Hey, any movie made is a major undertaking - lots of people putting their heart into the process - so it always gets me when I don’t like a film. I want to so much, just for their efforts. And in the end, The Replacements is one of those films I wanted to like more, but couldn’t. Hey, it’s decent, and with two headliners like Gene Hackman and Keanu Reeves, I expected to love it - at least they were great. But in the end, what I didn’t like (and frankly, it’s what a lot of other people will love about it) is the stop and starting internet between the (irony) heart of the movie and over the top joking. For my taste the movie makers couldn’t fully commit to the genuine heart that was present and kept cutting to over the top characters (that could have had more depth) and tiny-clad cheerleaders who had little to nothing to do with the actual story. Great for cheap laughs and appealing to their young male demographic, but they lost something even those young guys could have enjoyed. This middle age guy can appreciate what they were going for, but it was clumsy and took away from what was going on every time they were making it work, so it lost me and my wife.
Apparently it’s based on a real situation back in the day (I think 80s - my wife looked it up) when players went on strike. Replacements are brought in and while most coaches went with guys who were closer to actual active players, this coach (played very well by Hackman) went another way, bringing in guys who... would never make it in reality. Hence the over the top characters. It might have been cool if they’d even had these guys, but not so over the top... again, it felt like they couldn’t decide if this was a RomCom, comedy, or dramade and in the end, the hodgepodge missed the mark for us. Anyway... Reeves too is good as the QB who didn’t make it beyond a rough bowl game (that came up a lot) and yet here he’s got the age and the confidence and maturity that come along with it. These guys bond, pull together, and...
The bad guys are spoiled brat NFL players. The owner should just stay out of it. The cheerleaders... what was the point? But in the end, Reeves and Hackman are the reason to watch. It wasn’t great, but it was a lot of creative people who came together to tell a story and for that, we give it 4 stars.