The Longest Yard

When he's sentenced to prison after a drink-driving incident, former gridiron star Paul 'Wrecking' Crewe (Sandler) gets a special request from Warden Hazen (Cromwell): lick a team of convicts into shape to take on the sadistic prison guards in a game of American football. A remake of the 1974 movie of the same name, with Sandler inheriting Burt Reynolds' role, this is a pointless exercise in infantile wish fulfilment, wherein wise-cracking types (Sandler, Chris Rock) get to experience the vicarious joys of beating up on unnecessarily harsh authority figures. In other words, this is a movie for every 9-year-old who fantasises about taking revenge on all those ogres who insist he does his homework - and not once, but every night. Sandler - who seems to have something of a schizophrenic relationship with Hollywood, one minute trying his hand at mature films (Punch-Drunk Love, Spanglish), the next reverting to adolescent Neanderthal - is in laconic form here, offering the kind of snide quips on which he built a largely underwhelming comedy career, although the fact that the screenwriter, Albert Ruddy, is the man responsible for Bad Girls and Cannonball Run II means that this represents something of a giant step backwards. The action sequences are well handled, and director Peter Segal (Anger Management, 50 First Dates) obviously understands what makes Sandler tick, but unless you're a fan of American football, WWF wrestling (three grapplers fill out the supporting roles) or A-Team quality pseudo-sadism, it's unlikely you'll enjoy this.