THE REPLACEMENTS
Review by John Beachem
* * * *
Directed by: Howard Deutch Written by: Vince McKewin
Just like back in 1987, the players of the professional football league (PFL?) are on strike. With only four games left in the season, and three wins needed to make the playoffs, the owner of the Washington Sentinels (Jack Warden) has decided to hire on replacement players to finish the season. They will be chosen and led by his old friend and former head coach, McGinty (Gene Hackman). McGinty decides to go with former college star Shane Falco (Keanu Reeves) as his QB, and a host of misfits as his starting players. His new players include: an ex-con; a SWAT team member; a sumo wrestler; two bodyguards named Jackson; a retired Welsh soccer player; a deaf man; and a janitor from a convenience store. Of course, the cheerleaders have also gone on strike (for some reason), and only their leader, Annabelle (Brooke Langton), remains. She decides to hire dancers as replacement cheerleaders, but the dancers neglect to mention that they are actually lap dancers. McGinty has to whip the players into shape and get them to win three of the next four games. Only two problems are facing him: one is that Falco has lost all his confidence since he lost the Sugar Bowl several years prior; and two is that the former players, led by QB Martel (Brett Cullen), are making things more than a little difficult for his players. Will McGinty and his team prevail? Will the sun rise tomorrow?
After reading that very generic sounding plot, these are probably a few of the questions running through your mind: Is "The Replacements" cliched? Is it formulaic? Is it coated by a nice, thick layer of cheese? And, most importantly, is it funny? The answers respectively are: yes, yes, yes, and oh god yes. In a summer thus far packed with humorless comedies ("Scary Movie", "Nutty Professor II"), Howard Deutch's ("The Odd Couple II") "The Replacements" is the only movie so far that had both the audience and me laughing so hard we couldn't breath. This is rather strange considering that the movie was released in August, that nesting ground for bad movies everywhere. One of the things that makes "The Replacements" such a rare comedy (particularly in this horrible year) is that it manages to keep the laughs coming nearly throughout its entire running time. In fact, the only times the laughs stop coming are when Keanu Reeves is alone on screen, with anyone, and the movie starts to get sappy and sentimental. Fortunately, Deutch never allows these moments to go on for too long, and you can always rest assured another hilarious scene is right around the corner.
In any screwball comedy like this, acting is not going to be all that important. Of course, in any movie with Gene Hackman, you're going to get some great acting regardless. Only Hackman could make some of the cheesy lines he gets sound great. For example, coming out of anyone else's mouth, a line like: "He doesn't have it all, he doesn't have heart. You do." would be ear-gratingly bad. Coming from Hackman, you don't even notice how cheesy it is. The problem is that standing next to Hackman you've got Keanu Reeves, the black hole of acting himself. Thankfully he does a decent enough job (for him anyway) and doesn't get in the way too often. The film's main strengths lie with the supporting cast. Granted, none of the supporting characters are developed in any way, but that really doesn't matter in a movie like this. You're not going to see a movie like "The Replacements" for deep, involved character development (at least I hope you're not). So if you put that aside and just have a good time, you should really get a kick out of some of these characters. The two that really stood out in my mind were Rhys Ifans' ("Notting Hill") Scottish kicker, Gruff; and John Favreau's ("Swingers") completely insane SWAT team member, Daniel Bateman. Even if the rest of the movie were terrible, it would still be worthwhile just to see these two having a great time. John Madden and Pat Summerall show up playing two announcers named John Madden and Pat Summerall (hey, sometimes there are roles you are just born to play).
As much as I love both football and movies, it seems Hollywood is usually incapable of blending the two together. Let's think back here. The last attempted football movie was Oliver Stone's atrocious "Any Given Sunday", which managed to fail on every level. There was "Rudy", back in 1993, but while it succeeded as a dramatic film, it's hard to classify that one as a football movie. We've seen previous attempts at comical football movies with films like 1991's abysmal "Necessary Roughness" and Adam Sandler's somewhat amusing, though hardly hilarious "The Waterboy". What did these previous attempts lack that "The Replacements" contains? Simple enough, it contains not one, but several hilarious scenes which will stick in your mind for quite some time: A bar room brawl, the first training session, the two Jacksons talking to Martel about Falco's car, and a musical number in a prison cell which is just too funny to be described to name a few. If a movie can make that many of its scenes stick in your mind long after its viewing, then you know you got your money's worth.
The movie contains a few references only hardcore football fans would probably recognize. My favorite one was watching the pen happy John Madden be put to the test by one of Falco's bungled plays (if you're a football fan you know what I mean by that. If you're not a football fan, why are you thinking about seeing this movie?). The film's soundtrack isn't exactly the kind of music I care for, ranging from hard rock to oldies, but that doesn't mean it's inappropriate to the movie. I'd better warn all the parents out there (something I don't ordinarily do), while the film may carry a PG-13 rating, the football violence can be a bit much, there's a significant amount of swearing, and the scenes involving the new cheerleaders can be a bit, um, much. "The Replacements" runs 118 minutes, though it doesn't feel anywhere near that long. I'd recommend it to fans of football movies and comedies. If you happen to be a fan of both, you should have a blast. I give the movie a well earned four out of five stars. By the way, the movie does leave us with a great moral. Pain heals, chicks dig scars, and glory lasts forever.
Comments? Send to: johnbeachem@dependentfilms.net
Past reviews can be found at: http://www.epinions.com/user-elerad?public=yes or http://us.imdb.com/ReviewsBy?John+Beachem
* * * * * - One of the best movies of the year. * * * * - Great flick, try and catch this one. * * * - Okay movie, hits and misses. * * - Pretty bad, see it at your own risk. * - See this one only if you enjoy pain.
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