Overall Rating
  Awesome: 23.68%
Worth A Look: 25%
Average: 17.11%
Pretty Bad: 21.05%
Total Crap: 13.16%
5 reviews, 46 user ratings
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| Replacements, The |
by Brian McKay
"Well, it don't have much else, but hey, it's got HEART"
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"What is it going to take to lead this team to victory?" the reporter asks Coach McGinty (Gene Hackman) during half-time.
"HEART," the coach replies "Miles and Miles of Heart."
"The Replacements" may have some heart, but unfortunately not the miles and miles it would take to save it."The Replacements" is an underdog's story of a bunch of has- beens or never-were's who get a chance to play for a pro football team when the NFL players go on strike. Led by coach Jimmy McGinty (Hackman) and once-promising quarterback Shane Falco (Keanu Reeves, also known as "Johnny Monotonic"), the team of misfits has but one goal - get the team into the playoffs by winning 3 out of the next four games.
Filling out the team are a wide reciever with butterfingers (Orlando Jones), a psychotic cop with anger management problems (A surprisingly ripped Jon Favreau), a soccer player with a huge kick and even bigger gambling debts (Rhys Ifans), a Sumo Wrestler, a deaf kid, a pair of HUGE brothers who are tired of bodyguarding for rap stars, and any other oddball characters the writers could think to throw in, in keeping with the "Major League" tradition.
The football action, while fun, is predictable, with the team losing horrendously the first game, then miraculously rising to the occasion in their last few games. There are also rivalries and bar fights with the Pros on strike, who regularly call our heroes "scabs" and tip over Falco's truck on a daily basis. And of course, there is the sexy head cheerleader played by Brooke Langton, who, while she looks good in a skimpy costume and a pair of pom-poms, doesn't bring much to this picture at all, except for a minor love-interest subplot with Falco.
Besides the weak script and average directing, the biggest problem with this film is that we've seen it all before in sooo many sports/comedy movies. Maybe the genre isn't completely dead, but films like this won't breathe much life into it. Keanu Reeves seems a likeable enough guy, but he's not much of an actor, and without a movie like "The Matrix" to back him up, he is pretty much a part of the scenery. Orlando Jones, while having some quite funny moments (the scene where he leads the rest of the team in an impromptu song-and-dance routine of "I will survive" is a keeper), is hampered by weak jokes and is not given the opportunity to strut his stuff like he does in his newest film, "Evolution". There are some genuinely funny moments in this film, but not nearly enough of them, and while the characters are likeable enough, they are just two-dimensional enough to not inspire any real caring.I will keep this movie out of the "crappy" to "suck-ass" range because at least the ending doesn't cop out. There is no big happy ending where everyone gets a pro football gig or a big Nike ad campaign. As the camera shows the players saying their goodbyes, it is clear that they have only their lives and day jobs to go back to, with only the memory of their glorious moment to accompany them (Except for Keanu, who gets to boink a hot cheerleader).
link directly to this review at http://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=1962&reviewer=258
originally posted: 06/13/01 18:52:27
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USA
11-Aug-2000 (PG-13)
UK
N/A
Australia
09-Nov-2000 (M)
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