I like Black Panther, but I didn't like this movie.

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

OK so I hate sports, I mean I really do, hate watching football, always have and always will. So I really didn't originally think that I would enjoy this movie, but to my surprise I really enjoyed it. I don't usually ever like sports movies since I hate sports, but this movie is much more layered than you may think. It's loaded with drama, romance, friendship, important messages, and admirable characters. It's not a hyper masculine movie about men playing football. It has detailed characters dealing with their lives and all that entails. The cast is great. James Van Der Beek gives a fantastic performance and proves himself to be more than just the star of a teenage drama (Dawson's Creek). Scott Caan is good here too, and no I'm not just talking about his ass lol, now that's fine as hell, but that's not all he is in this film, he provides a nice comic relief and plays a very fun outgoing character. Paul Walker (RIP) is great here, I loved his character and he proved himself as an actor early here. Rock on Paul, we miss you xoxo. Jon voight is great as the villainous football coach, he plays it very well, if you don't hate him as a character then there's something wrong with you lol. Ali Larter and Amy Smart are both good too. I loved Beek and Smart's romantic chemistry. The script is well put together, I love the deep interesting dialogue between the characters. The script made me connect more with each of the characters. I was sincerely hoping this film wouldn't be a bland testosterone filled sports movie that is just dumb, and my hopes were meet satisfaction. This is the best sports movie ever in my opinion. 9/10.

If you want to witness James Van Der Beek attempt to don a Texan accent for 106 minutes, you may not get another chance. While fun, it has all the signs of a stereotypical late-'90s teen movie. It's cheesy, telegraphed, clichéd, crude--yet meaningful. It follows a successful high school football team coached by Bud Kilmer (Jon Voight)--a man who basically runs the community. The small Texas town has already erected a bronze statue made in his likeness. The guy even controls the police to the point that his players can get away with stealing cop cars. That's how obsessed this community is with their high school football. It's all they have.Mox (Van Der Beek) doesn't see it that way. He's the 2nd string quarterback and has plans to go to Brown University and put the sport behind him. But as soon as he's forced into the starting role, he enjoys soaking up all the attention.Varsity Blues doesn't take too many risks--if any--but it has a lot to say. The script is deceptively good. It may be platitudinous in its dialogue and outcomes, but under the surface it makes some seldom-touched upon points.The football scenes are some of the more realistic we've seen in movies up to this point, and it organically showcases the importance of football in some small towns in this country. It then proceeds to question that very importance, along with the aggrandizing of athletics in our schools altogether.Subtly juxtaposing these ideals, we see Mox's little brother, who has an obsession with religions and practices a variety of them throughout the movie, much to his parent's disapproval.It isn't perfect, but Varsity Blues holds up well. Voight gives us a compelling villain to despise and the film more nuanced that meets the eye. It made me nostalgic and I was entertained.Twizard Rating: 83

Varsity Blues is a very predictable football drama that is very similar in tone and style to 2004's Friday Night Lights. While I like that film better, this is not a bad film at all. I was still able to root for and against some characters. This movie does a good job at holding my attention and bringing back some good high school memories.Brian Robbin's film is about a Texas football team in the town of West Canaan. After the star quarterback is injured, the back up guy, Moxon is forced to deal with his relentless coach Kilmer, his disapproving girlfriend, and his football-loving parents while starting in his new role that is all strange for him.The acting is pretty good. This is the first time I saw James Van Der Beek on film because I refuse to watch Dawson's Creek, but he does a pretty good job. Jon Voight gives a masterful performance as Kilmer and he just made me despise the character. Paul Walker does a good job and he does not even drive any cars! Overall, this may be a clichéd sports film, but there are some subtle differences such as scenes involving whipped cream, religious little brothers, and a health teacher who is much more than that. Despite some flaws, I couldn't help but root for the Moxon kid. I rate this film 9/10.

You have the right to say: one more high school varsity football film. And it has absolutely all the defects of these films: the kids are unthinkable non-thinking machines. At first at least. The coach is a brute that dopes his players or gives them unethical injections for them to play even when they should not. He is a gross character who treats his players as if they were in a marine training camp and he were a training sergeant as depicted by some films about the Vietnam war. Gross language, blackmailing, violence even are some of his skins on top of the illegal stuff and unethical actions.But the film reveals two elements that are essential to understand this sport is not exactly and only that. First the fathers are shown as being pure idiots who want their children to play football for only two reasons: because they played football when they were going to that particular high school themselves. They are frankly undrinkable nostalgic-spirited bigots about football. And the second reason is that their sons can earn, or win, a full scholarship in college, alleviating the expense for the family. That transforms football into some kind of narrow-minded culture, not to speak of open institutionalized moral prostitution or slavery.The teenagers are well obliged, willy-nilly for some, to play the game which means violence, superficial clichés and attitudes including racism against the only black on the team, sexism and hefty male-chauvinistic attitudes, some girls overplaying the game by becoming the prize of each game for the winner. Not to speak of alcohol and other inacceptable practices including public or semi-public sex, driving under the influence, drinking binges and challenges, and even some open and gross misdemeanor. This film becomes then some kind of a manifesto against that absurd and inhumane culture.But the film also shows how the initial quarterback is the victim of some medical mishandling from the coach, and how he will in the last game of the season support his "substitute" that leads that game to a direct confrontation of the whole team with the coach. This coach is on the point of forcing the only black player to accept an injection in his knee to go back on the field. The substitute quarterback tells the black player not to do it and he quits when he is menaced by the coach. But he had built a new spirit in the team putting the black chap in the front and using several other tactics that were creative and valorizing for other players than himself, or the coach. The team then refuses to go back for the second half of the game and the coach is forced to leave. The players then take over: the ex- and the new quarterbacks together, the ex- assuming the coach's position. And the rest is the good ending.Football, like all other sports, could be a beautiful adventure for the players all the time if some coaches did not use the system to valorize themselves by over exploiting the players. But apart from what I have said, yes it is another high school varsity football film.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, University Paris 8 Saint Denis, University Paris 12 Créteil, CEGID