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The Longest Yard (2005 film)
Encyclopedia
The Longest Yard is a 2005 American sports comedy film
remake
of the 1974 film of the same name. Adam Sandler
plays the protagonist, Paul Crewe, a disgraced former professional football quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers
of the NFL, who is coerced to form a team from the prison inmates to play football
against their guards.
Burt Reynolds
, who played Adam Sandler's role in the original, plays a major role as Nate Scarborough, the head coach and a former Heisman Trophy
winner for Oklahoma in 1955, and Chris Rock
as Crewe's cell neighbor and friend known as Caretaker. The ensemble supporting cast includes James Cromwell
, Nelly
, William Fichtner
and several former and current professional athletes such as Terry Crews
(NFL), Michael Irvin
(NFL), Brian Bosworth
(NFL), Bill Romanowski
(NFL), Bill Goldberg
(NFL, WCW/WWE), Bob Sapp
(NFL, MMA) , Kevin Nash
(Euro League Basketball, WCW/WWE), Stone Cold Steve Austin
(ECW/WCW/WWE/, college football at North Texas State University), and Dalip "The Great Khali" Singh Rana (WWE).
The film was released in North America by Paramount Pictures
and worldwide by Columbia Pictures
(the latter of which has released the majority of Sandler's films since the early 2000s).
) is a former NFL
player disgraced for shaving points in a big game. He gets in an argument with his rich girlfriend, Lena (Courteney Cox
), regarding his failure. He locks her in a closet, gets drunk, and goes joyriding
in her Bentley Continental GT
through San Diego
. After completely wrecking the car, and disabling several police cruisers in the process, he gets arrested and convicted for grand theft auto
and driving while intoxicated, and sentenced to three years in Allenville Penitentiary in Texas.
In prison, Warden Hazen (James Cromwell
) asks Crewe to help the prison guards' football team. Crewe, under threat of an extra five years in prison for a falsified accusation of attacking Captain Knauer (William Fichtner
), decides to help him. He informs the Hazen that what his team needs is a tune-up game, in which they play a team like Appalachian State in order to boost morale. Hazen decides that Crewe, with the help of a fellow inmate, Caretaker (Chris Rock
), will make a team out of the inmates for them to play as their tune-up game. He starts off with a poorly organized team, before being noticed by another prisoner, former college football star Nate Scarborough (Burt Reynolds
), who decides to help him by coaching the team.
Crewe, Nate and Caretaker find a rating system on the criminals (up to five stars, depending on how prone to violence they are). They all set out to find and recruit some five star inmates: linebacker "Battle" (Bill Goldberg
); fullback Turley (Dalip Singh Rana); and at safety, Torres (Lobo Sebastian), a chain-smoking outsider. But after realizing their team is built on power and nastiness (primarily on defense) and there is no offensive threats on the team, Crewe realizes he needs more players. Caretaker suggests that it is due to their lack of "brothers", as they only have one currently on their team: defensive lineman Swatowski (Bob Sapp
), a childlike and friendly, but large strongman.
Crew approaches the black inmates, but one of them, Deacon Moss (Michael Irvin
), says that none of them want to play on his team because of Crewe's point-shaving history. So Crewe challenges Deacon to a 1-on-1 basketball game where if Crewe wins, the men will join the team. They play basketball and call their own fouls, with Crewe getting physically punished during the game. Despite Crewe losing, one of the black inmates, Earl Megget (Cornell "Nelly" Haynes, Jr.
), is impressed by Crewe's resilience and joins the team, which disgusts all the African-American inmates. Megget becomes the team's running back by impressing Crewe with his running ability.
After a tip from Unger (David Patrick Kelly
) that Crewe and Meggett are the only real offensive threats on the team, Captain Knauer, the guards' quarterback, decides that the guards should try to stop Megget by trying to get him to assault one of them and sticking him in solitary confinement. Three guards, Denham (Stone Cold Steve Austin
), Garner (Brian Bosworth
), and Engleheart (Kevin Nash
) try to provoke Megget by using racial slurs and making him pick up books they dropped on the floor repeatedly. The guards give up on this after he withstands their harassment without being provoked. Witnessing this, Moss, "Cheeseburger" Eddy (Terry Crews
), and the rest of black inmates agree to join the football team. Hazen and guards go to extreme lengths to stop Crewe's squad, even flooding their field, but the team overcomes these obstacles.
Caretaker suggests that since the guards have been playing dirty, that the inmates should start acting more like criminals, such as swapping Engleheart's anabolic steroids for estrogen pills, examining x-rays of guards with broken bones, and acquiring tapes of the guards' past games from Hazen's elderly secretary Lynette (Cloris Leachman
), in exchange for Crewe playing sexual games with her. To sabotage the inmates' morale, the guards Garner, Engleheart, Holland, and Lambert have Unger plant a bomb in Crewe's cell, which kills Caretaker instead.
During game day, the inmates, now calling themselves "Mean Machine", with gear provided by the late Caretaker, overcome a rough start, and Crewe has to help the team realize that winning the game is more important than personal grudges. One of the referees is also corrupt, and Crewe has to coerce him to make fair calls by giving up two downs to throw the ball in his groin. The first half ends with the score tied. The angered Hazen, informs Crewe that if he does not lose then he would be framed for the murder of Caretaker. Crewe acquiesces to Hazen's threat. After the guards score touchdowns while inflicting punishment on the inmates, while Crewe fakes an injury to leave the field. Crewe returns to the field, but the other inmates, believing he has returned to his old point-shaving ways, ignore him, and allow him to get tackled twice.
After losing his helmet and still getting the first down, Crewe admits his sabotage to the other inmates, and asks for their forgiveness. United again as a team, the Mean Machine scores two touchdowns to cut the guards' lead to 35-28, but Megget injures his knee. Scarborough comes in for one play as replacement and scores a touchdown off a trick play involving a fumble called a Fumblerooski
. They decide to go for the two point conversion, and the win. As they get up to the line they seem to be confused, and Crewe and Coach start arguing in order to trick the guards. Moss gets the snap and passes it to Crewe, who scores the winning conversion. Knauer, with a newfound respect for Crewe, lets him know that he will testify that Crewe had nothing to do with Caretaker's death.
Hazen admonishes Knauer for losing a fixed game and notices that Crewe is heading towards the exit along with the fans. Retrieving a sniper-rifle, he demands that Crewe be shot for attempting to escape. Knauer hesitates because of the numerous people near Crewe. Knauer sights up Crewe, but hesitates again, calling out Crewe's name to get him to stop. As Crewe picks up the game football and returns back, Knauer angrily hands the rifle back to Hazen and leaves, while Crewe gives the game ball to Hazen, telling them to place it in his trophy case.
Moss and Battle pour a cooler of Gatorade
on Hazen in a mockery of a typical football game celebration
. Hazen angrily shouts that they will receive a week in the hotbox. Battle yells back, "Who gives a shit!"
on Route 14, Santa Fe, New Mexico
. The football game at the end of the movie was filmed at Murdock Stadium at the El Camino College in Torrance, California
. The car chase scene was filmed whereabouts in Tall Beach, California. Other parts of the film were filmed in Los Angeles and New Mexico
.
as the largest opening by a movie that was not #1. The film would go on to gross $158.1 million in the United States and Canada and $190 million worldwide, making it the highest grossing film produced by MTV Films
. Despite the large number of remakes released at the theaters, it's worth noting that The Longest Yard is the highest grossing comedy remake of the modern box office era (from 1980 on).
, though users, who rated it 67%, generally agreed that it was a play-by-play remake; the greatest complaint from critics was that it replaced the original's dark comedy and grit
with juvenile humor and visual gags. Roger Ebert
, in the critical minority with this title, gave it a "Thumbs Up", defending it later in his Chicago Sun-Times
review as a film that "...more or less achieves what most of the people attending it will expect." In the print review, Ebert beseeches his readers to "...seek out a movie you could have an interesting conversation about", citing films not in wide release such as Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist
and Kontroll
, until finally encouraging his readers to "drop any thought of seeing anything else instead" if they can see Crash
.
Comedy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Theatrical Film.
. It peaked at 11 on the Billboard 200
and 10 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums
.
The film itself contains a mixture of hip hop and rock music, featuring music by Creedence Clearwater Revival
, Norman Greenbaum
and AC/DC
among others.
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
remake
Remake
A remake is a piece of media based primarily on an earlier work of the same medium.-Film:The term "remake" is generally used in reference to a movie which uses an earlier movie as the main source material, rather than in reference to a second, later movie based on the same source...
of the 1974 film of the same name. Adam Sandler
Adam Sandler
Adam Richard Sandler is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, musician, and film producer.After becoming a Saturday Night Live cast member, Sandler went on to star in several Hollywood feature films that grossed over $100 million at the box office...
plays the protagonist, Paul Crewe, a disgraced former professional football quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers
Pittsburgh Steelers
The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional football team based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The team currently belongs to the North Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Founded in , the Steelers are the oldest franchise in the AFC...
of the NFL, who is coerced to form a team from the prison inmates to play football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
against their guards.
Burt Reynolds
Burt Reynolds
Burton Leon "Burt" Reynolds, Jr. is an American actor. Some of his memorable roles include Bo 'Bandit' Darville in Smokey and the Bandit, Lewis Medlock in Deliverance, Bobby "Gator" McCluskey in White Lightning and sequel Gator, Paul Crewe and Coach Nate Scarborough in The Longest Yard and its...
, who played Adam Sandler's role in the original, plays a major role as Nate Scarborough, the head coach and a former Heisman Trophy
Heisman Trophy
The Heisman Memorial Trophy Award , is awarded annually to the player deemed the most outstanding player in collegiate football. It was created in 1935 as the Downtown Athletic Club trophy and renamed in 1936 following the death of the Club's athletic director, John Heisman The Heisman Memorial...
winner for Oklahoma in 1955, and Chris Rock
Chris Rock
Christopher Julius "Chris" Rock III is an American comedian, actor, screenwriter, television producer, film producer and director. He was voted in the US as the 5th greatest stand-up comedian of all time by Comedy Central...
as Crewe's cell neighbor and friend known as Caretaker. The ensemble supporting cast includes James Cromwell
James Cromwell
James Oliver Cromwell is an American film and television actor. Some of his more notable roles are in Babe , for which he earned Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, Star Trek: First Contact , L.A...
, Nelly
Nelly
Cornell Iral Haynes, Jr. , better known by his stage name Nelly, is an Grammy Award winning American rapper and actor. He has performed with the rap group St. Lunatics since 1993 and signed to Universal Records in 1999. Under Universal, Nelly began his solo career in 2000 with his debut album...
, William Fichtner
William Fichtner
William Edward Fichtner is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Sheriff Tom Underlay on Invasion, as Alexander Mahone on Prison Break, as William Sharp in Armageddon, and as Ken Rosenberg in the video games Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.- Early life...
and several former and current professional athletes such as Terry Crews
Terry Crews
Terrence Alan "Terry" Crews is an American actor, comedian, voice artist and a former player in the National Football League....
(NFL), Michael Irvin
Michael Irvin
Michael Jerome Irvin is a former American football player for the Dallas Cowboys, and actor. He is also a former broadcaster for ESPN's NFL Countdown and currently an analyst for NFL Network. Irvin was self-nicknamed "The Playmaker" due to his penchant for making big plays in big games during his...
(NFL), Brian Bosworth
Brian Bosworth
Brian Keith "The Boz" Bosworth, is a former American football linebacker. He played college football for the University of Oklahoma...
(NFL), Bill Romanowski
Bill Romanowski
William Thomas "Bill" Romanowski is a former American football player. He was born in Vernon, Connecticut. A linebacker, he graduated from Rockville High School in 1984, Boston College in 1988 , and then went on to a 16-year career in the NFL, playing for the San Francisco 49ers , Philadelphia...
(NFL), Bill Goldberg
Bill Goldberg
Goldberg earned a scholarship to play for the University of Georgia Bulldogs football team where he served as a defensive tackle. He was taken in the 11th round, with the 302nd overall selection, in the 1990 NFL Draft....
(NFL, WCW/WWE), Bob Sapp
Bob Sapp
Robert Malcolm "Bob" Sapp is an American kickboxer, mixed martial artist, professional wrestler, actor, comedian and former professional American football player. Sapp currently has a combined fight record of 21–21–0, mostly fighting in Japan...
(NFL, MMA) , Kevin Nash
Kevin Nash
Kevin Scott Nash is an American professional wrestler and actor. As of 2011, Nash is signed to a five year contract with WWE under their WWE Legends program and appears as part of their Raw brand roster...
(Euro League Basketball, WCW/WWE), Stone Cold Steve Austin
Stone Cold Steve Austin
Steve Austin , better known by his ring name "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, is an American film and television actor and retired professional wrestler...
(ECW/WCW/WWE/, college football at North Texas State University), and Dalip "The Great Khali" Singh Rana (WWE).
The film was released in North America by Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
and worldwide by Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
(the latter of which has released the majority of Sandler's films since the early 2000s).
Plot
Paul "Wrecking" Crewe (Adam SandlerAdam Sandler
Adam Richard Sandler is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, musician, and film producer.After becoming a Saturday Night Live cast member, Sandler went on to star in several Hollywood feature films that grossed over $100 million at the box office...
) is a former NFL
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
player disgraced for shaving points in a big game. He gets in an argument with his rich girlfriend, Lena (Courteney Cox
Courteney Cox
Courteney Bass Cox is an American actress, she is best known for her roles as Monica Geller on the NBC sitcom Friends, Gale Weathers in the horror series Scream and as Jules Cobb in the ABC sitcom Cougar Town, for which she earned her first Golden Globe nomination....
), regarding his failure. He locks her in a closet, gets drunk, and goes joyriding
Joyride (crime)
To joyride is to drive around in a stolen car, boat, or other vehicle with no particular goal, a ride taken solely for pleasure.In English law, joyriding is not considered to be theft, because the intention to "permanently deprive" the owner of the vehicle cannot be proven...
in her Bentley Continental GT
Bentley Continental GT
-Flying Spur:The four door Continental Flying Spur saloon was first displayed at the 2005 Geneva Motor Show. The Flying Spur utilizes most of the technical underpinnings of the Bentley Continental GT, and was introduced to European and North American markets in the summer of 2005...
through San Diego
San Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
. After completely wrecking the car, and disabling several police cruisers in the process, he gets arrested and convicted for grand theft auto
Motor vehicle theft
Motor vehicle theft is the criminal act of stealing or attempting to steal a motor vehicle...
and driving while intoxicated, and sentenced to three years in Allenville Penitentiary in Texas.
In prison, Warden Hazen (James Cromwell
James Cromwell
James Oliver Cromwell is an American film and television actor. Some of his more notable roles are in Babe , for which he earned Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, Star Trek: First Contact , L.A...
) asks Crewe to help the prison guards' football team. Crewe, under threat of an extra five years in prison for a falsified accusation of attacking Captain Knauer (William Fichtner
William Fichtner
William Edward Fichtner is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Sheriff Tom Underlay on Invasion, as Alexander Mahone on Prison Break, as William Sharp in Armageddon, and as Ken Rosenberg in the video games Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.- Early life...
), decides to help him. He informs the Hazen that what his team needs is a tune-up game, in which they play a team like Appalachian State in order to boost morale. Hazen decides that Crewe, with the help of a fellow inmate, Caretaker (Chris Rock
Chris Rock
Christopher Julius "Chris" Rock III is an American comedian, actor, screenwriter, television producer, film producer and director. He was voted in the US as the 5th greatest stand-up comedian of all time by Comedy Central...
), will make a team out of the inmates for them to play as their tune-up game. He starts off with a poorly organized team, before being noticed by another prisoner, former college football star Nate Scarborough (Burt Reynolds
Burt Reynolds
Burton Leon "Burt" Reynolds, Jr. is an American actor. Some of his memorable roles include Bo 'Bandit' Darville in Smokey and the Bandit, Lewis Medlock in Deliverance, Bobby "Gator" McCluskey in White Lightning and sequel Gator, Paul Crewe and Coach Nate Scarborough in The Longest Yard and its...
), who decides to help him by coaching the team.
Crewe, Nate and Caretaker find a rating system on the criminals (up to five stars, depending on how prone to violence they are). They all set out to find and recruit some five star inmates: linebacker "Battle" (Bill Goldberg
Bill Goldberg
Goldberg earned a scholarship to play for the University of Georgia Bulldogs football team where he served as a defensive tackle. He was taken in the 11th round, with the 302nd overall selection, in the 1990 NFL Draft....
); fullback Turley (Dalip Singh Rana); and at safety, Torres (Lobo Sebastian), a chain-smoking outsider. But after realizing their team is built on power and nastiness (primarily on defense) and there is no offensive threats on the team, Crewe realizes he needs more players. Caretaker suggests that it is due to their lack of "brothers", as they only have one currently on their team: defensive lineman Swatowski (Bob Sapp
Bob Sapp
Robert Malcolm "Bob" Sapp is an American kickboxer, mixed martial artist, professional wrestler, actor, comedian and former professional American football player. Sapp currently has a combined fight record of 21–21–0, mostly fighting in Japan...
), a childlike and friendly, but large strongman.
Crew approaches the black inmates, but one of them, Deacon Moss (Michael Irvin
Michael Irvin
Michael Jerome Irvin is a former American football player for the Dallas Cowboys, and actor. He is also a former broadcaster for ESPN's NFL Countdown and currently an analyst for NFL Network. Irvin was self-nicknamed "The Playmaker" due to his penchant for making big plays in big games during his...
), says that none of them want to play on his team because of Crewe's point-shaving history. So Crewe challenges Deacon to a 1-on-1 basketball game where if Crewe wins, the men will join the team. They play basketball and call their own fouls, with Crewe getting physically punished during the game. Despite Crewe losing, one of the black inmates, Earl Megget (Cornell "Nelly" Haynes, Jr.
Nelly
Cornell Iral Haynes, Jr. , better known by his stage name Nelly, is an Grammy Award winning American rapper and actor. He has performed with the rap group St. Lunatics since 1993 and signed to Universal Records in 1999. Under Universal, Nelly began his solo career in 2000 with his debut album...
), is impressed by Crewe's resilience and joins the team, which disgusts all the African-American inmates. Megget becomes the team's running back by impressing Crewe with his running ability.
After a tip from Unger (David Patrick Kelly
David Patrick Kelly
David Patrick Kelly is an American actor and musician who has appeared in numerous films, including some major roles.-Career:...
) that Crewe and Meggett are the only real offensive threats on the team, Captain Knauer, the guards' quarterback, decides that the guards should try to stop Megget by trying to get him to assault one of them and sticking him in solitary confinement. Three guards, Denham (Stone Cold Steve Austin
Stone Cold Steve Austin
Steve Austin , better known by his ring name "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, is an American film and television actor and retired professional wrestler...
), Garner (Brian Bosworth
Brian Bosworth
Brian Keith "The Boz" Bosworth, is a former American football linebacker. He played college football for the University of Oklahoma...
), and Engleheart (Kevin Nash
Kevin Nash
Kevin Scott Nash is an American professional wrestler and actor. As of 2011, Nash is signed to a five year contract with WWE under their WWE Legends program and appears as part of their Raw brand roster...
) try to provoke Megget by using racial slurs and making him pick up books they dropped on the floor repeatedly. The guards give up on this after he withstands their harassment without being provoked. Witnessing this, Moss, "Cheeseburger" Eddy (Terry Crews
Terry Crews
Terrence Alan "Terry" Crews is an American actor, comedian, voice artist and a former player in the National Football League....
), and the rest of black inmates agree to join the football team. Hazen and guards go to extreme lengths to stop Crewe's squad, even flooding their field, but the team overcomes these obstacles.
Caretaker suggests that since the guards have been playing dirty, that the inmates should start acting more like criminals, such as swapping Engleheart's anabolic steroids for estrogen pills, examining x-rays of guards with broken bones, and acquiring tapes of the guards' past games from Hazen's elderly secretary Lynette (Cloris Leachman
Cloris Leachman
Cloris Leachman is an American actress of stage, film and television. She has won eight Primetime Emmy Awards—more than any other performer—and one Daytime Emmy Award...
), in exchange for Crewe playing sexual games with her. To sabotage the inmates' morale, the guards Garner, Engleheart, Holland, and Lambert have Unger plant a bomb in Crewe's cell, which kills Caretaker instead.
During game day, the inmates, now calling themselves "Mean Machine", with gear provided by the late Caretaker, overcome a rough start, and Crewe has to help the team realize that winning the game is more important than personal grudges. One of the referees is also corrupt, and Crewe has to coerce him to make fair calls by giving up two downs to throw the ball in his groin. The first half ends with the score tied. The angered Hazen, informs Crewe that if he does not lose then he would be framed for the murder of Caretaker. Crewe acquiesces to Hazen's threat. After the guards score touchdowns while inflicting punishment on the inmates, while Crewe fakes an injury to leave the field. Crewe returns to the field, but the other inmates, believing he has returned to his old point-shaving ways, ignore him, and allow him to get tackled twice.
After losing his helmet and still getting the first down, Crewe admits his sabotage to the other inmates, and asks for their forgiveness. United again as a team, the Mean Machine scores two touchdowns to cut the guards' lead to 35-28, but Megget injures his knee. Scarborough comes in for one play as replacement and scores a touchdown off a trick play involving a fumble called a Fumblerooski
Fumblerooski
In American football, the fumblerooski is a trick play, most famously used by the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers against the University of Miami Hurricanes in the 1984 Orange Bowl. It was invented by John Heisman....
. They decide to go for the two point conversion, and the win. As they get up to the line they seem to be confused, and Crewe and Coach start arguing in order to trick the guards. Moss gets the snap and passes it to Crewe, who scores the winning conversion. Knauer, with a newfound respect for Crewe, lets him know that he will testify that Crewe had nothing to do with Caretaker's death.
Hazen admonishes Knauer for losing a fixed game and notices that Crewe is heading towards the exit along with the fans. Retrieving a sniper-rifle, he demands that Crewe be shot for attempting to escape. Knauer hesitates because of the numerous people near Crewe. Knauer sights up Crewe, but hesitates again, calling out Crewe's name to get him to stop. As Crewe picks up the game football and returns back, Knauer angrily hands the rifle back to Hazen and leaves, while Crewe gives the game ball to Hazen, telling them to place it in his trophy case.
Moss and Battle pour a cooler of Gatorade
Gatorade
Gatorade is a brand of sports-themed food and beverage products, built around its signature product: a line of sports drinks. Gatorade is currently manufactured by PepsiCo, distributed in over 80 countries...
on Hazen in a mockery of a typical football game celebration
Gatorade shower
The Gatorade shower, also known as the Gatorade dunk and the Gatorade bath, is a sports tradition that involves dumping a cooler full of liquid over a coach's head following a meaningful win, like the Super Bowl. The tradition began with the New York Giants football team in the mid-1980s...
. Hazen angrily shouts that they will receive a week in the hotbox. Battle yells back, "Who gives a shit!"
Cast
Convicts
|
Prison Staff
|
Others
|
Filming locations
The Allenville Penitentiary in Texas was filmed entirely at the New Mexico State PenitentiaryPenitentiary of New Mexico
The Penitentiary of New Mexico is a men's prison located in unincorporated Santa Fe County, south of central Santa Fe, on New Mexico State Road 14. It is operated by the New Mexico Corrections Department....
on Route 14, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...
. The football game at the end of the movie was filmed at Murdock Stadium at the El Camino College in Torrance, California
Torrance, California
Torrance is a city incorporated in 1921 and located in the South Bay region of Los Angeles County, California, United States. Torrance has of shore-front beaches on the Pacific Ocean, quieter and less well-known by tourists than others on the Santa Monica Bay, such as those of neighboring...
. The car chase scene was filmed whereabouts in Tall Beach, California. Other parts of the film were filmed in Los Angeles and New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
.
Box office
The film did well at the box office. Its $47.6 million dollar opening weekend was the largest of Sandler's career and only second to The Day After TomorrowThe Day After Tomorrow
The Day After Tomorrow is a 2004 American science-fiction disaster film that depicts the catastrophic effects of global warming in a series of extreme weather events that usher in global cooling which leads to a new ice age. The film did well at the box office, grossing $542,771,772 internationally...
as the largest opening by a movie that was not #1. The film would go on to gross $158.1 million in the United States and Canada and $190 million worldwide, making it the highest grossing film produced by MTV Films
MTV Films
MTV Films is the motion picture production arm of cable channel MTV. Founded in 1996, it has produced films based on MTV programs such as Beavis and Butt-head Do America and Jackass: The Movie, as well as other adaptations and original projects. Its films are released by fellow Viacom division...
. Despite the large number of remakes released at the theaters, it's worth noting that The Longest Yard is the highest grossing comedy remake of the modern box office era (from 1980 on).
Critical response
The overall critical response was mixed. It received a 31% Freshness rating on Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, though users, who rated it 67%, generally agreed that it was a play-by-play remake; the greatest complaint from critics was that it replaced the original's dark comedy and grit
Grit (personality trait)
Grit in psychology is a positive, non-cognitive trait, based on an individual’s passion for a particular long-term goal or endstate coupled with a powerful motivation to achieve their respective objective...
with juvenile humor and visual gags. Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
, in the critical minority with this title, gave it a "Thumbs Up", defending it later in his Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
review as a film that "...more or less achieves what most of the people attending it will expect." In the print review, Ebert beseeches his readers to "...seek out a movie you could have an interesting conversation about", citing films not in wide release such as Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist
Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist
Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist is a 2005 supernatural horror film directed by Paul Schrader. It is a prequel to The Exorcist .-Plot:...
and Kontroll
Kontroll
Kontroll is a Hungarian comedy-thriller released to theatres in 2003. Shown internationally, mainly in art house theatres, the film is a darkly comic thriller set in a Hungarian Metro system....
, until finally encouraging his readers to "drop any thought of seeing anything else instead" if they can see Crash
Crash (2004 film)
Crash is a 2004 American drama film co-written, produced, and directed by Paul Haggis. The film is about racial and social tensions in Los Angeles, California. A self-described "passion piece" for Haggis, Crash was inspired by a real life incident in which his Porsche was carjacked outside a video...
.
Awards
The film also earned Chris Rock a BETBet
Bet or BET may refer to:* A wager in gambling* Basic Economics Test * Bet , the second letter in many Semitic alphabets, including Aramaic, Hebrew, Phoenician and Syriac* Brunauer-Emmett-Teller isotherm. See BET_theory...
Comedy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Theatrical Film.
Soundtrack
The official soundtrack, which consisted entirely of hip-hop music, was released on May 24, 2005 by Universal RecordsUniversal Records
Universal Records was a record label owned by Universal Music Group, and it is now owned by Manny Patino and Michael Jackson, and operated as part of the Universal Motown Republic Group.-History:...
. It peaked at 11 on the Billboard 200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
and 10 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums
Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums
Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a chart published by Billboard magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The name of the chart was changed from Top R&B Albums in 1999...
.
The film itself contains a mixture of hip hop and rock music, featuring music by Creedence Clearwater Revival
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Creedence Clearwater Revival was an American rock band that gained popularity in the late 1960s and early 1970s with a number of successful singles drawn from various albums....
, Norman Greenbaum
Norman Greenbaum
Norman Greenbaum is an American singer-songwriter. He was raised in a traditional Jewish household and went to Hebrew school. His initial interest in music was sparked by Southern blues music and the folk music that was hugely popular in the late 1950s and early 1960s...
and AC/DC
AC/DC
AC/DC are an Australian rock band, formed in 1973 by brothers Malcolm and Angus Young. Commonly classified as hard rock, they are considered pioneers of heavy metal, though they themselves have always classified their music as simply "rock and roll"...
among others.