The Replacements (2000)

The Replacements manages to be both completely formulaic and yet immensely enjoyable. When a professional football players' strike happens, the owner of a fictitious team, the Washington Sentinels, commissions maverick coach Jimmy McGinty (Gene Hackman) to pull together a team. McGinty selects a collection of talented oddballs--a Welsh soccer player, a sumo wrestler, a couple of professional bodyguards--with athletic pasts, figuring that if it doesn't work out as a game, it might as well be a circus. To lead the team, he finds Shane Falco (Keanu Reeves), a once-promising player who had a disastrous championship game. Naturally, despite squabbling and bickering, a roguish camaraderie develops through a mixture of racial infighting, harassment from the striking professionals, and a big bar brawl--after which they're all thrown in jail and perform the most improbable impromptu dance number ever committed to film. The mixture of cheerfully cliché plot mechanics, an engaging collection of supporting actors (including Orlando Jones, Rhys Ifans from Notting Hill, and Jon Favreau from Swingers), and sheer ridiculousness somehow combines to make The Replacements completely entertaining. Reeves is somehow turning into a pleasant leading man; he even emotes convincingly in this movie. And let's face it, Gene Hackman is quite possibly the greatest actor alive, able to speak the trashiest dialogue with fierce conviction. Plus, just to prove that the tight pants and close huddles of football are heterosexual, there are many, many shots of cheerleaders going through stripper-inspired routines. --Bret Fetzer Amazon.com

very good movie

I really liked this film and I would recomend this to any fan of the actors or actresses in the film. January 2, 2009

not the real moviie

This is one of our favorite all time movies - except not the version that came from amazon this fall and was a gift to my son. He tells me that major portions of the music are different from the original; and the changed music does not match the action. Way to ruin a good movie. I will be looking into returning the dvd December 24, 2008

The Replacements

DVD was in very good condition when it arrived, was well packaged and prompt. A++++++++ December 13, 2008

Coach from Hoosiers + Plot from Major League = Good sports movie?

When Gene Hackman is in a sports movie, it's impossible to see him as anyone other than coach Norman Dale from Hoosiers. Unfortunately, Keanu Reeves is more Shooter than he is Jimmy Chitwood. Nonetheless, this travesty of a sports movie was given the nod, and the rest is history.

The setup for the movie is stolen straight from Major League. A pro team has no players, but this time it's a strike instead of an insane owner. A wily, unknown coach is hired to build a team. A motley crew of assorted clichés is soon picked up.

Once again Coach Hackman amazes with his complete lack of coaching ability, as he insists on picking up a former college QB with a rag-arm to lead his team. Surely there were countless other guys in the Arena league or in the CFL who would have loved the chance at the NFL, but Hackman goes with a guy who can't throw a fit, let alone a football. His QB of choice, Shane "Footsteps" Falco (Reeves), is a guy who had a horrible bowl game in his college finale, and was rightfully branded as a choke artist. (Side note: In this movie Keanu essentially plays the same Johnny Utah role he did in Point Break)

Aside from Falco, Hackman picks up some token athletes while several others fill in the movie gaps (with Major League counterparts in parenthesis):
1) A psycopathic, borderline idiot to play linebacker (Favreau) and serve as the Wild Thing, er, Card (Ricky Vaughn)
2) The wild, crazy foreigner, a chain-smoking British guy who used to be a soccer star, and can now do the field-goal kicking duties (Pedro Serrano)
3) The big, brooding, intimidating, scary ex-convict (Pedro Cerrano mixed with Ricky Vaughn)
4) The anonymous black guy with track star speed and an uncanny knack for witty, funny one-liners (Willie Mays Hayes)
5) The handicapped guy who overcomes his deafness (Jake Taylor)
6) The three obese offensive linemen who aren't really athletes (Eddie Harris)
7) Eventually one of the smarmy pros comes back to the team, QB Eddie Martell, and nobody likes him (Roger Dorn)
8) Annabelle (Brooke Langton), a cheerleader, and love-interest for Falco, does nothing except display the top half of her boobs during every scene on camera (Lynn Wells)

With the puzzle pieces in place, there is an awkward lack of sexual chemistry between Annabelle and Falco, meaningless coach-speak from Hackman (who mails it in by recycling his Coach Dale routine), the coming together as a team scene (an absolutely wretched scene where the team dances together in a jail to the song "I Will Survive"), and the inevitable match-up versus the superior opponent.

The absolute best part of the movie is at the beginning when Falco is throwing a metal football from a trophy while underwater. It's the best scene Keanu has ever been in because he couldn't speak.

A serviceable sports movie, The Replacements provides just enough sports action for the die-hard sports fan to enjoy, and just enough preposterousness for the cynic to ridicule. Much like Keanu, it's so bad it's good. August 19, 2008

Great Cast-Great Movie!

The Replacements brings to the screen the story of a substitute squad called in to get the Washington Sentinels to the playoffs following a walkout by professional football players over pay. Things become rather complicated when the replacements turn out to be a mismatch of misfits, `have-beens,' and `never-was'...
The Replacements comes across as an action film but in fact it is all about human relations, hope, and second chances.
Keanu Reeves, Gene Hackman, Brooke Langton (who is simply GORGEOUS!), Rhys Ifans, Jon Favreau, and the rest of this great cast, have outdone themselves with their performances. All the actors, without exceptions, give it their 100% and it really shows (the chemistry is AMAZING)! Very well written and very well presented, the movie is without a doubt guaranteed to provide more than just a few laughs, not to mention a few tears. The film is simple enough, but does a great job of describing people's every day lives and the problems they face. It just goes to show that simplicity is often far better than complexity, when trying to present issues of a human nature.
The setting, the plot, the dialogues, the humor, the girls (!), and the MUSIC (!!!) are all wonderful!
In short, The Replacements is a movie definitely worth watching and one to seriously consider adding to your movie collection (if not for the music alone)!

August 5, 2008

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