The Replacements Review
by "Berge Garabedian" (joblo AT sympatico DOT ca)August 2nd, 2000
THE REPLACEMENTS
RATING: 6.5/10 --> So-so
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Whoa! Neo is back and he's left the Matrix and his trademark expression behind, with the intent of suiting up as the replacement football quarterback in this fictionalized tale of a true-life event. What that basically means is that replacement players really did take over the NFL during the 1987 football players strike, but the situations and characters presented in this movie, never really happened.
PLOT:
A football player's strike forces team owners to recruit everyday men with football experience to make up their professional teams. The Washington Sentinels bring in a legendary coach to enroll their players, most of whom turn out to be major underdogs with unique styles. So can this team of misfits lead their organization into the playoffs?
CRITIQUE:
The most difficult reviews to write are for those films which aren't great, aren't bad, but fall somewhere in between. This movie is the perfect example of such a film. It's an okay movie which starts off slow, offers a few chuckles here and there, many colorful characters, Keanu in decent form and sexy cheerleaders all stacked in a mediocre plot filled with cliché upon cliché. In fact, there isn't one original thing about this movie. When I stopped counting the cliches, I had personally come up with "the underdog cliché", the "old coach given a second chance cliché", "the final play decides all cliché", "the motley crew of characters rising above all challenges cliché"... And unlike Oliver Stone's ANY GIVEN SUNDAY, this movie doesn't make you feel like you're really part of the game either. It doesn't really give you any real insight as to the behind-the-scenes shenanigans of the football league or offer any rich acting performances. In fact, it basically makes every single real professional football player seem like a stuck-up, egotistical, heartless asshole (granted, I'm sure some of them really are like that, but every single one of them?!).
Having said that, the film doesn't really pretend to be anything more than what it is either. It's fluff, pure and simple. The movie is packed, and I mean packed with various rockin' tunes prime to make you want to boogie. At least 20-30 songs must be featured in this movie including such favorites as Gary Glitter's "Rock and Roll", "Takin' Care of Business", "Good Vibrations", "I Will Survive", "Unbelievable", as well as another CD worth of others.
I also enjoyed all of its characters, believe it or not...despite much of their one-dimensionality. Jon Favreau was particularly good as the extremely aggressive player, but most of the others also kept me entertained, including Orlando Jones as the butter-fingered receiver, Rhys Ifans as the Welsh star kicker who doesn't mind a smoke even while he's playing and the rest of the tubby bunch also. Their camaraderie is what probably kept me in this game, despite the tepid attempt at romance between Keanu and the very pretty Brooke Langton (who incidentally, subscribed to the ol' "I don't date football players cliché" early on in the film...) and the very plain directing style. Gene Hackman was also solid, but mostly in a "punching in his acting card"-type of way. But in the end, how could anyone really dislike any movie that replaces the regular cheerleaders with...well, lap-dancing strippers! Yippee! Of course, you can't miss the cheerleaders because the director makes sure to pan over to them at every other stoppage in play. But hey, for fluff, I suppose this film works. For a comedy, it's so-so. For substance, reality, drama, romance or any kind of originality, it doesn't. Your turn to choose!
Little Known Facts about this film and its stars:
Keanu Reeves, who gained 23 pounds for this role, was apparently able to throw the football about 15 yards when he first came into this film's training camp. By the midway point of production, he was firing bullets some 50 or 60 yards downfield.
Brooke Langton, who plays the head cheerleader in this movie, also played Nikki, the object of Jon Favreau's affection in an awesome little movie titled SWINGERS. She also played Samantha on TV's popular "Melrose Place" series from 1996 to 1998.
Director Howard Deutch is probably best known for directing some underrated comedies from the 80s including PRETTY IN PINK, THE GREAT OUTDOORS and SOME KIND OF WONDERFUL. He's also been married to TV actress Lea Thompson ("Caroline in the City") since 1989.
The city and stadium used for the fictional team in this movie was Baltimore and its PSINet Stadium, home of the real-life Baltimore Ravens. Ironically, the film was shot there during the actual football season. They would basically shoot in Camden Yards when the Ravens were out-of-town, and elsewhere when the team returned to their home base.
Real-life football commentators John Madden and Pat Summerall play themselves in this film, calling every game.
Review Date: July 30, 2000
Director: Howard Deutch
Writer: Vince McKewin
Producer: Dylan Sellers
Actors: Keanu Reeves as Shane Falco
Gene Hackman as Jimmy McGinty
Brooke Langton as Annabelle Farrell
Genre: Comedy
Year of Release: 2000
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(c) 2000 Berge Garabedian
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
