Netflix Movie Review #3

[borlandia]

I'll admit, after picking two movies that I knew deep down were going to be good, I wasn't expecting too much out of this one. The original is a known classic, and a movie that I've notoriously enjoyed watching multiple times, and wasn't keen on a remake, especially starring Adam Sandler. Put it this way: I was a little surprised Sandler pulled it off as well as he did. He couldn't pull off the "tough guy" image Burt Reynolds did, and wasn't as savvy, but he did the best he could with his persona and it actually turned out alright. Might I add Burt Reynolds is also in this movie, he plays a coach and actually comes in late in the game and scores a touchdown (unrealistically). It actually hung on to the original script more than I expected, which was a nice surprise, although it was more of a pure comedy than the original. So much a comedy, that when they tried to throw in some sort of serious, humanistic element into the plot, it came out awkward and you're left not really sure how you completely feel about it. They attempted at a couple points to put depth behind a couple of the characters, and the direction of dialogue and spoken rhythms between the characters are enough to make the scenes legit, but in the end not enough is done with these scenes to make it plausible. Other than that, the sequence of events is unsurprisingly predictable, and of course in typical fashion, it ends happily. There's all kinds of pop music surrounding it as well, and product placement aplenty (despite being in a prison). The direction is actually halfway decent, especially for a sports film (some scenes between the warden of the prison and Sandler are directed well with the lack of lighting making you sense a "dark" scene), but if you're looking for cinematic brilliance, you won't find it here.

As for entertainment value, it has that. The script and plot are easy to follow, there aren't too many plot twists and turns you need to be aware of, and it's an easy decision figuring out who you like and who you don't like. The football game sequence is a lot of fun, because there's a lot of amusing hits and injuries, and a lot of it, although unrealistic, is fun to watch. There's not a whole lot of thinking you have to do. Heck, I had fun just pointing out all the cameos in the movie. Off the top of my head, main "important" characters were played by Nelly, former Cowboys WR Michael Irvin, pro wrestler Bill Goldberg, and K-1 fighter Bob Sapp. They picked good characters for the guards as well, including former Broncos LB and roid-rager Bill Romanowski, overrated LB Brian Bosworth, and wrestlers Kevin Nash and Stone Cold Steve Austin. Other random cameos: Jim Rome, Chris Berman, Dan Patrick (as a police officer), Sean Salisbury, several members of D-12 appear during a basketball sequence, Jay Glazer, Peter King, Courtney Cox (with an insanely large rack), and former Minnesota Vikings owner Red McCombs. So yeah, nothing amazing here in this movie, but watching the personalities of the cast bounce off eachother, and just kicking back and rooting on the Mean Machine is enough to make it watchable.

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