Hollywood remakes tend to be feared, as they always seem to be a pale shadow of the original. This is not the case with The Longest Yard, at the very least this remake has omitted the 45minute long NFL game that appeared in the 1974 original. Instead the football action is replaced by a series of wince inducing highlights containing just the sort of exaggerated sporting action that we all love to see.

The premise of movie is simple - former quarterback (Sandler) finds himself doing some alcohol related jail time and the prison warden sets him the task of creating a team of inmates to play the guards. The only hitch is the warden wants the inmates to loose. Along the way he meets the usual cast of peculiar characters that we have come to expect from incarceration movies. The comic drive in this film comes not from Sandler, but Chris Rock who plays the black guy in need of some jail house credibility, given he is the sort who was "picked after the white kids" for sport.

Don't expect a complex plot; this movie is instead a nice formula story with some excellent football violence. I love it.