What makes it different from others?

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Great college football film. The cast clicked and the direction was outstanding. This film takes you behind the scenes as to what goes on in College Football. The politics, the drugs, the drinking, the pressure involved, and just the work ethic and what it takes to be a good Football team. Great value as far as the locations, the football games seemed so real, with the crowds, very convincing movie. I loved it all the way around. If people dislike this movie, it is probably due to wishing their doing better things with their lives. I agree with a comment, this is one of the best football films of the 90's. Without a doubt. Check it out. You will not be disappointed.Great performances by Caan, Berry, Epps, and most of the others.

A VERY good and smart football film that is quite underrated. this only gets a 5.8?????? that's way too low for a very good film in my opinion. It's very well made with a lot of exciting football action, plus the character development was excellent!. I really got to know and feel for the characters, and they were all very likable. The script was excellent and very well written and it had 3 very strong leads. I wasn't expecting much from this movie, it had a great cast but that's about it and it didn't look that appealing to me (MY sister lent it to me so. The direction is great lots of great shots during the Football scenes , wonderful shots of the crowd a lot of really cool zoom in's when the linebackers are closing in on the quarter backs , and keeping it at a perfect pace! great job David!. The acting is EXCELLENT!. James Caan does an excellent job here as the Coach and gave his usual intense performance and i loved it!. Halle Berry was also excellent here and had very good chemistry with Omar Epps!, plus she is beautiful.Omar Epps was AWESOME here and was my 2nd favorite character here, he gave a perfect performance creating a lot of depth to his performance and gave a WONDERFUL performance!. Craig Sheffer was OUTSTANDING here! he hit all the right emotional notes perfectly and gave an OUTSTANDING performance and i felt sorry for his character, plus his chemistry with Kristy Swanson was great, plus he looked like a true Pro! out there(he was my favorite character here. Kristy Swanson was fine with what she had to do and certainly looked good but wasn't on screen that much, but she had good chemistry with Sheffer!.Duane Davis does what he has to do well. Joey Lauren Adams has a couple appearances. Andrew Bryniarski is fine as the Steroid freak and J. Leon Pridgen II is good as the overly jealous boyfriend, Jon Pennell does what he has to do as the Backup QB. Overall. i highly recommend this little gem! **** out of 5

The Program is a mostly solid movie that takes us into the world of college football, and more specifically into the world of one particular team as it tries to overcome obstacle after obstacle on it's way to a bowl game after a few disappointing seasons.First off I thought the football aspects were done very well. The action looked realistic and that is the least (and most) that I expect in a sports movie. And playing "Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns N' Roses during a football practice is surely worthy of some credit. All in all the game footage was pretty short, a few minutes at a time. What was more interesting, and what the film focuses on most, was what happened to the players between games as they dealt with their personal lives and game preparation.I'm guessing the movie was trying to shock us with this part. Steroid abuse by one player; alcohol abuse, a bar fight, and suicidal tendencies by another; cheating on an exam by yet another and his subsequent expulsion then reinstatement; girl problems with a couple players; etc. The movie has a lot to say and it's a good message, but I didn't find this shocking. Rather this sort of things is really common knowledge among sports fans, although how rampant these issues actually are in real life I can only guess. Having said that, this part of the film is done well for the most part. The one exception is the relationship stuff, which I just didn't find very believable due to a lack of chemistry between the participants.Addressing two of the criticisms that I have read others say about this film. Yes, it does tend to follow a lot of players and their respective issues, but I didn't feel that it spread itself too thin. I thought that despite this fact it did feel like we followed each player enough to get to know the issues he faced. The movie seemed to take a snapshot of one player and what he was dealing with, then quickly moved on to the next, and I thought in the context of this film it worked quite well.The second criticism I have read is that everything ends up working out well for everyone in the end and everyone comes out a better person. This just isn't true at all.**SPOILER ALERT**The defensive end (Alvin Mack I believe) busted up his knee and at the end of the movie it appeared that he would never play again. This was surely the most poignant moment in the film. Lattimer, the one with the steroid problem, was back on the juice and you get the feeling he won't ever lick this problem. Even Joe Kane will likely struggle with booze indefinitely. So I actually give this film a lot credit for not choosing the cliched ending where everyone ends up happy.**END OF SPOILER ALERT**7/10 - for an overall solid effort

About as well as you can address the fleeting world of sports. Like most sports film it tries to reveal a stoic creed of fraternity amongst the players, but comes off looking like a bad "join the army/mom&pop/apple pie" americana promotion. the male/female connections in the film are barely believable and exhibit almost no chemistry. the only redeeming facet is the performance of the steroid-abusing lineman who approaches each game with some sort of indian-death battle mentality.