The Longest Yard | |
---|---|
Directed by | Peter Segal |
Screenplay by | Sheldon Turner |
Based on | The Longest Yard by Tracy Keenan Wynn Albert S. Ruddy |
Produced by | Jack Giarraputo |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Dean Semler |
Edited by | Jeff Gourson |
Music by | Teddy Castellucci |
Production companies | |
Distributed by |
|
Release date |
|
Running time | 113 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $90 million [1] |
Box office | $191.5 million [1] |
The Longest Yard is a 2005 American sports comedy film directed by Peter Segal and written by Sheldon Turner. A remake of 1974's The Longest Yard , it stars Adam Sandler as a washed-up former professional American football quarterback who goes to prison and is forced to assemble a team to play against the guards. The film co-stars Chris Rock, James Cromwell, Nelly, William Fichtner and Burt Reynolds, who played Sandler's role in the original.
It was released by Paramount Pictures in the United States and Sony Pictures Releasing–under the Columbia Pictures label–in other territories on May 27, 2005.
Paul Crewe is a former National Football League quarterback who was accused of shaving points. Though it was never confirmed, he was placed on federal probation for five years. One night, dissatisfied with his life, he gets drunk during a party and goes joyriding through San Diego in his girlfriend Lena's Bentley, causing a high-speed police chase and car crash. His probation is revoked and he is sentenced to three years in prison.
Instead of being imprisoned in California, he gets transferred to Texas, thanks to the influence and contacts of Warden Rudolph Hazen, an avid football fan. Wishing to boost his prison's reputation for future elections as State Governor, he uses threats and confinement in a hot box to coerce Crewe into helping the prison guards' football team, led by the sadistic Captain Knauer. Crewe informs Hazen that what Hazen's team needs is a tune-up game to boost the guards' confidence, and is therefore coerced to form an inmate team to play against the guards. He does so with the help of a newfound friend, Caretaker. They start off with a poorly organized team, before being noticed by another prisoner, former college football star Nate Scarborough, who decides to help coach the team by gathering several intimidating inmates as a boost to the team's strength. Initially, the team is weak, particularly because the black inmates led by the athletic Deacon Moss refuse to play. After witnessing Crewe's temerity during a one-on-one basketball game against Moss, one of the black inmates Earl Megget decides to join the team as their running back. Later, after witnessing how Megget is intimidated by racial attacks by the guards, Deacon and his gang join the team, thus improving the team's overall quality.
Hazen and the guards hinder Crewe's team in several ways, such as flooding the field, but they overcome the obstacles. Meanwhile, inmate Unger spies on the activities of the inmates and after being pressured by the guards, rigs Crewe's radio with an explosive. Caretaker unknowingly enters the cell to give a photo gift to Crewe but is killed when he tries to turn the dial on the radio. On game day, the inmates are revitalized in the wake of Caretaker's murder when they find he used his connections to his cousin at Reebok to supply the inmates with quality uniforms and gear with the team name "Mean Machine". Crewe deals with some difficulty getting the inmates to focus on winning the game rather than assaulting the guards during opening play, stating that a loss to them would be a far bigger mark of shame to the guards than any physical brutality they could inflict. Though the guards take an early lead, even having the referees call bogus penalties on them (which Crewe resolves by throwing the ball twice into the referees' genitals to send them a message to rule fairly), by the end of the first half, the Mean Machines tie the game.
During halftime, Hazen threatens to implicate Crewe in Caretaker's murder and increase his prison sentence to 25 years unless Crewe purposely throws the game. During the opening of the second half, Crewe deliberately throws the game and abandons his teammates despite their efforts to catch up in scoring. After earning a three-touchdown lead on the Mean Machines, the Guards brutally injure the inmates, spurring Crewe to re-enter the field. The inmates initially refuse to help him, allowing him to be sacked twice, but on 4th down and long, Crewe completes a 1st down on his own. Crewe confesses that he threw the game that got him cut from the NFL to cover debts he owed to "worse people". Informing the team of Hazen's threats, he declares that he would stay with the inmates rather than betray Caretaker's memory. The Mean Machines rally behind Crewe and with a decisive two-point conversion, they win the game by a one-point margin.
Hazen admonishes Knauer for losing a fixed game and notices that Crewe is heading towards the exit. Eagerly implying Crewe is trying to escape, Hazen orders that Crewe be shot. Knauer hesitates and at the last moment realizes that Crewe is only picking up the game football. Crewe returns it to Hazen, telling him to "stick it in [his] trophy case". Deacon and Battle then dump Gatorade on Hazen, while Crewe and Scarbrough go to get information on where Unger is so that psychotic inmate Switowski can deal with him.
The movie was filmed primarily at the New Mexico State Penitentiary on Route 14, Santa Fe, New Mexico. [2] 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 in Long Beach, California. Other parts of the movie were filmed in Los Angeles and New Mexico.[ citation needed ] The golf course scene was filmed at Lost Canyons Golf Club in Simi Valley, California. [3]
The official soundtrack, which consisted entirely of hip-hop music, was released on May 24, 2005, by Derrty Ent. Records and Universal Records. It peaked at No. 11 on the Billboard 200 and No. 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.
It was released on May 27, 2005, in the United States and September 9, 2005, in the United Kingdom. It was released the same day as DreamWorks Animation's family-friendly film Madagascar , also starring Chris Rock.
The Longest Yard did well at the box office. Its $47.6 million opening weekend was the largest of Sandler's career and only second to The Day After Tomorrow as the largest opening by a movie that was not No. 1. The film would go on to gross $158.1 million in the United States and Canada and $190 million worldwide. It was the highest-grossing film produced by MTV Films until it was surpassed by Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters .
The Longest Yard has received mixed reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 31% based on 170 reviews, with an average rating of 4.8/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "This Yard has some laughs but missing from this remake is the edginess of the original." [4] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 48 out of 100, based on 35 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". [5] Audiences polled by CinemaScore, gave the film a grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale. [6]
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 . [7]
The film earned Chris Rock a BET Comedy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Theatrical Film.[ citation needed ]
Burt Reynolds earned a nomination at the 26th Golden Raspberry Awards for Worst Supporting Actor for his performance in both this film and The Dukes of Hazzard .
Super Bowl XXXIV was an American football game played at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia, on January 30, 2000, to determine the National Football League (NFL) champion for the 1999 season. The National Football Conference (NFC) champion St. Louis Rams defeated the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Tennessee Titans 23–16 to claim their first Super Bowl win and first NFL championship since 1951. It is the most recent NFL championship in which both teams were seeking their first Super Bowl title.
Adam Richard Sandler is an American actor and comedian. Primarily a comedic leading actor in films, his accolades include nominations for three Grammy Awards, five Primetime Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. In 2023, Sandler was awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.
The Waterboy is a 1998 American sports comedy film directed by Frank Coraci. It was written by Adam Sandler as well as Tim Herlihy and produced by Robert Simonds and Jack Giarraputo. Sandler also stars as the title character while Kathy Bates, Fairuza Balk, Henry Winkler, Jerry Reed, Lawrence Gilliard Jr., Blake Clark, Peter Dante, and Jonathan Loughran play other characters.
The Longest Yard is a 1974 American prison sports comedy-drama film directed by Robert Aldrich, written by Tracy Keenan Wynn, based on a story by producer Albert S. Ruddy, and starring Burt Reynolds, Eddie Albert, Ed Lauter, Michael Conrad and James Hampton. The film was released as The Mean Machine in the United Kingdom and South Africa. The film follows a former NFL player recruiting a group of prisoners and playing football against their guards. It features many real-life football players, including Ray Nitschke of the Green Bay Packers.
Mean Machine is a 2001 British sports comedy film directed by Barry Skolnick and starring former footballer Vinnie Jones. The film is an adaptation of the 1974 American film The Longest Yard, featuring association football rather than American football.
The Last Castle is a 2001 American action drama film directed by Rod Lurie, starring Robert Redford, James Gandolfini, Mark Ruffalo and Delroy Lindo. The film portrays a struggle between inmates and the warden of a military prison, based on the United States Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth.
Brute Force is a 1947 American crime film noir directed by Jules Dassin, from a screenplay by Richard Brooks with cinematography by William H. Daniels. It stars Burt Lancaster, Hume Cronyn, Charles Bickford and Yvonne De Carlo.
José Antonio Díaz, also known as Joey "CoCo" Diaz, is a Cuban-American stand-up comedian, actor, podcaster, and author. After pursuing stand-up comedy full time in 1991 in the Colorado and Seattle areas, Diaz relocated to Los Angeles in 1995, where he began acting, securing various film and television roles, including in My Name Is Earl, Everybody Hates Chris, The Longest Yard, Spider-Man 2, Grudge Match, and The Many Saints of Newark.
The 2006 Tampa Bay Buccaneers season was the franchise's 31st season in the National Football League (NFL), the 9th playing their home games at Raymond James Stadium, and the 5th under head coach Jon Gruden.
The Wake Forest Demon Deacons football team represents Wake Forest University in the sport of American football. The Demon Deacons compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Atlantic Division of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). Wake Forest plays its home football games at Allegacy Federal Credit Union Stadium and is coached by Dave Clawson.
Michael Papajohn is an American character actor, stuntman and former college baseball player for the LSU Tigers baseball team. He played Dennis Carradine in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy.
The Longest Yard may refer to:
The 2008 Oklahoma Sooners football team represented the University of Oklahoma in the 2008 NCAA Division I FBS football season, the 114th season of Sooner football. The team was led by two-time Walter Camp Coach of the Year Award winner, Bob Stoops, in his 10th season as head coach. They played their homes games at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman, Oklahoma. They were a charter member of the Big 12 Conference.
The 2008 Wake Forest Demon Deacons football team represented Wake Forest University during the 2008 NCAA Division I FBS football season. It was Wake Forest's 56th season as a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC).
Chris Todd is an American former college football quarterback for the Auburn Tigers in 2008 and 2009. He was Auburn's starting quarterback for part of the 2008 season and for the entire 2009 season. He set all-time Auburn school records for most touchdown passes in a season and for the longest pass in school history. He also tied the Auburn single-game record with five touchdown passes against Ball State in 2009.
Evan Boyd Pilgrim is an American former professional football player who was an offensive guard in the National Football League (NFL). He played professionally for the Chicago Bears, Tennessee Oilers, Denver Broncos, and Atlanta Falcons.
The 2015 Texas Longhorns football team, known variously as "Texas", "UT", the "Longhorns", or the "Horns", was a collegiate American football team that represented the University of Texas at Austin as a member of the Big 12 Conference in the 2015 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The team played its home games at Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin, Texas, where the team is based. The Longhorns were led by second-year head coach Charlie Strong. Shawn Watson and Joe Wickline ran the offense. Vance Bedford served as defensive coordinator. They finished the season 5–7, 4–5 in Big 12 play to finish in a three-way tie for fifth place.
Justin Patrick Herbert is an American professional football quarterback for the Los Angeles Chargers of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Oregon Ducks, where he won the 2019 Pac-12 Championship, and was selected by the Chargers as the sixth overall pick in the 2020 NFL draft.
Kendall Hinton is an American professional football wide receiver. He played college football for the Wake Forest Demon Deacons as a quarterback and wide receiver and signed with the Broncos as an undrafted free agent in 2020. That season, he made an appearance as an emergency quarterback following the rest of the team's quarterbacks being placed in COVID-19 quarantine for a week. In doing so, Hinton became the first non-professional quarterback to play significant snaps at the position in an NFL game since running back Tom Matte with the Baltimore Colts in 1965.
Featherstone Field, previously known as Murdock Stadium is a stadium on the campus of El Camino College in Torrance, California.