Be Reel Blog: Longest Yard

Adam Sandler, Burt Reynolds, Chris Rock, Terry Crews, and Nelly are a few actors that were featured in this unique film. Longest Yard is a 2005 sequel about Paul Crewe(Adam Sandler) a former NFL quarterback gets caught drunk driving and ends up in prison with not so friendly inmates. Paul Crewe gets beaten as soon as he enters prison, but quickly makes a friend in Caretaker(Chris Rock). The two became close and were side by side when the Guards decided to organize a guards vs inmates football game. Paul and Caretaker formed a team and they were awful. Paul needed help and asked the "thugs" of the prison to play. They all angrily said "no" except for one person. Megget(Nelly), who plays running back, joined the team and dominated. Later on into the film Megget's whole crew joins the team and they look unbeatable. The day before the game the tone gets very sad as Caretaker unexpectedly dies from a fire in his jail cell set up by an inmate who is a rat for the Guards. After his death the next day was the big game. The "Mean Machine" aka the Inmates started the game off strong and were leading by 14 at half. During halftime the warden pulled Paul Crewe aside at half time and said "lose this game by 21 or you get another 10 years." Paul listens and starts to blow the game and gives the guards a pretty manageable lead. At the start of the 4th quarter Paul decides to win the game for the team and not for himself. Paul leads an epic comeback and makes the game tied with seconds left to play. For the last play Coach Nate(Burt Reynolds) suits up and gets in at runningback for the mean machine. He gets the hand off and scores to win the game. They complete the comeback and finish the movie with Paul Crewe giving the game ball to Warden.

The film will be considered an instant classic because of the star studded cast with Adam Sandler, Burt Reynolds, Chris Rock, Terry Crews, James Cromwell, Bill Goldberg, Micheal Irvin, and Stone Cold Steve Austin. I believe the film was well organized from the beginning showing Paul Crewe was "the man" with a big house, hot wife, and a lot of money. Then after one scene Paul's whole life went from being the man to being an inmate in a matter of 20 minutes into the film. Early scenes showed Paul would struggle in prison, but quickly made a friend to survive prison. Once that happened the film went up hill from there. I thought it was special because it was not only a sequel of the original longest yard, but i thought it was 10 times better than the original which is usually rare in film. Given the sequel had more to work off of it still broke my expectations as to what kind of film it would be. It gave an insight as to what today's prison trends could be like and how the guards really treated the inmates. Also the type of groups in prisons such as the "thugs to the non thug inmates. Besides the prison aspect of the film the football part was what got me to fall in love with this film. They had an NFL hall of famer in the film in Michael Irvin, who is a multi super bowl winning wide receiver. They had 2 WWE wrestlers in The Great Khali and Stone cold Steve Austin Last but not least had 3 stars in Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, and Burt Reynolds. Combine all these people onto a football team and it will get anyone out of their seat. The end result is what left me speechless, but also happy to see the inmates beat the guards. Paul Crewe started to throw the game away and suddenly came back to save the tea and ended up winning, Yes he might have to spend more time in jail, but i believe it was for good reason.

In conclusion, the film is forever an instant classic in my eyes and will be one i can watch and not get tired of it. Adam Sandler does a terrific job in this film and the story line makes it all that much better. Throwing in all the other stars in this film makes it a superior football film compared to others. Longest Yard is in the conversation for the greatest football film of all time and i can see why.