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Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: DVD
Brand: Team Marketing
EAN: 9780792184225
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
ISBN: 079218422X
Item Dimensions: 001000
Label: Paramount
Languages: EnglishOriginal LanguageEnglishSubtitled
Manufacturer: Paramount
MPN: TM2592
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Paramount
Region Code: 1
Release Date: July 16, 2002
Running Time: 99 minutes
Studio: Paramount
Theatrical Release Date: 2001
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Disgraced ex-England captain (Danny 'Mean Machine' Meehan) is thrown in jail for assaulting two police officers. Whilst in jail, he doesn't receive any favors because of his celebrity status in the outside world. He is out numbered and many prisoners constantly barrage him with insults for letting down his country in a crucial World Cup game. He keeps his head down and has the opportunity to forget everything and change the lives of the prisoners. These prisoners have the chance to put one over the evil guards. The prisoners are lead by Danny and the whole of the prison, guards aside, are behind them. Game on......
Amazon.com:
British soccer star Vinnie Jones stars as--no big stretch--a former soccer star named Danny "Mean Machine" Meehan who gets arrested for drunken assault and sent to prison for three years. Behind bars he finds himself embroiled in web of prison politics, caught between a governor with a gambling problem, a crime boss who lost a lot of money on a game that Meehan lost, and a motley crew of surly prisoners and guards with grudges. It all culminates in a soccer match between a team of guards, led by a hard-nosed warden, and a team of convicts, led by Meehan. Mean Machine is a remake of the Burt Reynolds movie The Longest Yard and the plot is pretty sure-fire; it's hard not to get caught up in the tensions of the big game. Plus, the comical game commentators give the movie a good jolt of humor. --Bret Fetzer
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
This was far and above better than the Adam Sandler piece of crap. It is definitely a remake of the Burt Reynolds movie. Fun to see Vinnie Jones not play the ugly mean scarey guy. I thought Stathams character was a little too over the top and that is the only thing I didn't like. It was an ok movie. Not great. Not as good as the original but still worth a watch.
Rating: -
If you like Guy Ritchie movies ( Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels...Snatch...) then you owe it to yourself to pick this one up, too. Guy Ritchie serves not as director on this piece, but as executive producer. However, the cast is nearly identical to that of his other films, so it will all be very familiar. Essentially "The Longest Yard" but with soccer and in England, this is still a great flick. Check it out.
Rating:  -
This is a great movie, especially for fans of Jason Statham and Vinnie Jones. It's funny and has great characters.
Rating: -
Well I have watched all 3 versions and to be honest, this one is by far the best. It is more compelling and believable that the rest not to mention contains original humor instead of the usual Adam Sandler goof ball stuff.
Rating: -
I turned Adam Sandler's remake of "The Longest Yard" off after twenty minutes, vowing only to watch it again when the world's collided. I have never seen Burt Reynold's original "Longest Yard", though I have just added it to the films that I am eagerly awaiting to see - so with that said, I went way beyond my typical style of cinema viewing and chose to watch "Mean Machine" first and foremost. Obviously I didn't read the reviews close enough to know that it is simply a remake of Reynold's work, so I went in blindly ... very blindly. This is probably one of the only times that I will watch a film out of sequential order (i.e. what was meant to be released first and second), but I am extremely happy with my decision. "Mean Machine" was a crisp, "thud"-packed film that didn't fight with clichés, but instead gave us an action-comedy that only the British can conquer. While most will complain that this film doesn't do justice to the original, I must ask if Sandler's did either? "The Longest Yard" wasn't a groundbreaking piece of cinema, and to see a British team remake the film, it is almost like a smile on our American faces. How often does that happen? So, without seeing much of the other two films, I went into "Mean Machine" with a clean slate, and enjoyed every moment of it. This was a fresh film, commercial in every since of the word, but fresh for what we decided to remake and slaughter.
I hate sports films. With this film I thought I would watch and return, without giving it a second thought. I thought it would be another cliché moment of the underdogs beating out at the last moment without anyone skipping a beat and winning the female lead at the end. We have all seen these before, and it is the cliché ride that most sports films seem to fall. While "Mean Machine" was similar in nature, what lead to those final moments was really what transformed this film to above average. Vinnie Jones is tolerable. Actually, he is better in this film and shows more range with "Mean Machine" than I have seen him grapple in years. Sure, he was fun in the Guy Ritchie films, but it was fun to see him play the lead this time, while Jason Statham played the muscle. I loved, and in fact love his body of work, David Kelly. He was phenomenal as the older mentor in this film. What made "Mean Machine" stand out was the cast, the trouble I had with Sandler's film was that everyone was fighting to get the best joke in, everyone wanted to be in a scene with Sandler or Rock, but in this one, everyone had their own voice and logic. There were actual characters in this film, ones that stood beyond themselves and created the world we were viewing. With any sports film, there is that inconsistency that could transform the film into a very flat picture. That was never the case here. Jones and his crew gave us direction from point A to point B without missing a beat. Doc, Burton, Massive, Monk, Ratchett, and Sykes brought the prison alive and made us root for a game we have nearly disregarded in America.
The weakest part of this film had to be the story. While the characters gave the story a voice as well as characters to root for, there was just something lacking with the story. It was strong, much stronger than most sports films of the same nature, but there was just that level of punch missing that you would expect from any typical British film. The direction may have had something to do with it, but not completely. I can't put my finger on the issue, and I think it has to do with the ability to recycle films - there is always something missing from each carbon copy. I need to see the original, but alone, "Mean Machine" was directed eagerly, but lacked the depth in the story. I wanted to see Danny's downfall in the beginning, I wanted to know more about him prior to his jail time, the idea of him fixing games seemed minimal in the overall scope of what Danny had to do with playing the guards. I needed that knowledge of whom he was and the struggles that he was facing. Sure, it wasn't meant to be this grand bio-pic, but something (as short as it was needed) had to be there. Maybe I am pulling at straws, but as I look at this picture as a whole, it was a stand-alone film that prided laughs (intelligent ones) as well as hard hitting action, but it needed something more. I could watch this film again, and I would go through the motions, but something was missing. It was like having the best piece of pie in the county, but realizing later that a scoop of ice cream would have been nice as a side. Unknown director Barry Skolnick places this film together well, but I feel as if he could have done more. I didn't need another "Lock, Stock", but I needed something that grabbed me further into.
Will I buy this film? Yep, I think I will just because I loathe the 20-minutes of the Sandler version and prefer to give others a taste of what decent remakes are like, but I cannot ... Read More
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