Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
Maverick old-guard coach Jimmy McGinty is hired in the wake of a players' strike to help the Washington Sentinels advance to the playoffs. But that impossible dream hinges on whether his replacements can hunker down and do the job. So, McGinty dusts off his secret dossier of ex-players who never got a chance (or screwed up the one they were given) and knits together a bad-dream team of guys who just may give the Sentinels their title shot.
The Replacements is a crowd-pleasing sports comedy that hits familiar beats — misfits rally under a wise coach, underdog team defies odds — without much deviation from the formula. Keanu Reeves and Gene Hackman are likable enough but neither is stretched, and the ensemble leans on broad character archetypes (the sumo wrestler, the ex-con, etc.). Cinematography is functional and unremarkable TV-movie level. Novelty is low given its heavy debt to Major League and other misfit-sports comedies. The ending delivers the expected feel-good payoff competently but predictably.