The Replacements

In a parallel NFL universe -- one obviously inspired by the 1987 season -- it's late in the season, and the players have gone on strike. Never-was QB "Footsteps" Shane Falco (Keanu Reeves), whose biggest claim to fame is a blowout Sugar Bowl loss, is recruited by new Washington Sentinels head coach Jimmy McGinty (a wily Gene Hackman) to lead a bunch of misfit "replacement" players and keep the franchise's playoff hopes alive. Director Howard Deutch's colorful cast of scabs includes gangsters, gamblers, inmates, and a berserk SWAT officer (Jon Favreau of Swingers and Friends fame). The normally unaffecting Reeves is dutiful and square-jawed in his Cinderella shoes, and it doesn't hurt that -- à la Speed -- he has a perky, cute Sandra Bullock clone to fall for (Brooke Langton as the head cheerleader). The result is a gritty screwball sports romp worthy of comparison with The Longest Yard and North Dallas Forty: it's underdog-rooting infectious, and the ass-slapping antics of the "replacement" cheerleaders from the Pussycat Lounge are at once titillating and uproarious.

-- Tom Meek