The Longest Yard

Director: Peter Segal, Jack Giarraputo Peter Segal

Overview

One of the toughest and best-remembered sports movies of the 1970s gets a humorous makeover in this comedy. Paul "Wrecking" Crewe (Adam Sandler) was once a famous professional football player, but after several years out of the limelight and an alcohol problem have taken their toll, Crewe is arrested for a serious traffic accident aggravated by the fact he was drunk. Crewe is sentenced to Allenville Penitentiary, where Warden Hazen (James Cromwell) is something of a football fan. Hazen had organized his guards into an impressive football team, and clears a healthy profit by taking bets on their games. Looking to make the competition more interesting, Hazen suggests that Crewe put together a team from the inmate population to play his guards. With the help of fellow prisoner Caretaker (Chris Rock), Crewe recruits the heaviest hitters from the cell block for the team, but the guys don't play like a unit until Crewe and Caretaker get some help from Nate Scarborough (Burt Reynolds), a former college and NFL coach doing hard time. Adapted from Robert Aldrich's 1974 box-office smash of the same name, The Longest Yard also features rap star Nelly and Nicholas Turturro; the film has previously been loosely remade in 2001 as Mean Machine, with the action moved to England and the game changed to soccer.

Product Details

Release Date:	01/24/2017
UPC:	0032429257475
Original Release:	2005
Source:	PARAMOUNT
Language:	English
Sales rank:	24,623

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Adam Sandler	Paul `Wrecking' Crewe
Chris Rock	Caretaker
Burt Reynolds	Coach Nate Scarborough
James Cromwell	Warden Hazen
Walter Williamson	Errol Dandridge
Michael Irvin	Deacon Moss
Nelly	Earl Megget
Edward Bunker	Skitchy Rivers
Lobo Sebastian	Torres
William Fichtner	Capt. Knauer
Dalip Singh	Turley
Nicholas Turturro	Brucie
Terry Crews	Cheeseburger Eddy
Bob Sapp	Switowski
Bill Goldberg	Battle
Steve Reevis	Baby Face Bob
David Patrick Kelly	Unger
Tracy Morgan	Ms. Tucker
Bill Romanowski	Guard Lambert
Kevin Nash	Guard Englehart
Steve Austin	Guard Dunham
Brian Bosworth	Guard Garner
Michael Papajohn	Guard Papajohn
Conrad Goode	Guard Webster
Brandon Molale	Guard Malloy
Todd Holland	Guard Holland
Cloris Leachman	Lynette
Allen Covert	Referee
Rob Schneider	Punky
Chris Berman	Himself
Patrick Bristow	Walt
Ed Lauter	Duane
Dan Patrick	Off. Jack Pugh
Sean Salisbury	Vic
Courteney Cox Arquette	Lena
Joey Diaz	Big Tony
John Hockridge	Actor
Tara Wilson	Actor
Jaayda McClanahan	Actor
Denise Marie Jerome	Actor
Sean McNamara	Actor
Peter Segal	Actor
Jim Rome	Announcer
Teddy Castellucci	Composer

Technical Credits

Albert S. Ruddy

Sheldon Turner

Tracy Keenan Wynn

Peter Segal	Director
Jack Giarraputo	Producer,Director
Barry Bernardi	Executive Producer,Producer
Allen Covert	Executive Producer,Producer
Michael Ewing	Executive Producer,Producer
David Gale	Executive Producer,Producer
Tim Herlihy	Executive Producer,Producer
Albert S. Ruddy	Executive Producer,Executive Producer,Screenwriter,Producer,Screenwriter
Adam Sandler	Executive Producer
Van Toffler	Executive Producer,Producer
Sheldon Turner	Screenwriter
John Papsidera	Casting
Tracy Keenan Wynn	Screenwriter,Screenwriter
Thomas D. Causey	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

One of the year’s most pleasant surprises, Adam Sandler’s remake of the hugely successful 1974 prison drama not only does justice to the original but, arguably, improves upon it as well. Disgraced former gridiron star Paul Crewe (Sandler, in the Burt Reynolds role), sent to prison on a reckless-endangerment conviction, is ordered by hard-bitten Warden Hazen (James Cromwell) to organize a football squad made up of convicts, and then engage the guards’ team, headed by sadistic Captain Knauer (William Fichtner), in a televised exhibition game. Expected to lose badly -- while giving the guards some much-needed practice -- Crewe gets unexpected help from another imprisoned football player, old-timer Nate Scarborough (Reynolds), and a well-connected inmate, Caretaker (Chris Rock). Like the original, this Yard juxtaposes the brutish quality of competitive football with the equally brutish reality of prison life. The hardened inmates initially reject Crewe’s recruitment effort -- until they realize that a game would give them the opportunity to inflict physical punishment on the guards who mistreat them. What’s genuinely surprising is how credibly Sandler handles the physicality of a very demanding role. He does most if not all of his character’s onscreen gridiron stunts, handling and throwing the football with a lot more skill than anybody has any right to expect from a Saturday Night Live alumnus. And he lets his fellow cast members, especially Rock, get most of the laughs -- of which there are many. This is yet another indication that Sandler is trying to distance himself from the imbecilic screen comedy that made him a top box-office draw. Nobody will ever confuse him for a classically trained Shakespearean actor, but he’s definitely maturing. As for the Big Game, even if the outcome is never in doubt, you’ll find yourself swept up in the same rush of enthusiasm felt by the characters themselves.