THE REPLACEMENTS

by Tom Meek

In a parallel NFL universe -- one obviously inspired by the 1987 season -- it's late in the season, and the players have gone on strike. Never-was QB "Footsteps" Shane Falco (Keanu Reeves), whose biggest claim to fame is a blowout Sugar Bowl loss, is recruited by new Washington Sentinels head coach Jimmy McGinty (a wily Gene Hackman) to lead a bunch of misfit "replacement" players and keep the franchise's playoff hopes alive. Director Howard Deutch's colorful cast of scabs includes gangsters, gamblers, inmates, and a berserk SWAT officer (Jon Favreau of Swingers and Friends fame). The normally unaffecting Reeves is dutiful and square-jawed in his Cinderella shoes, and it doesn't hurt that -- à la Speed -- he has a perky, cute Sandra Bullock clone to fall for (Brooke Langton as the head cheerleader). The result is a gritty screwball sports romp worthy of comparison with The Longest Yard and North Dallas Forty: it's underdog-rooting infectious, and the ass-slapping antics of the "replacement" cheerleaders from the Pussycat Lounge are at once titillating and uproarious. At Cinema World, Entertainment Cinemas, Framingham, Framingham Premium, the Hoyt Dayville, the Hoyt Westborough, Leominster, the Maynard Fine Arts, the Solomon Pond Hoyt, White City, and the Worcester North Showcase.