enjoy The Replacements as a comedy, but please don't forget what a real group of replacement players actually accomplished in real life.

Rating:
Summary: Worth Seeing
Review: I've seen this movie no less than 5 times and I've found it funny each time. Definitely one to add to your collection.

Rating:
Summary: Guilty pleasure (3.5 stars)
Review: This movie is so formulaic and predictable it might have been stamped out by a machine. There isn't a single surprise or non-stock character in the production. How many times have we seen the "losers turn to winners on the gridiron/ring/karate studio/etc etc." We get one or two of these type of films a year at least, sometimes more. And yet....this one works. Big time. The cast, which seems to be made up entirely of familiar faces from the top down, delivers (you expect that from Gene Hackman, you don't always expect it from Keanu Reeves), and the chemistry is unusually strong and unforced. The soundtrack fits like a glove and is often hilarious, especially when the ex-stripper cheerleaders are distracting the opposing team or sending the male fans into fits of desire. I'll skip the plot particulars because you already know them (misfits overcome early setbacks in sports and love to triumph to a hard-rockin' theme song) and just leave it at this: some movies you watch once or twice. This is the kind you can watch over and over again and never get tired of it. It may be as original that Van Gogh in my dentist's office, but it's also funny and entertaining. And that is what we all watch movies for in the first place.

Rating:
Summary: In the Red Zone of Hollywood: Touchdown! The Replacements
Review: From The Monitor

Corny dialogue. Mediocre acting. Predictable plot. One great movie.

"The Replacements" is a movie about athletes who forget salary caps and product endorsements (although this feature is chock-full of product placement) and remember football.

"The Replacements" is a light comedy, but nevertheless, like "Any Given Sunday," pushes an agenda. It portrays athletes as money-grubbing crybabies more interested in counting their money than playing. It suggests that heart and love of the game are lost in professional football, but the agenda is equally lost in the humor and excitement of the hard-hitting games.

The Washington Sentinels represent the riffraff-composed Washington Redskins who became a darkhorse team during the 1987 National Football League players' strike. Upon the mid-season strike, the NFL coaches scrambled together a bricolage of players to finish out the season.

Less retired and more fired Coach Jimmy McGinty, played by Gene Hackman (from Mississippi Burning), is rehired to coach the Washington Sentinels, a ragtag and bobtail consisting of has-beens and never-were, one being former Ohio State quarterback Shane "Footsteps" Falco, AKA Keanu Reeves.

This jaded group of players met in discord, but with Coach McGinty's tutelage and Falco's lead-by-example bravado, they soon began working as a team, to ultimately compete in their final showdown against Dallas.

Off the field, Falco is making a 'pass' at Sentinel head cheerleader Annabelle Farrell, played by Brooke Langton. However, Annabelle, with her "I don't date football players...especially quarterbacks" schtick, makes for a tough opponent.

In the end, Farrell, in light of Falco's growing on her like bacteria in a petri dish, discovers that she does indeed date quarterbacks.

"The Replacements" is not an Oscar candidate but it isn't running for one either. It is an upbeat movie that instills faith in quixotical dreams. It adds a little humor, mostly from the mouth of Orlando Jones, who plays Clifford Franklin, as spice for a feelgood entrée.

If you're tired of the sausage of summer action movies perpetually coming from Hollywood's movie meatgrinder, relax, enjoy, and revel in "The Replacements."

Rating:
Summary: Let's play football, b****
Review: The Replacements is a cracking, feel good movie, with a great soundtrack, which matches the film completely.

There's a lot more action in this than there was in Keanu Reeves' other "sport" movie, Hardball. If you don't know much about American football, then it's pretty easy to follow. The only thing I found difficult was trying to figure out which player was which, with all their gear on!

It's surprisingly funny at the same time, and you're always laughing! Whether its during the bar fight (don't mess with the BIG guys) or the extremely camp dancing to "I Will Survive" in the jail, you'll be crying with laughter.

Rhys Ifans is a great choice for this, as are all of the actors. I wouldn't have said Keanu was the best choice for this, as he has a hockey background (which was gave him the nickname "The Wall" when he was younger), and it must have taken a lot of training for all the actors to act like professional football players.

Of course, you're got to have the cheerleaders in a football movie. And since all the players have been replaced, the cheerleaders need to be replaced too. Cue some very bad cheerleading from not very nice looking girls. And then the cheerleaders are . . . strippers. Thankfully, they don't strip, although their "routine" is very suggestive, and definitely distracts all the players.

You've got the obvious storyline too - Shane Falco (Keanu) falls in love with the head cheerleader (Annabelle Farrell). Never heard that storyline before.

If you're a fan of Friends (how come all the movies I watch have a character from Friends in it?!) look out for Jon Favreau, who played Monica's boyfriend, Pete, from some of the earlier seasons. He was the guy who was the multi-millionaire, who became a wrestler, and lost Monica.

The extras are pretty basic, and they could have done so much more. You've got the trailer (a must-have for me) which is actually really good, and also the commentary, "The Making of the Replacements" and "Making the Plays: An Actor's Guide to Football". "The Making Of . . ." is presented by Orlando Jones, who is so camp, its not funny! It's not really the greatest making of I've ever seen though.

If you don't like "I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor, probably not the best idea to watch this movie. It gets played a lot! But there are a lot of great songs, so now I'm after the soundtrack. Rumour has it; there's a Dogstar song tucked away in the soundtrack, so I'll be getting my hands on that!

If you're a sports fan you'll love this. If you like Keanu Reeves, you'll love this. If you like a laugh, you'll love this! Don't make me watch the bar fight again, cos there was nearly an accident! A great movie, which I wasn't expecting to be good.

Rating:
Summary: Keanu Calls The Shots
Review: When professional football players go on strike, the owners decide to continue on with the season by putting together teams made up of the best players they can find. The owner of the Seattle franchise, O'Neil (Jack Warden), hires former coach McGinty (Gene Hackman) to take charge and field a team that can take them to the playoffs which, with four games left, is within their grasp. "The Replacements," directed by Howard Deutch, are guys whose careers had been cut short or sidelined for one reason or another, and now because of the strike are given a rare opportunity in the life of an athlete: A second chance. But it's more than just a shot at the brass ring; it's a chance to heal, to shed the stigma of loss, failure and disappointment they've all carried with them, in one way or another, since their playing days abruptly and prematurely ended. For quarterback Shane Falco (Keanu Reeves), it's being able to shake the memory of a grueling forty-five point defeat in the Sugar Bowl, which has seemingly defined him since, plaguing him even during his very brief pro career. Reeves does a great job with Falco, convincingly conveying the discontent lying buried beneath the surface of this man who has had to move on with his life, though unable to tie up the loose ends with which he obviously has yet to come to terms. And it's that lack of closure, that intangible feeling clinging on to his soul that makes Falco such a strong character; there's something in his situation that most people have experienced, to one degree or another, whether it's a sense of failure or alienation one may have suffered, that makes him someone with whom you can readily identify. It's what lies at the core of the story, and through Reeves' performance and Deutch's direction it becomes easily accessible, and it's one of the strengths of the film. This movie, after all, is about so much more than football; it's about character and spirit and, as McGinty says at one point, heart. And that's what makes these guys play like there is no tomorrow. Because for them there is no tomorrow; once the strike is over, who knows what will happen? For now they have today, and for many of them just being shuck of "yesterday" is enough to give them new life. Especially memorable in supporting roles are Jon Favreau (Bateman), Rhys Ifans (Gruff), Orlando Jones (Franklin) and Brooke Langton (Annabelle). Rounding out the cast are Brett Cullen (Martel), Faizon Love (J. Jackson), Michael Taliferro (A. Jackson) and Ace Yonamine (Fumiko). While the movie fails to avoid stereotypes altogether (O'Neil), Hackman, as McGinty, is the absolute epitome of the "coach," and "The Replacements" is entertaining and uplifting while putting the game into perspective and making a statement about greed and human nature. There are moments in this film that are not so much predictable as inevitable, but the climactic game will have you on the edge of your seat; it ain't over till it's over. In the end, you realize that it doesn't really matter who wins or loses, because you'll come away feeling maybe a little bit better about yourself and life in general; and call it what you will, that seems like a pretty good deal to me.

Rating:
Summary: Always Good for a Laugh
Review: This film is essentially Necessary Roughness reincarnated for the 21st century. Except this time, Kathy Ireland has been traded for a wise-cracking, nipple-rubbing Welch kicker.

Despite the similar plot lines, The Replacements has enough surprises and character twists to stand alone. The musical score is simply incredible, and does a fantastic job of setting the mood for each scene. I've gotten more miles out of this dvd than many "critically acclaimed" films.

Bottom Line: It's uplifting, hilarious fun that is worth every penny. Anyone who has had a dream will enjoy this one.

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining, but Nothing New
Review: Overall, you will remember Remember the Titans (interaction of each member), and Jerry McGuire (true spirit of sports) when watching this movie after the twos.

Why this movie is worth to be watched more than once :

1. Like other sport movies, you will find friendship, teamwork, sportsmanship, overcome previous failure, and doing the impossible. So .. you will enjoy the game.

2. It's always interesting to watch someone (in this case, the coach) collecting different people with different skill to build the winning team, and how the skill is applied in the story.

3. You will not bored. The story is flowing quite fast (only a few unnecessary scenes), lots of laughable moments and good songs.

If you are film critics, perhaps you will find this film is 'usual' or 'light'. The plot is obvious, there is no intrigue/twist. Acting is so-so since characters are only revealed as much as this film needs.

But overall, it is very entertaining.

Rating:
Summary: allot of fun
Review: this is another one of those movies that are really cheesy but still it's great for football fans.