MovieChat Forums > The Replacements (2000) Discussion > Awful

Awful

posted 16 years ago by kobie173
10 replies | jump to latest

This movie simply has too many plot holes to be taken seriously.

* The movie takes place in Washington, D.C., yet it appears to be summertime during the late part of the season.
* The team feels the need to hire new cheerleaders when the players go on strike? WTF?
* The last game of the season takes place on Thanksgiving Day? Pro football goes on for another month after that.
* As was in the goofs section, they wouldn't get rid of Falco when Martel came back, and even if they did, they couldn't just suit him up at halftime if they wanted to. There are roster rules.
* Orlando Jones' character would have gotten penalized (and probably kicked out of the game) for the stickum incident.
* There are VERY strict rules regarding players fraternizing with cheerleaders. Annabelle would have lost her job in a New York minute.

Maybe this movie is good for people who don't know anything about football, but for someone who has a clue about the game, this movie is just too stupid to be funny, poignant, or even cliched. It's just DUMB.

[–] jjaxotla 16 years ago

It's only a Movie dude!!, it is not a "Football Curse", many people like me doesn't like FootBall, but love "inspirational movies" and this is one of these!
Regards

[–] StudioDude 16 years ago

And don't forget, this isn't the NFL we're talking about. They are very deliberate to refer to it as "professional football" and never as any specific league, so the rules don't necessarily have to be the same. You might could argue that John Madden was calling a game and he is an icon in the NFL world, but I don't know if that's putting too much thought into a goofy movie.

Liberty Bell, if you put one more baco on that potato I'm going to kick your little monkey butt.

[–] youaresquishy 15 years ago

kobie173 writes:

This movie simply has too many plot holes to be taken seriously.

All of your bulleted points have merit. And as to the poster who replied to you by saying that it doesn't have to be the real NFL--it's obviously based on the 1987 Redskins whose replacement players won the three games they played, including their last game against Dallas on Monday Night Football.

However, I know you probably just misspoke a bit, but the movie definitely has little or no interest in being taken seriously. The stickum incident is a case in point. The very thing that makes it stupid is funny--the part where the ref has trouble taking the ball from Orlando Jones' hand.

I would suggest you might have been in a bit of a bad mood when you were watching. I enjoyed the film overall, despite the dissimilarities between it and the real NFL.

I did think it stepped too far over the line when Falco was not simply demoted and was instead cast off the team, and then allowed to return in the middle of a game. If that was really necessary for comedic purposes, I would've thought otherwise. If that was really necessary for dramatic purposes, I MIGHT have thought otherwise. But it wasn't necessary at all--that was just dumb. They could've achieved the same effect by just having him sitting on the sidelines during the first half. They could've even thrown in a scene during the game on the sidelines with some heated dialogue between Falco and Martel. That took me out of the film a bit.

Other than that part, I thought it was a pretty good stupid comedy. John Madden was the worst actor in the thing--he delivered a couple of his lines a little stiffly--and even he was really not that bad in light of the fact that it was a stupid comedy.

Great casting. Gene Hackman--people take his good acting for granted, but wow is he great in this film. And it's really one of the few films in which Keanu Reeves actually was cast well and as a result didn't disappoint acting-wise.

[–] pbl1 15 years ago

let's not forget that the movie takes place in DC, yet was filmed in Baltimore.

I thought the film was mindless crap, but not because of the "plot holes".

No way is Madden the worst "actor" in the film...that honor goes to Summerall. Even the deaf guy and the sumo wrestler delivered their lines better than Pat.

What the $%*& is a Chinese Downhill?!?

[–] Lunchbox-3 14 years ago

I don't know anything about pro football but is it possible that Falco was still listed on the active roster, he simply didn't show up for the first half of the game? If that was the case, would the rules still allow him to suit up and take the field at halftime?

[–] Observer_2020 14 years ago

Who cares? This is not a football documentary, nor was it anywhere close to promoting itself as a serious Oscar-winning drama. It's a funny, goofy and entertaining underdog story. You can nitpick every single movie out there and point out flaws. Most people overlook that. It's called suspension of disbelief. The whole concept of a movie requires this. After all, how natural is it for an audience to be viewing two people in a private conversation?

The movie clearly did not intend itself to be taken completely seriously. Take it for what it is, a sometimes bawdy, sometimes old-fashioned comedy with some pretty decent action sequences. I mean, in one play, half the team committed personal fouls by kicking, punching and kneeing the Dallas players, even after the whistle blew. In a real NFL game, all of those players would have been ejected immediately. In the movie, they just tacked on the penalty yardage on top of the next penalty. Does that make sense? No, not really. Do I care that they didn't precisely portray how a real NFL referee would have handled that? Nope, not at all.

[–] SurvivorAlpha1 14 years ago

Sometimes you just want a movie that's all about mindless fun. It doesn't matter that it's completely wrong or breaks every rule known to the NFL. It's just fun.

My Sig: Nothing here.

[–] Doc80 12 years ago

I know I'm a bit late on this but here we go.

First off, none of these are "plot holes". It pisses me off when people list off "plot holes" that aren't plot holes. In order to be a plot hole, it has to break with internal logic of the movie. So these could be considered goofs at worst.

As others have stated. I don't believe Falco was ever released. He was simply replaced as the starter and didn't bother to show up for the game.

Because it isn't stated explicitly that it is the NFL, most of what is listed can simply be explained away by saying it's not the NFL. So stuff like the team hiring new cheerleaders, the last game being on Thanksgiving and the fraternization thing are irrelevant. One thing about the fraternization issue though. She said it herself that they only get paid a couple hundred bucks a game. You think she gives a crap if she loses that job. She has her own bar for God's sake.

The nice weather thing is just warrant less too. I mean how many movies pay attention to the weather patterns of where the movie takes place. The movie was filmed over the summer/early fall, so of course the weather is going to be nice. It's just easier to go with it. Besides, cold weather cities have been known to have really nice weather, that late into the year.

[–] 12 years ago

[deleted]

[–] jefgg 11 years ago

In 1981 the NFL outlawed the use of Stickum. I think the punishment for a player caught using it is ejection from the game and probably a fine.