Comment by Magic Marmalade:
A pretty awful movie that feels like it was meant to be something else, but was bodged to get it out the door in some kind of movie shape.
Subsequent reading online reveals this story takes it's cue from a true story, about a player's strike in the NFL in the eighties, and therefore replacement players were brought in for the final games of the season...
...And I think this was originally intended to be a straight up dramatic movie about that, but the fact that the names of teams and individuals have been (barely) altered indicates they couldn't do that for some reason. I think, also, the fact that you have Keanu Reeves (fresh off The Matrix) and Gene Hackman in this rubbish is otherwise inexplicable, excepting that they were signed on to the original concept, and perhaps couldn't back out.
And there is a serious dramatic thread around the characters they play that strongly suggests the original intent - meaning to make a movie of the more recognisable true story / underdog inspirational tale of the kind that we are all familiar with, and has been done infinitely better elsewhere.
...And outside of that central thread, is where this really goes off the rails:
An almost cartoonish set of "comedy" characters of the most basic, unfunny, toe curling, paint by numbers kind, couched in a whacky movie tone totally at odds with the central feel these characters at times give - painful to watch, especially as the absurd comedy idea is done to perfection in: The Waterboy, and makes this look way out of its class by comparison, in respect of this comedy element. Add to that the utterly bizarre soundtrack, which is mostly Euro-dance tunes that even then were at least a decade out of date... Good fit for a quintessentially American NFL story eh?
So i get the feeling this started life as something better, and more meaningful, all contracts were signed, people committed, and the movie ready to roll, when the rug was pulled out from under them, and they had to rehash and bodge a brand new movie around it, and from it, which seems like it was either done in five minutes, without any thought or imagination or originality, or entirely spontaneously - on the spot...
...Not, perhaps with even the original scriptwriters, producers etc. But maybe the.... uh...
...Replacements.
Artless and dumb.
