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The Replacements Customer Reviews (28 - 30 of 38 Reviews)

An Enjoyable, Laugh Out Loud Comedy
There is a movie made about every sport there is in this world. Most sort of run together and are more or less forgettable. I believe that this one is one of the few that will rise above the rest. With great actors like Gene Hackman and Keanu Reeves it's hard to go wrong. The story of the movie is simple enough. The players for the Washington Sentinels go on strike. To fill the empty slots the owner of the team hires Hackman to find a replacement team. From there on is where the extreme comedy comes into play. Reeves plays Shane Falco, a washed out college quarterback who comes back to lead the Sentinels to victory. The rest of the cast really helps the movie as well. Actors like Jon Favreau (Swingers, Very Bad Things) and Rhys Ifans (Notting Hill, Little Nicky) join the team and for me, they made the movie. One can't help laughing at this movie. I know I couldn't. I truly enjoyed this movie and highly recommend it.

Let's play football, b****
The Replacements is a cracking, feel good movie, with a great soundtrack, which matches the film completely.

There's a lot more action in this than there was in Keanu Reeves' other "sport" movie, Hardball. If you don't know much about American football, then it's pretty easy to follow. The only thing I found difficult was trying to figure out which player was which, with all their gear on!

It's surprisingly funny at the same time, and you're always laughing! Whether its during the bar fight (don't mess with the BIG guys) or the extremely camp dancing to "I Will Survive" in the jail, you'll be crying with laughter.

Rhys Ifans is a great choice for this, as are all of the actors. I wouldn't have said Keanu was the best choice for this, as he has a hockey background (which was gave him the nickname "The Wall" when he was younger), and it must have taken a lot of training for all the actors to act like professional football players.

Of course, you're got to have the cheerleaders in a football movie. And since all the players have been replaced, the cheerleaders need to be replaced too. Cue some very bad cheerleading from not very nice looking girls. And then the cheerleaders are . . . strippers. Thankfully, they don't strip, although their "routine" is very suggestive, and definitely distracts all the players.

You've got the obvious storyline too - Shane Falco (Keanu) falls in love with the head cheerleader (Annabelle Farrell). Never heard that storyline before.

If you're a fan of Friends (how come all the movies I watch have a character from Friends in it?!) look out for Jon Favreau, who played Monica's boyfriend, Pete, from some of the earlier seasons. He was the guy who was the multi-millionaire, who became a wrestler, and lost Monica.

The extras are pretty basic, and they could have done so much more. You've got the trailer (a must-have for me) which is actually really good, and also the commentary, "The Making of the Replacements" and "Making the Plays: An Actor's Guide to Football". "The Making Of . . ." is presented by Orlando Jones, who is so camp, its not funny! It's not really the greatest making of I've ever seen though.

If you don't like "I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor, probably not the best idea to watch this movie. It gets played a lot! But there are a lot of great songs, so now I'm after the soundtrack. Rumour has it; there's a Dogstar song tucked away in the soundtrack, so I'll be getting my hands on that!

If you're a sports fan you'll love this. If you like Keanu Reeves, you'll love this. If you like a laugh, you'll love this! Don't make me watch the bar fight again, cos there was nearly an accident! A great movie, which I wasn't expecting to be good.

Keanu Calls The Shots
When professional football players go on strike, the owners decide to continue on with the season by putting together teams made up of the best players they can find. The owner of the Seattle franchise, O'Neil (Jack Warden), hires former coach McGinty (Gene Hackman) to take charge and field a team that can take them to the playoffs which, with four games left, is within their grasp. "The Replacements," directed by Howard Deutch, are guys whose careers had been cut short or sidelined for one reason or another, and now because of the strike are given a rare opportunity in the life of an athlete: A second chance. But it's more than just a shot at the brass ring; it's a chance to heal, to shed the stigma of loss, failure and disappointment they've all carried with them, in one way or another, since their playing days abruptly and prematurely ended. For quarterback Shane Falco (Keanu Reeves), it's being able to shake the memory of a grueling forty-five point defeat in the Sugar Bowl, which has seemingly defined him since, plaguing him even during his very brief pro career. Reeves does a great job with Falco, convincingly conveying the discontent lying buried beneath the surface of this man who has had to move on with his life, though unable to tie up the loose ends with which he obviously has yet to come to terms. And it's that lack of closure, that intangible feeling clinging on to his soul that makes Falco such a strong character; there's something in his situation that most people have experienced, to one degree or another, whether it's a sense of failure or alienation one may have suffered, that makes him someone with whom you can readily identify. It's what lies at the core of the story, and through Reeves' performance and Deutch's direction it becomes easily accessible, and it's one of the strengths of the film. This movie, after all, is about so much more than football; it's about character and spirit and, as McGinty says at one point, heart. And that's what makes these guys play like there is no tomorrow. Because for them there is no tomorrow; once the strike is over, who knows what will happen? For now they have today, and for many of them just being shuck of "yesterday" is enough to give them new life. Especially memorable in supporting roles are Jon Favreau (Bateman), Rhys Ifans (Gruff), Orlando Jones (Franklin) and Brooke Langton (Annabelle). Rounding out the cast are Brett Cullen (Martel), Faizon Love (J. Jackson), Michael Taliferro (A. Jackson) and Ace Yonamine (Fumiko). While the movie fails to avoid stereotypes altogether (O'Neil), Hackman, as McGinty, is the absolute epitome of the "coach," and "The Replacements" is entertaining and uplifting while putting the game into perspective and making a statement about greed and human nature. There are moments in this film that are not so much predictable as inevitable, but the climactic game will have you on the edge of your seat; it ain't over till it's over. In the end, you realize that it doesn't really matter who wins or loses, because you'll come away feeling maybe a little bit better about yourself and life in general; and call it what you will, that seems like a pretty good deal to me.

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