The Replacements is a comedic sports movie in the same vein as Major League or The Mighty Ducks. This one uses fictional professional football teams (guess they didn't want to bother with getting a license to use NFL properties) whose players have just gone on strike. Much like what happened in the NFL a decade ago, the owners decide to finish the season's last four games using replacement players.

This movie focuses on the Washington Sentinels, whose owner rehires coach McGinty (Gene Hackman) to put together a team with only a week's notice. Luckily, McGinty already has a list of potential players that he's been keeping an eye out. These guys aren't in the league because of various problems, but with work he thinks they'll make a good team.

Enter a mishmash of personalities with various eccentricities. Fumiko (Ace Yonamine), a former sumo wrestler who will play center; the Jackson brothers (Faizon Love and Michael Taliferro), former bodyguards who will play the guards; Bateman (Jon Favreau), a SWAT officer who makes a vicious linebacker; the receiver who is lightning quick but can't catch, the running back who is a preacher, the defensive back who is on loan from the state penitentiary, the tight end who is deaf, the kicker who is a former soccer player from Wales. A lot of supporting characters who are very distinctive, which is good because they get little screen time to set up the characters.

To complete the team, McGinty visits the river, where former college all-star Shane Falco (Keanu Reeves) spends his days eking out a living scraping the barnacles off of boats, his only home a dilapidated boat strewn with junk. Shane decides to join the team, where he meets Annabelle (Brooke Langton) the head cheerleader of the Sentinels, who is trying to organize a replacement cheerleading squad (I guess the cheerleaders are on strike too).

The movie is quite predictable. The players hate each other but will learn to respect each other and be a team. They're awful on the team but will rise to the occassion as the games become must win. There's the romance between Shane and Annabel with a bit of rivalry from Martel (Brett Cullen), the Sentinel's regular quarterback. John Madden and Pat Sumerall have a few scenes as the television commentators. Lots of football footage that is at least coherent most of the time.

I had a problem with some scenes that were obviously cut or shortened. Not enough scenes showing the developing relationship between Shane and Annabelle; it just happens in one scene basically. There is a subplot where the kicker has gambling debts and is told to throw the game by his debtors -- there is no scene where the three thugs tell him to throw the game but if you if catch the before scene a good fifteen minutes previously, you can guess what happened. There is no denouement, the movie ends with the end of the last game. You don't know if Shane and Annabelle rode off happily ever after, although there is the opening scene where Shane is in scraping barnacles and finds his old trophy buried in the muck, where he presumedly tossed it.

Final analysis. It's a funny movie, lots of jokes and laughs, not all of them predictable. The cheerleader scene is borderline erotic, although also funny. The football scenes are well done and there are enough plays shown to show the flow of the four football games. The movie could have used better editing and another 10 minutes to explain a few things some more. The acting is not that impressive from anyone. An ok movie to watch once if you like football or comedies.