Mean Machine
(2001)
|
In this remake of THE LONGEST YARD, Robert Aldrich's 1974 Burt Reynolds prison tale concerning inmates who organize themselves into a football team and compete against the guards, British director Barry Skolnick pulls together a ruthlessly funny cast and changes the resident sport to soccer. The leader of the prisoners, played by Vinnie Jones (LOCK, STOCK, AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS), is a former soccer star who is asked by the warden to coach a team of prison guards. Instead, he offers to put together a team of inmates, who will be able to scrimmage with the guards' team. |
Screenshots
Vinnie Jones doesn't stray too far from home for his first leading part, sticking with several of Guy Ritchie's Lock, Stock… company including Snatch producer Matthew Vaughn and an ex-footballer-turned-jailbird role. But what this remake of Robert Aldrich's 1974 movie The Mean Machine — remember, ex-football pro Burt Reynolds trained his fellow convicts to take on the guards — really misses is Ritchie himself, since first-time director Barry Skolnick and his writers lack the creativity and vitality of Madonna's film-making husband. That said, if you can overlook the rather thin characters and simplistic plot, the film's final third — an ill-tempered soccer match between warders and inmates — is very well filmed and highly entertaining. Jones isn't bad in a made-to-measure role, though the movie's best shots on goal come from Jason Statham's maverick keeper and Jason Flemyng's unconventional commentator. Definitely one for the boys.