The Longest Yard has it all. A story about underdogs set in a prison with vicious guards, fun and games (literally) and the beleagured Adam Sandler who is more controversial than the Yeti.

Lansing, whose company released The Longest Yard said, “I think he has an extraordinary sense of what’s funny and what’s not. His talent is enormous.” But film writer Tom Roston says, “It doesn’t take much to hate Adam Sandler. His monumentally successful movie career squats on the jackass notion that it’s funny when an adult acts like a child. He’s made a mint talking with that hesitant little-boy voice, shuffling around the room like a slow third-grader. We’re supposed to find this arrested development cute and endearing, because of our unquestioning affection for losers. And then there are all the fairly obvious poop, puke and penis jokes. To say nothing of how Sandler’s movie hew to formulas (boy-meets-girls-gets-girl-back, fish-out-of-water, etc) that have a plodding predictability. Then again, it doesn’t take much to really like Sandler. His films are always steeped in a childlike wonder at the power of love. He makes movies filled with old-school slapstick, recalling the Three Stooges or Jerry Lewis.

“Just as the population is split between Republicans and Democrats, Coke and Pepsi drinkers, and SUV lovers and haters, so is it apparently divided over the appeal of Adam Sandler,” writes Variety film critic Todd McCarthy.

Adds Roston, “If comedy is about rebellion and making fun of people, then Sandler is holding both trump cards. His knuckle-headed heroes are bullied and then best their tormentors, through either physical violence or one-upmanship. And it plays out on the battleground of masculinity.

Spanglish, is confusing, because nowhere do we see the Sandler we know. The name touted in the credits isn’t even his-it’s James L Brook’s, director of Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News, and As Good as It Gets. Spanglish is about a married couple in an unraveling relationship who are transformed by their new Spanish-speaking maid. Brooks says that at the beginning of the shoot he would remind Sandler that ‘this is an acting job’, one that would call on Sandler’s ability to embody a character who is at risk of losing a wonderful life”. Adam Sandler was Oscar touted for Spanglish.

Given everything, I think The Longest Yard is best described in Premiere. “The nice thing about working with nonactors,” says director Segal (Anger Management, 50 First Dates), “is that they don’t know it’s not cool to (be given) a line reading. I could tell them things to do that you can’t go up to Jack Nicholson and say. When the nonactors in question are former pro-football icons Michael Irvin and Bill Romanowski, as well as WWE bruisers Stone Cold Steve Austin and Bill Goldberg, it’s a safe bet you’re not remaking Terms of Endearment.

In this updating of the 1974 prisonyard gridiron tale, Sandler steps into Burt Reynolds’s cleats as incarcerated former footballer Paul ‘Wrecking’ Crewe, whom the warden blackmails into fronting a team of cons, including the charismatic Chris Rock in a pivotal role, who go up against the abusive guards. Reynolds costars as the inmates’ coach.

“Burt’s the man,” says rapper-turned-actor Nelly, who plays a convict-turned-running back.”When Burt talks, you listen.” Segal hopes his version won’t disappoint devotees of the original’s unique charms. “We’ve decided to stay fairly faithful to the original story, just a few twists here and there. The transvestite cheerleaders are in. Tracy Morgan heads up the squad. It’s frightening.” And funny.