In abstract, “The Longest Yard” is pretty much like any other Adam Sandler comedy. Grown men injure themselves and get drunk in goofily child-like ways. A recognizable older actor shows up, as do a few “Saturday Night Live” alumni. A crusty, overly serious villain tries to keep Sandler down, but an accented Rob Schneider assures the protagonist that he can, in fact, do it. But for all the movie’s familiarity, Sandler has once again provided an unambitious, but still airily enjoyable outing.

A notional remake of the ’70s hit starring Burt Reynolds, the movie stars Sandler as Paul “Wrecking” Crewe, a disgraced former NFL star quarterback who finds himself behind bars after a beer-fuelled joyride, police chase, and subsequent crash. Once in prison, the warden (James Cromwell) informs him of the institution’s prison guard league football team and his hopes that Crewe will coach the team. Coerced into saying no by the prison’s zealous guard captain, Crewe instead finds himself forming a team of inmates with the idea of warming up the guard team for league play. What develops is a squad of misfit convicts looking for their chance to hit the cruel guards back.

Tracy Morgan. Smile!

Any outrage at the new version’s handling of the original movie is misplaced. Like what “Mr. Deeds” did with “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town,” Sandler doesn’t aim for remaking a classic so much as he loosely borrows a narrative framework to mold to his standard formula and style. Like with the recent “Italian Job” remake, it’s unlikely anyone will ever confuse the versions, and quite frankly, the original “Longest Yard” has had its legacy as a classic overstated in the face of Sandler’s encroachment. The far more iffy call to the past is the new version’s bizarre and unnecessary ways of referencing and paying homage to “Cool Hand Luke.”

But within the movie’s borrowed trappings from the 1974 original, the new “Longest Yard” is strictly a Sandler comedy, and perhaps his most uneven one to date. No Sandler effort this side of the downright bad “Little Nicky” has had so many jokes fall flat. But while the movie’s attempted humor may not sport a high batting average, it succeeds with relentless effort. The first half is monopolized by a machine gun tandem of Sandler and co-star Chris Rock spitting out a constant flow of jokes. Rock is particularly inconsistent, as his role is too derived from his standup material and often delves too far into race humor for the movie’s tone. The production gets better when emphasis is removed from Rock and shifted to game action.

To be fair, a certain unevenness has to be expected when Sandler’s supporting cast consists, aside from Rock and a now more grizzled Reynolds, of Goldberg, Michael Irvin, Nelly, and Stone Cold Steve Austin, each of whom performs well enough—particularly the magnetic Nelly. What the movie lacks in balance it makes up in comedic firepower. Sandler has always handled low-brow, slapstick, and jackass-ish comedy well, so it makes sense to combine him with football, natural showmen like Nelly, and some of the biggest jackasses in professional sports, from Goldberg, who was known for his dangerously sloppy wrestling, to Irvin, who famously responded “Do you know who I am?” when caught by authorities with cocaine and prostitutes.

The real shame in “The Longest Yard” is not that it’s uneven or that it very straightforwardly replicates the familiar Sandler formula, but that we now know Sandler is capable of doing something else entirely. His performance embodied the odd and unexpected brilliance of “Punch-Drunk Love,” and his warmth in more understated roles carried the romance of “50 First Dates” and lent the one saving grace to 2004’s disappointing “Spanglish.” “The Longest Yard” is enjoyable stuff, just like most of Sandler’s work. But he clearly has the chops to be a leading man on a higher level, and it’s hard to not imagine what else he could be doing with his time.

Still, as the warm weather hits, there’s no denying the sheer entertainment value of Sandler’s latest work. The movie is best reflected by the breeziness of Reynolds’ performance. He clearly understands that the movie is not a bastardization of his old hit, but a simple exercise in fun—no more, no less. “The Longest Yard” may be uneven and silly, but it’s solid Sandler fare. That’s nothing to complain about.

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