Starring: Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Burt Reynolds
Cert: 12A
Released: 9th September 2005

Ex-American Football star-quarterback, Paul Crewe (Sandler), hasn't had any credibility since he was banned from the sport for allegedly throwing a game. One night of extreme self-pity sees him steal his girlfriend's (Courteney Cox) car and start a drunken police chase through the city streets.

He is arrested and sentenced to 3 years in a desolate prison run by a power hungry warden and his sadistic guards. His presence there is due to the warden needing a professional player to assist in coaching his semi-pro guards' team. Crewe's advice is to have a morale boosting pre-season game against a team they're guaranteed to beat. The warden suggests Crewe set up an inmate team to be their punch-bag.

Sandler doesn't seem to know where to go with this remake of 1974's The Mean Machine. Is it supposed to be a standard Happy Maddison zany, vehicle or a funny drama? The difference being, how close to reality to make the film? It's Sandler, right, so it's going to be stupid but people are actually doing straight acting. Then there's the high-speed car chase that is played for wacky-laughs; after all a drunk driving at excessive speeds along pavements and against oncoming traffic isn't actually funny unless the goofball in question is beeping his horn and making pithy witticisms. There was an unnerving feeling that he was actually going to kill somebody.

The penitentiary is a collection of every prison stereotypes you could think of; the weedy, sadistic prison Captain; the big, scarred, scary inmate; the skinny 'get whatever you want' man (Rock); the ridiculously effeminate gays; etc. Then comes the struggle of Crewe getting respect from the other inmates to get a crappy team together and then build up to a decent one and a mutual respect forged by, and for, one and all.

And then the film gets going as each oddball sociopath displays individual flare and bonds are created on and off the pitch.

The performances are all credible yet the script seems to display a distinct lack of comedy within itself; actual jokes are few and far between. The Longest Yard is all about physical comedy and for every sporting outakes show you might have seen with players doing flips in the air after bone-crunching blocks they've got them here in droves.

And there's something about American Football that works on film. You don't really need to know the rules to understand that one team composed of people you like is getting a kicking and you want them to get their own back. Even if they are a bunch of thieves and murderers.

It takes a while to get going because of Sandler's trademark madcap comedy not sitting right in the 'real' World but that takes a backseat as prison life kicks off to an awesome soundtrack and the pace quickly picks up as the game training commences.