The Longest Yard
Paramount Pictures | Release Date: May 27, 2005 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
48
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 35 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
19
Negative:
6
Watch Now
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
That's what is missing from The Longest Yard most egregiously. Charm has been kept on the bench.
60
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
The new jokes all seem like discards from a Rob Schneider comedy, but for the most part director Peter Segal (Anger Management) and screenwriter Sheldon Turner play a good defensive game, sticking close to the original film's story. Read full review
60
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
The pleasure is entirely like eating cake made from cake mix. It's not like you don't know how it's going to turn out, or how it tasted the last time you ate it. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Each joke and one-liner is a made-for-HBO zinger, each scene with Sandler a reaffirmation of the old friendship between the two successful SNL alums. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesCarina Chocano
If you're thinking of seeing it, and you're old enough to drive (or even read this), do yourself a favor and rent the original instead. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
It's a misguided, miscast remake of the 1974 Robert Aldrich classic. Read full review
50
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
The lack of condescension is the movie's saving grace, if grace is the right word. There's no snobbery to the low-blow humor, or to Reynolds' low-key, genial comeback turn, or to Sandler's more-ingratiating-than-athletic lead performance. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
Everyone in this overstaffed showbiz sampler has been better somewhere else. An assortment of talented comedians, character actors, professional athletes, sports commentators, one rapper, and two former sitcom stars sit in this movie like too much food on a buffet cart. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
No classic, but neither was the original starring Burt Reynolds. Instead, it's an odd mix of amusing nonsense and nastiness that chugs along, hit and miss, until the last section, which is the best part of the movie and its real reason for being: the game. Read full review
50
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
Setting such larger aesthetic questions aside, there isn't much to dislike about The Longest Yard, at least once you've gotten used to the pervasive fear of homosexuality that seems to ooze from the film's pores. Read full review
50
Village VoiceEd Halter
Future analysts of American culture...will no doubt ponder why an incarceration-crazy society ends up rooting for the objects of its own control anxiety as comedic underdogs. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
Consistently entertaining, athletically brutal, and, more often than not, well-acted. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
The 2005 version refashions the material into a dual vehicle for Chris Rock and Adam Sandler, "Saturday Night Live" alums who specialize in lazy, ramshackle comedies that are just okay enough to not completely suck. Read full review
50
Dallas ObserverRobert Wilonsky
It strains to be funny where the original's gags were efficiently deadpan, yet it's also so unbearably lazy, stooping to cliché and caricature when it backs itself into the shower. Read full review
50
L.A. WeeklyKim Morgan
Peter Segal's film, a predictable, choppy affair at best, boasts an understated, likable performance by Sandler, but here we never feel, as we did with the original, invested in the outcome of the final game, or convinced of the redeemability of the movie's sordid protagonist. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
What makes the new movie almost bearable is the byplay between Sandler and Chris Rock. Read full review
40
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Sandler's performance is aimed squarely at the fans who love his smarty-pants man-boy shtick and Rock gets off some funny lines, but overall this is one dreary, formulaic slog through sports-movie cliches. Read full review
40
Film ThreatPete Vonder Haar
The Longest Yard lives or dies with its physical humor, a form of recent comedy I like to call slapstick sadism. Read full review
40
EmpireIan Nathan
It's less a film than a series of skits exhumed from the Reynolds original. Read full review
More From This Movie

48 Critic Reviews

7.4 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 77 Project Hail Mary
2 75 Send Help
3 73 Hoppers
4 72 The Sheep Detectives
5 68 Crime 101
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL