Yesterday, I took hold of The Replacements, starring Keanu Reeves, Gene Hackman and the lovely Brooke Langton. The movie starts when the players of a fictitious pro football team went on strike and unconventional coach Jimmy McGinty (Hackman) is hired to form a replacements team with Shane Falco (Reeves) playing for quarterback. I admit The Replacements is a feel-good movie and oh it does it so well.

One thing that resonates with me in this viewing is team-building. I’m doing that right now with Spiragram and cannot help but notice all the right things that McGinty is doing with the Washington Sentinels. I’d like to leave you with some quotes from my memory:

Falco: Why me?
McGinty: When I see you, I see two men: the one that you are now and the one that you ought to be. Someday, the two of them are going to meet.

And of course, there’s this gem from Shane Falco… hmm, I wonder if there’s one that can be crafted for Rails programmers.

Pain heals. Chicks dig scars. Glory lasts forever.

from: www.shooperman.com

I’ve seen this twice and it made me laugh out loud both times. Keanu Reeves’ performance as a wannabe NFL quarterback is convincing, and Gene Hackman plays the perfect counterpoint to the tenderfoot as his wisened old coach. There is sexual tension in Reeves relationship with the head cheerleader (of course, he gets the girl in the end), and I especially liked John Madden’s role as the sports announcer, playing himself. The football action is totally a page out of the Looney Tunes playbook, not to be taken seriously at all. There’s a cigarette-puffing kicker from England, a convict out on parole, a Japanese “fat guy” who stuffs his face with hardboiled eggs before the game, a crazed linebacker who tackles anyone and everyone, a diva-receiva who can’t catch. It’s a team of misfits who somehow fit quite well together. The rivalry between the replacements and the striking players builds gradually to the point of eruption. This is a good, fun, escapist film for anyone who enjoys being entertained.