The
Replacements
(2000)
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 1 Hour and 58 Minutes
Reviewer: Dale
Grade: ALet me get one thing straight first and foremost: I could give less of a rat's ass about sports.
Any sport at all. I'm a man, and I know that I am supposed to, but I just can't motivate myself to care at all.
With that in mind, let me tell you that I loved "The Replacements". I absolutely loved it.
Completely. It made me very happy. It affixed a smile to my face and gave it no reason to leave for the next two hours. There is not a dull moment in this film. Not a moment that did not make me either smile or laugh very hard or even cheer. This movie is not groundbreaking.
It does nothing extremely new. Nor does it have the best acting I have ever seen (although every actor does a fine job, striking all the right notes and giving their characters the important illusion of reality). But it is solid entertainment. And it is consistent in its desire and ability to make one happy.
"The Replacements" is the story of a football team. The team goes on strike, taking its coach and even its cheerleaders with it. It is left to wonderful, old coot Jack Warden to figure out a way to finish the season. So he hires a coach that he has already fired once before (Gene Hackman) and gives him free rein to create the sort of team that he wants, provided that they end the season in style.
What Hackman recruits is a group of misfits more entertaining than any I have seen in any other movie. There is a sumo wrestler, a couple of bodyguards, a very intense SWAT team member, a "colorful" Welsh soccer player (Rhys Ifans, last seen playing Hugh Grant's crazy roommate Spike in "Notting Hill") and a convict.
The quarterback and leader of this motley group is Keanu Reeves. Reeves is quite good in this movie as a guy who is quietly noble, but does not make a big deal of it. I also liked the way that his character was not a guy who has spent his entire life kicking himself for not making it in the pros. He didn't make it, and he got on with his life. Now he gets a chance to do it again and he does it, just for the hell of it. He doesn't even quit his day job. I liked that.
He also falls in love with a beautiful cheerleader. Their romance is sweet and surprisingly tender. It has a point, a purpose and a payoff rather than most movie romances which just seem thrown in to attract the female audience to a picture. Nicely done.
This movie surprised me in how well done it was, and how consistently enjoyable it was.
There were a couple parts that were predictable, but it's the sort of predictability that you relish. The things that happen here are predictable, but welcome in that they are what you want to happen in the movie. You predict and want these developments. And the football scenes are great. The misfits do, in fact, pull the team together and make a go of it. There wouldn't be a movie if they didn't. But the ways in which they do it are rather original and a lot of fun. I especially enjoyed the cheerleaders. You see, the head cheerleader (who loves Keanu) has to resort to hiring exotic dancers for her squad and at one point they use their skills to totally distract the other team and help their home team to victory.
This movie is just a lot of fun. A lot of people have blasted it for taking an irresponsible attitude toward unions. Give me a break! This isn't "Norma Rae". It's a sweet, often hilarious movie about misfit football players. It's a film that follows in the footsteps of movies like "Slap Shot", "Major League" and "Necessary Roughness" and earns it's place among those other films. It is a film of wit and heart and boundless enthusiasm and it actually made me care about sports for a change.
Give it a chance. You may be pleasantly surprised.
P.S. Between this and "Notting Hill", Rhys Ifans is distinguishing himself as one of those character actors whose work is worth seeing if only for him. This man is just an animal, and he even manages to end up in his briefs in at least one hilarious scene of each movie. Keep an eye on this man. I predict good things from him.