| THE REPLACEMENTS |
2000 - USA
Director: Howard Deutch - Reviewed by Kerri 
This was the kind of movie that should have been made 30 years ago. Perhaps then the plot would seem fresh and new. Instead, The Replacements was more formulaic than an algebra textbook. I did like this film, though it's easily forgotten 5 minutes later. There was absolutely nothing that hasn't been done before. That is a common complaint with a lot of movies; this one didn't even try to mask that fact. It did leave me with the feeling that if Keanu Reeves showed up at my door, well I wouldn't say no.... The NFL football players have gone on strike; the fictitious Washington D.C. team is 4 games away from getting into the playoffs and the owner (Jack Warden) doesn't want to give up now. He calls in a former coach McGinty (Gene Hackman; we guess he has some sort of prior professional relationship with the owner, but we're not sure really what), to put together a team of replacements and get the Sentinels to the playoffs. So the coach calls in a jumble of talent—a prisoner, a mini-mart clerk, two gangsters, a sumo wrestler, a deaf guy, and then of course, Shane Falco (Keanu Reeves), star college football player who single-handedly lost the Sugar Bowl a few years back. Remarkably, everyone in the entire city seems to remember this guy and that game. The rest of the film involves this rag-tag team learning to play together, to play football, and to play to win...(gag). A side story develops with the head cheerleader Annabelle (Brooke Langton) putting together a similar misfit squad of cheerleaders, who we guess also went on strike. She draws them from a topless dance club, which makes for some very interesting sideline moves. They are out practicing with the football team when a ball goes astray, right into Annabelle's hands, thrown by Falco himself... do I really need to tell you the rest? There were some funny moments, including a football huddle that had me in tears and a Gloria-Gaynor-Electric-Slide prison scene that was hilarious. The characters of the coach, the quarterback, and the head cheerleader were pretty cardboard, but the rest of the bunch were entertaining to watch. There was no sex, very little violence, and very little foul language, so it's okay for a kid. It wasn't a terrible movie, it wasn't a good movie, it was just a bland movie that would be good to watch on a rainy Sunday afternoon. |
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