The Longest Yard | Teen Ink

The Longest Yard

July 28, 2019
By MovieReviewer_18 ELITE, Short Hills, New Jersey
MovieReviewer_18 ELITE, Short Hills, New Jersey
678 articles 0 photos 8 comments

The Longest Yard is a sports drama that revolves around an ex-football player that is forced to rediscover the person that he was always meant to be, regardless of how he felt that person was long forgotten. It all begins when a disgraced football player, Paul Crewe, gets arrested  for stealing his girlfriend's fancy car, and before he can realize what's truly about to happen, Paul lands in jail. While in jail, the manipulative warden there convinces Crewe to form a football team to face off against the warden's team of prison guards. Convinced that having an easy victory will boost the confidence levels of his team, the warden forces Paul into creating a team that will lose against his own team. Paul Crewe must not only find players willing to play football, but he must also teach various convicts how to play the sport and how to act as a team, which is made even more difficult by how intimidating and fierce some of these convicts truly are. As Paul Crewe begins to create a team, mostly by convincing the convicts that this is an opportunity to finally face off against the guards and get revenge for all of the harshness that they have received from them, he is joined by an ex-professional football coach, Nate Scarborough. Crewe and his team must come together and must overcome all odds in dealing with the aggressive brutality of the prison guards, and worst of all, the team is forced to play in a game that the warden is attempting to fix. With all of this, Paul Crewe must redeem himself from being the hated person that he has become, which is a result of him throwing a professional football game, and he must transform into the old football player that he was before the incident, that is if he wants to have any shot of winning. 
 The Longest Yard proves to be a dramatic sports adventure that is loaded to the brim with comedy and entertaining characters to create a movie that will be sure to please with its natural charm. The beginning of the movie seamlessly introduces audiences to the characters on-screen, and this portion of the movie also introduces audiences to how Paul Crewe acts, which is crucial, especially when considering that he is the main character of this movie. The middle of the movie does a great job of progressing the plot along and adding new and exciting details to the story to aid in making the adventure substantially more interesting. The enticing ending of the movie may not be the most emotional, but it does manage to wrap up the entire story cohesively while continuing to provide plenty of entertainment to ensure that viewers are always satisfied. 

 The Longest Yard may not have too many surprises, and the ones that it does have aren't that thrilling, but it does benefit from having plenty of comedic aspects. The movie is hilarious throughout, and the dialogue of the movie is jam-packed with jokes that are dispersed throughout delicately and the movie is certainly able to make viewers laugh. Aided by a talented cast that knows how to shine, the actors and actresses in the movie are able to capture the essence of the jokes that they are trying to produce, and they formulate laughter with ease. The cast of the movie truly is something special, and not only is the main cast of the movie noteworthy, but so are some of the lesser known characters. The producers of the movie actually got several real ex-NFL players to be in the movie, meaning that when the two teams play football, real football players are actually being shown as well. Furthermore, the main characters of the movie are played by some real stars. Adam Sandler is brilliant as Paul Crewe, and he manages to bring emotion and a level of relatability to the role, as well as plenty of comedy to make his character one that most enjoy to watch. Chris Rock is simply laugh-out-loud funny as Caretaker, and his experience as a professional comedian shines through. Burt Reynolds is fantastic as Nate Scarborough, and his role is superb, especially when considering that he was the star in the original movie, since this film is actually just a remake of the original 1974 version. 

 The Longest Yard may not be the most well done movie of all time, but it has plenty of comedy and entertainment to please just about everybody. The movie has a star-studded cast that alone makes this movie worth watching, mostly because it is just so cool to see so many different famous stars all on the same screen, and the movie has enough charismatic charm to please a wide variety of audiences. It's no surprise that an outstanding 94% of Google users liked the movie, and it is quite clear that viewers tend to be satisfied with this movie. When all of this is combined, it becomes quite apparent that this movie deserves to be seen. 


The author's comments:

"“He could catch a cold in the desert.” - Caretaker


Similar Articles

JOIN THE DISCUSSION

This article has 0 comments.