Movie review - "The Replacements" (1999) **

I'm a sucker for sports movies, even poorly done ones like this. It has a great central idea, based on a true incident - a players strike sees a coach collect a rag-tag group of no-hopers who manage to forge a fighting spirit, etc, etc. Gene Hackman looks to be phoning it in as a coach; Keanu Reeves manages a little better as the quarterback, and there is a strong rupport cast (including Rhy Ilfans and the cute Brooke Langton as the chead cheerleader). A lot of it is lazy and smacks of "we're going to have this scene here" without working through the scene eg the cheerleading auditions (I know they're meant to be broad but the auditions in Bring It On were broad too yet realistic), the let's-form-unity-through-a-dance (above comment applies for The Full Monty), the let's-bond-via-a-brawl, artificial-climax-by-having-quarterback-not-turn-up. But you know something? It's still watchable, even in it's crappiness - the central idea is very strong. And I like the use of the song "Heroes".