The Replacements (2000)

The Replacements (2000): Dir: Howard Deutch / Cast: Keanu Reeves, Gene Hackman, Orlando Jones, Brooke Langton, Jon Favreau: Same old junk with a different paint job. It suggests ignorance on behalf of those whom the team will eventually prove wrong. Gene Hackman plays a football coach who decides to assemble a team of players who have dropped out of sight. There is a football strike and he views this as an opportunity for others to shed their light. Among these are a maniac cop, a convict, a gambler who can kick, two big black bar bouncers, a sumo wrestler, etc. Keanu Reeves is sought after as a quarterback. He served a nasty defeat but Hackman still sees potential. Recycled and dreary with director Howard Deutch doing his best but after making The Odd Couple 2 he needs all the help he can muster. He also directed Pretty in Pink and Some Kind of Wonderful (which doesn't describe this film). Hackman is wasted as the coach who will whip these players into shape. Orlando Jones is far too talented to be stuck in a film that requires no thought. Brooke Langton's role is obvious in that she is basically a romantic prop. While Varsity Blues made this same sort of film entertaining and funny, here is a film so deserving to be toss onto a football field so that it might be stumped on by every single player. The screenplay is in bad need of replacing. Score: 2 / 10

The Replacements has been criticized for not being entirely accurate when it comes to football. That's not the point of this film though. It wasn't made to be an Oscar contender. It was made for sports fans who want to see a fun story and laugh while watching it. The Replacements delivers on both these aspects. The story's backdrop is a strike among the professional football players with four games left in the season. Jimmy McGinty (Gene Hackman) is brought in to coach the Washington Sentinels and bring in a group of replacement players to finish out the season. The unconventional McGinty picks players that others might not have deemed NFL worthy. The list includes: wide receiver Clifford Franklin (Orlando Jones), linebacker Daniel Bateman (Jon Favreau), kicker Nigel Gruff (Rhys Ifans), and quarterback Shane Falco (Keanu Reeves). Most of the players McGinty picks haven't played football in awhile, but he believes that they have something the spoiled professionals don't, which is heart. The film goes on to tell the story of these replacement players and their fight to get into the playoffs. The players have to come to terms with their fears and learn to trust each other in order to do this. And they have their cheerleading squad, led by Falco's love interest Annabelle Farrell (Brooke Langton), to help them do this. Shane Falco leads the squad in a way that isn't classy or inspirational, because that just wouldn't be their style. And that is the style of the film. It doesn't go out with the aim to be a story that will move you to tears, except maybe through laughter. The film is one to watch when looking for a light hearted story that offers some laughs.

Pretty interesting story about second handed rugby team. BUT, most interesting fact is that team wasn't professional rugby players, but people who were in jail, just a normal people who work their job, like in good old days of amateur sport. Since first team got in strike, they had to somehow continue their championship. Like always, every beginning is hard, they had to meet each others better. They were always fighting and arguing about nothing, but when they met each others better, realize that they got lots of stuff in common, they started playing better and better. But they weren't normal rugby players, they were amateurs, people who work their job and play sport for fun, that is strange in sport of 21th century, isn't it ? Nowadays sport is all about money, there's no more joy or anything more, money, money, money. Well those people didn't care for money, they played for fun and they actually reached something. They reached play-off for their team. At the end they weren't been stalking by commericalist for signing contact for some sneakers or anything else, they just celebrated it and went to their home. They all reached some experience that they will remember for whole their life, that movie should be an example of how sport should be nowadays...The scene i liked the most is this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxe-5lJ6R6o&feature=endscreen. Whole team finished in jail and they decided to sing song called "I will survive". Probably the best scene in this movie...

Jimmy (Gene Hackman) has been offered a less than stellar job. Its the late eighties and the professional football league's players are on strike. It will be Jimmy's job, if he accepts it, to coach a crew of "scab players" for a team called the Washingon Sentinels. Unconventional anyway, Jimmy signs on, but, only on the promise that he will be given total control from the owner (Jack Warden). It is so. From there, Jimmy starts to assemble a team, which includes a once promising quarterback, Shane (Keanu Reeves), a Welsh kicker (Rhys Ifans), a slow-witted-but-mighty tackle (Jon Favreau) and so on. Jim evens gets a lineman who resembles a sumo wrestler. Naturally, the players are pelted with eggs when there bus arrives at the stadium and doom is predicted. Even the regular cheerleaders honor the strike, so the new leader (Brooke Langton), has to recruit her own squad, picking ladies from the local strip parlor, since no one else can dance. So, it begins. Before long, the Sentinels are doing well, surprising even John Madden and Pat Somerall, who cover the games. Also, Shane has eyes for the head cheerleader but she is a tough sell. However, the lady may protest too much. Then, too, rumors abounds about the return of the official players. How will this rough-and-tumble season go? This adorable film is a champion in the realm of sports films and BEYOND. It is very, very funny, from the cheerleader who can't spell to the footballer (Favreau) who can run folks over but has to have strategies explained numerous times. If you are looking for a demeanor elevator, this one is first rate. Its also very honest in its look at the world of football, romance, and human nature in general. Kudos to all responsible. As for the cast, this is definitely one of Reeves' best movies. He is strikingly handsome, humorous and turns up the heat in the kissing scenes. Whew. Hackman, Warden, Orlando Jones, Langton, Favreau, Ifans and ALL of the others do superior work as well. In fact, they are all too comical for words. Also fine are the costumes, sets (Reeves lives on a houseboat), script and go-for-broke direction. Turn off the daily rerun offerings and replace them with a showing of this great flick. The Replacements is a minor classic.