Long on fun and ballsy action it's sweet to see Burt Reynolds lord over this remake of his 1974 hit about an NFL screw-up who gets railroaded into jail and forced into a killer game of inmates vs. guards. Reynolds, a former Florida State tailback, was born to play MVP Paul Crewe. Not so Adam Sandler. As Paul, the former water boy lacks the pro look. But this isn't docudrama. It's a mean, lean laugh machine. Reynolds eases into the role of Nate, an aging convict doing time and making time to help Sandler learn the ropes at a Texas prison, where the warden (James Cromwell in full sleaze) wants Paul to train the cons and then throw the big game to the guards, led by a vividly sadistic William Fichtner. Sandler is a hoot as hard-ass Paul, disgraced in a point-shaving scam and jailed for stealing a Bentley belonging to his girl (Courteney Cox). At the urging of Caretaker (Chris Rock, scoring touchdowns with one-liners), Paul trains a team that includes Nelly (the rapper can act) and Michael Irvin (the former Dallas Cowboy can act too). Tracy Morgan, in drag, runs the cheerleading squad, prompting the ass-rape jokes you expect in a Sandler flick. In 1974, Reynolds and director Robert Aldrich stuck it to the system with R-rated relish. In the PG-13 redo, Sandler and director Peter Segal (50 First Dates) go broader and sillier, though the murder of a major character is still a shocker. What links the two films in fun and ferocity is the big game, a ripsnorter that is irresistibly entertaining.

“All Along the Watchtower”

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."