Other Titles • The Replacements • Helden aus der zweiten Reihe (2001)
Synopses for The Replacements (2000)
1.
The Replacements manages to be both completely formulaic and yet immensely enjoyable. When a professional football players' strike happens, the owner of a fictitious team, the Washington Sentinels, commissions maverick coach Jimmy McGinty (Gene Hackman) to pull together a team. McGinty selects a collection of talented oddballs--a Welsh soccer player, a sumo wrestler, a couple of professional bodyguards--with athletic pasts, figuring that if it doesn't work out as a game, it might as well be a circus. To lead the team, he finds Shane Falco (Keanu Reeves), a once-promising player who had a disastrous championship game. Naturally, despite squabbling and bickering, a roguish camaraderie develops through a mixture of racial infighting, harassment from the striking professionals, and a big bar brawl--after which they're all thrown in jail and perform the most improbable impromptu dance number ever committed to film. The mixture of cheerfully cliché plot mechanics, an engaging collection of supporting actors (including Orlando Jones, Rhys Ifans from Notting Hill, and Jon Favreau from Swingers), and sheer ridiculousness somehow combines to make The Replacements completely entertaining. Reeves is somehow turning into a pleasant leading man; he even emotes convincingly in this movie. And let's face it, Gene Hackman is quite possibly the greatest actor alive, able to speak the trashiest dialogue with fierce conviction. Plus, just to prove that the tight pants and close huddles of football are heterosexual, there are many, many shots of cheerleaders going through stripper-inspired routines. --Bret Fetzer
2.
Success is often a matter of blind luck, and some deserving people, talented in their own right, never get a crack at it. Such has been the fate of Shane "Footsteps" Falco (KEANU REEVES), once a hot All American prospect on the football field. Shane can only regret what's behind him, and can't even begin to imagine what's ahead.
But Fate is not through with Shane. When League players decide to strike, leaving the prospect of empty fields (and equally empty stadiums) for team owners to contemplate, the Washington Sentinels scramble for a solution. When they bring contentious and self-retired head coach Jimmy McGinty (GENE HACKMAN) back into the fold, McGinty seeks out players who will play with their hearts rather than their wallets.
For the League, the situation is a disaster, but for Shane and a mismatched crew of outsiders, it's a second chance to grab at sports stardom. As they amaze everyone with their winning streak, the ragtag group discovers in itself the ability to hope for more than they ever thought possible...maybe even the playoffs, which has been denied to the Sentinels for seven years.
Warner Bros. Pictures presents in association with Bel-Air Entertainment, The Replacements, a rousing comedy starring two of America's most acclaimed and popular stars, Keanu Reeves (the worldwide Warner Bros. Pictures smash hits The Matrix and The Devil's Advocate, Speed) and two-time Academy Award winner Gene Hackman (Best Supporting Actor for Unforgiven and Best Actor for The French Connection). ORLANDO JONES (Liberty Heights, Mad TV) also stars as Clifford Franklin, a 100-meter qualifier in the Olympics, with an unfortunate lifelong case of butterfingers, who joins Shane on the team; BROOKE LANGTON (Melrose Place) as Annabelle Farrell, the Sentinels' football-crazy head cheerleader whose passion for the game goes up a notch or two in the presence of Shane Falco; JON FAVREAU (Swingers, TV's Marciano) as Daniel Bateman, a Navy SEAL-turned-L.A. cop, who makes up for a lost kidney with an overload of grit; RHYS IFANS (Notting Hill) as Nigel The Leg Gruff, a wiry Welsh soccer star kicker from Cardiff; BRETT CULLEN (Apollo 13, Courage Under Fire) as spoiled-rotten Sentinels regular quarterback Eddie Martel; and JACK WARDEN (whose remarkable career spans from From Here to Eternity to Bulworth) as millionaire Sentinels owner Edward O'Neil.
3.
Underdogs become top dogs in this fun-filled, rough-and-fumble comedy that's "the best football movie of the last few years" (Larry Stewart, Los Angles Times).
Keanu Reeves plays Shane Falco, a washed-out all-American QB who guides a team of misfits assembled by veteran coach Jimmy McGinty (Gene Hackman) to replace striking pro players. A motormouth receiver (Orlando Jones), a merciless linebacker (Jon Favreau), a nicotine-wired kicker (Rhys Ifans) and more line up alongside Falco for a drive to the playoffs. For sultry support, there's cheerleader Annabelle Farrell (Brooke Langton) and her ex-stripper squad. "Pain heals. Chicks dig scars. Glory lasts forever," Falco tells his team. It's a game plan that works to perfection.
4.
The opening scenes of The Replacements see American football team, the Washington Sentinels, in dire straits. The players have walked out in a protest over pay at a vital point in the season, forcing the Sentinels' owner to bring veteran coach Jimmy McGinty (Gene Hackman) out of retirement to put together a replacement team. He assembles a group of oddballs and misfits including failed quarterback Shane Falco (Keanu Reeves), a boozing Welsh brawler (Rhys Ifans), a convicted former football pro, a deaf mute, a psychopathic ex-cop, a sumo wrestler and a kleptomaniac (Orlando Jones) who has trouble catching the ball. It is Falco's job to pull the team together and overcome his own problems to take the Sentinels to the playoffs. Howard Deutch (Pretty in Pink, Grumpier Old Men) directs this variation on a losers-make-good storyline that runs like Police Academy on the playing field. Keanu plays the Steve Guttenberg role. Sandra Bullock clone Brooke Langton provides the all-too-predictable cheerleading love interest, while Rhys Ifans delivers light relief as the team's chain-smoking kicker.
On the DVD: The main feature is presented in letterboxed widescreen format with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound in three languages (English, Spanish and Italian). There are optional subtitles in 20 different languages. Interactive menus are slickly designed like the yard markings on an American football field and provide access to a range of special features. As well as a theatrical trailer and commentary by director Howard Deutch, there is a 15-minute HBO special "The Making of the Replacements" hosted by Orlando Jones and a 10-minute "Actors Guide to Football" which provides a detailed look at the way the entirely authentic football sequences were planned and filmed. --Chris Campion
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