YMMV / The Longest Yard

• Director Displacement: Mean Machine had Guy Ritchie and Matthew Vaughn as producers, yet neither of them directed.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • The basic premise of an NFL quarterback being sent to prison in his prime happened to Michael Vick less than 3 years after the remake was released.
  • Steve Austin playing a racist bigot is this as several black wrestlers (and Austin's ex wife Debra Marshall) have accused him of racial abuse over the years.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Crewe mentions they would have a tune up game against Appalachian State or some division II team. Two years later, Appalachian State beat number 5 ranked Michigan in a game not unlike the situation posed in the movie.
  • Terry Crews plays one of the inmates. Somehow, Julius ended up in prison with his grown-up son, Chris Rock.
  • Kickboxer and mixed martial artist Bob Sapp plays a gigantic Manchild who overreacts hilariously when Turley breaks his nose. Only a couple years after the film's release, Sapp abandoned his competitive career in both sports and started tapping out at the first punches to collect paychecks and run. One wonders if it was this film which gave him the idea.
• Moral Event Horizon: The warden crosses it first when he has Unger kill Caretaker by booby-trapping a radio, and again when he threatens to frame Paul for Caretaker's murder unless he throws the game, and orders the guards to give the cons a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on the field even after promising to go easy on them if Paul held up his end of the bargain.
• Narm: Caretaker’s death in the original. He triggers a rigged lightbulb that sets him ablaze. What makes it this trope, is his screaming and his comical facial expressions. As mentioned below, the remake handled this scene much better.
• Tear Jerker: Caretaker's death in the remake. He's caught in an explosion just in time for the other inmates to helplessly watch him burn to death. The funeral only adds to it, as his teammates step up one by one and place items on his casket, including a cheeseburger, a bible and Caretaker's whistle and stopwatch. Crewe's gift takes it up to eleven: a picture of Caretaker's mother that Caretaker gave Crewe earlier in the movie. When you consider the conversation the two men had, Caretaker's mother is still alive and will have to hear the news that her son was killed. This was the same conversation Caretaker said he looked forward to sharing a drink with Crewe once they got out of prison, and Crewe admitted Caretaker was the first real friend he'd had in as long as he could remember.

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