The Replacements

There's trouble a-brewin' on the grid-iron as a professional football players' strike threatens the season in this winning and incredibly funny flick. Frantic, the Washington Sentinels owners employ maverick coach Jimmy McGinty (Gene Hackman) to put together a play-able team. Since there are no real players available, the new Sentinals are an odd-ball bunch of misfits - including a Welsh soccer player, a sumo wrestler, a few pro body guards… and the new team leader Shane Falco (Keanu Reeves), a once-promising player haunted by one profoundly disastrous championship game. As the team rallies together to get even a semblance of some plays working, the gang must endure the ever-growing hostilities from the striking pros, racially motivated in-fighting, and a bar-brawl of epic proportions that leads to jail time… and the most hilarious in-cell dance number that you have to see to believe. Even if sports movies aren't your thing, do yourself a favour and pick up The Replacements, a winning addition to the canon that includes such time-honoured masterpieces as The Longest Yard and Semi-Tough.