User Reviews

If someone checks out the trailer, one might think, "Another MTV-produced teen flick. I think I'll pass on that." Well, I went into the theater not thinking it was going to be bad, but I expected more of an amusing film that isn't really high on ingenuity. True, "Varsity Blues" has those standard teen elements like wild drinking parties, the school slut, etc. But it never overuses those elements. It's more of a compelling comedy-drama about football that delivers a fine message about sportsmanship. You have a pretty good idea how it's going to end up, but it's the way it's executed that makes it special. Jon Voight is absolutely terrific as the no-nonsense coach. He's the kind of character you want to stab in the chest every minute he's on screen, and Voight was a perfect choice. The film dabbles with elements of the sport that probably hit home to some high school football players. Voight's character has only one goal: winning. And he doesn't care how he gets to that goal. If he has to shoot drugs into every one of his players, he's going to arrive at that goal. And I'm sure there are coaches out there who have that selfish goal. Then James Van Der Beek comes along, and his character is not really concerned with winning or playing football in the first place. But he likes football, has fun with it and simply wants to play a good, honest game. If the team wins, good. If it doesn't, so what. He has a good locker room speech at the end of the movie.

"Varsity Blues" is funny, moving and wonderfully acted. It might appeal more to teens and young adults, more than the older ones, but I still suggest everyone check it out.

Like a number of other reviewers, I though "Varsity Blues" wouldn't amount to much more than "Dawson Plays Football", MTV-style. Well, it's not -- it's actually quite good. It deals fairly realistically with the trials and tribulations of Dawson . . . sorry, Mox (James Van Der Beek), the backup quarterback more interested in "Catcher in the Rye" than in his own playbook, who is forced to become the starter for his team. The movie's filled with cliches: the town obsessed with the football team; the overweight, goofy lineman; the slutty cheerleader with the heart of gold; the arrogant coach; the teacher straight out of an early 80's Van Halen video; etc, etc. Surprisingly, there's enough twisted and wrinkles thrown into these cliches to make the story seem pretty fresh, if not entirely original. You know how the story's going to end, but you're not always sure how it's going to get there, and that's what keeps it interesting.

Van Der Beek is very good, much better that I ever thought I'd give him credit for. Also good: Paul Walker as the original starting quarterback, and Amy Smart as Van Der Beek's smart girlfriend. They played real characters as opposed to stereotypes, and I thought their performances really made the movie. Surprisingly, I thought the weakest link was Jon Voight as the head coach. He was a cardboard villain, no substance to him whatsoever. I kept waiting for the film to explain why he wanted to win so bad, why he'd push his kids with such inhuman cruelty . . . and besides "because he wants to win", an answer was never given. Too bad, although I think this was more the fault of the script than of Mr. Voight.

It's certainly not the best movie ever made -- for that matter, it's not even the best football movie ever made -- but it's still good. It has heart, and most of the performances make this film a cut above most of the "Teen Films" that are out there. A fun rental.

B-

Since this is a teen-oriented film, I must confess that I wasn't expecting this to be very entertaining. However, thanks to a generally intelligent script and a great job by Jon Voight, this turned out to be surprisingly good. As you would probably expect in a teen movie, there are some scenes that seem juvenile and pointless, but thankfully, this film manages to limit these needless diversions. The central story, although a familiar one, is well written and rather interesting. Definitely worth checking out.

From the previews, you would think that this movie is all fluff. But, there is actually a story involved here. Kids trying to be all that they can be despite a winning-obsessed coach (well played by Jon Voight) and pressures by parents and the town. Van Der Beek plays "Mox" very well, and there is a great soundtrack. It is better than most of the teen movies this year and deserves a watch.

Voight helps guide this ship and the young cast are surprisingly up to the challenge of being in his presence. The film is a little mixed early on as it flirts with teenage humour, but it course corrects later. The film is better when it deals with the competitive nature of sport in small towns. The final third of this movie is the best part and saves an odd film narrative from being completely overshadowed by teenage cheap humour.

A back-up quarterback (James VanDerBeek) is chosen to lead a Texas football team to victory after the star quarterback (Paul Walker) is injured.

I was never a football player. I was not fro ma town that cared about high school football. And I did not particularly care about the football team. Heck, I do not even happen to remember a single person who played on our school's team. So I do not exactly identify with anyone in this movie.

And yet, it happens to be pretty good. VanDerBeek does not stray too far from Dawson, which is how we like him best. Paul Walker is here, which is great, since his legacy is pretty much only "Fast and Furious". And Jon Voight is sort of a jerk, which is exactly how I imagine he is in real life.

I really liked this movie because it could have been me in high school. I recognized and empathized with many of the characters in this. At times it seems inane, but that is sort of real for teenagers to do. James Van Der Beek goes a little far with the character, who is a sheepish, pouty rebel. His acting and accent could have used some work too. His character is practically a port of his Dawson's Creek character. That is the biggest criticism: the characters seem a little too simplistic, and the resolutions to their problems seems scripted and forced at times. There is quite a bit of sexuality, which is very titilating. Unlike a Brett Easton Ellis based movie, there is more realism in this.

To me high school football is Texas football. I'm from South Florida and currently live in Southern Alabama as good as their programs are, they don't hold a candle to Texas football. I was lucky to play one year of J.V. football where I kept the bench nice and warm for the starters until in order to prevent the opponent from taking things out against the varsity team the next evening. The night of the homecoming bonfire there were more people at the J.V. game than at the event. Our opponent the Barbers Hill Eagles had already won the Varsity and Middle School Championship for the District and our game would cap off the hat trick. Going into the game we were confident of a victory because earlier in the year as a filler game we played and had easily won. No such luck. Suddenly the opponent suddenly gained twenty pounds of muscle and it was different. Thankfully due to two missed two point conversions and with a little over three minutes to go our star running ripped of a ninety three yard touchdown run to win the game. The Eagles coaches were so angry they made the team run back to the locker room ( they were bused in). Enough of memory lane.

Bud Kilmer legendary coach runs his team with an iron fist. Nothing will get in his way in order to win a district title. When his All-State quarterback suffers a career ending injury (in which he claims the extent was 'never brought to his attention') it is up to the backup to save the day. Turns out the back up was just as talented maybe even more so than the starter. A small act of rebellion has the coach threatening to sabotage his academic scholarship. It is then learned that the only reason why the team's star running only had three touchdowns were due to the fact he broke for runs over twenty yards. Now given when this movie was made I find it highly unlikely a coach would have that attitude maybe in the seventies or early eighties but no way a coach could last with that attitude. In a final act of defiance to preventing the ruin of an injured player well watch the movie.

One other thing, if Bud Kilmer was such a great coach, why did he only win two state championships?

Good kids vs evil football coach. The only thing that can make such a movie watchable is memorable characters created by good actors, and here is where Varsity Blues succeeds. I love it when I go into a movie expecting to hate it and then end up enjoying it. Give this one a try.

Until you played a competitive sport in a competitive state, you cannot say that this movie is really all that bad. Granted, the casting is very 2ks... in that I mean that amy smart and paul walker lost their appesl long ago, and especially the acceptance of a very "par like" writing, but the fact that the end of this movie connects on the deepest level with what all of anyones' possible high school aspiractions could ever dream to be is the reason that this movie succeeds on both a personal level as well as a dreamer's (aka all of our) level is the reason this movie should be praised as not a GREAT movie, but a movie we watch with reason for motivation as well as a movie that gives us reason to believe that inside of all of us, there is a Billy Bob or John Nox that can not only succeed but excel...

Shame on all that does not believe that this is the earliest instalment of a great Texas high school sports (all high school sports for that reason, especially in our own school's sports), that makes us believe in the greatness we are all capable of...

This movie was extremely mediocre. As a high school movie, it was completely unrealistic. This might be what high school is like in a TV show high school, but certainly not in real life. As a sports movie it is very predictable, Will they win the big game? etc. The plot was lacking, the acting was flat, the accents were kind of funny though. If you want a good high school movie, see "Superstar", it was a lot more believable.

I'm sure we've all known of, or at least heard of places, where nothing is bigger than high school football. The starting quarterback runs the town, the coach is considered a God (as long as he's winning), and the parents all live vicariously through their children. And most of the time, the kids actually playing football love the game too. But in the small town of West Caanan, the kids are running rampant, and the coach (Jon Voight) doesn't care.

James Van Der Beek stars as Jonathon Moxon (Mox), the backup quarterback of the high school football team. And he's happy with his situation. He gets to sit on the sidelines and read, hang out with the cool kids, and basically just wait until he can get out of this one horse town and head off to Brown University. But one day he sees the coach injecting pain killers into the knee of the starting quarterback. Then one of his best friends, Billy Bob, seems to have a concussion, but the coach makes him play. When the starting QB goes down, Mox is handed the team and is forced to decide whether to be the King of West Caanan, or to live his life the way he wants it to be lived.

I guess it wasn't a bad movie. The football scenes were done extremely well, and I generally liked the people I was supposed to like, and didn't like the people I wasn't supposed to like. But the movie lacked a certain focus. There were too many other things going on that didn't seem to have anything to do with the movie. The whole stripper/teacher thing didn't do anything but make me think back to my high school years and realize I didn't want to see any of those teachers naked. Then there was the black running back who claimed that the coach was a racist. He said that whenever they got near the goal line, the coach would always give the ball to a white guy so he could soak up the glory. While that may have been true, there was nothing in the movie to show that the coach was a racist. The only thing in the movie that said he was a racist was the black player saying he was. The whole race issue seemed to be thrown in there just for the sake of having it, rather than serving any purpose.

Some of the characters were too stereotypical. Mox's girlfriend for instance. As soon as Mox became the starting QB, his life started to change. In the town of West Caanan, starting QB was a position of popularity. But instead of letting Mox enjoy himself, even for a second, she started telling him he had changed. I figured that was going to happen, but don't you think a girlfriend would allow her boyfriend to enjoy his moment in the spotlight for just a few minutes before telling him he's not the man she fell in love with? Jon Voight's character was another one. I never played high school football, so maybe that's the way a coach is, but actually willing to ruin a kids life by making him play with a serious injury? And actually choking another player? I thought that his character went a little too far. It made him look extremely bad when that point had already been made.

My last rant has to do with the character of Darcy. She was the cheerleader who was dating the starting QB. As soon as he got injured, she started hitting on Mox. When she finally got him to come over to her house, he resisted her. Then she broke down and cried, and Mox solved all her problems in a few seconds. Much too quick a resolution for her. But I must say, I'll never look at whipped cream the same way again.

Overall I did enjoy Varsity Blues. It was fun to watch, even though it had a lot of script problems. The actors seemed to be having fun with their roles, and that made the movie better. So even though it had a lot of problems, overall it was enjoyable. And now, I'm off to find some whipped cream.

"They put them wieners on the glass at the Alano Club? No good." Nope, that's no good, but this movie is pretty darn good! I don't think it mixes the drama and slap-shticky comedy well, but I did end the movie with a smile on my face, so that works for me. I'm not a big fan of the Beek, but I am a huge fan of the whipped cream! And Billy Bob's recipe for breakfast - waffles dipped in peanut butter with a maple syrup chaser! Go Coyotes!

"Varsity Blues" is a tedious, shallow and formulaic tale of small town high school football hijinks wherein the adults are even more developmentally disabled than the hormone-crazed teenagers they've produced.

The film manages to encompass just about every cliché endemic to this well-worn genre. There is, for instance, the maniacal coach, driving his players to dangerous extremes on the field and circumventing sound medical advice for his own personal glory; the overbearing fathers obsessively attempting to recapture their former glory through their pumped-up progeny; the crybaby fat boy who throws up buckets of food at the seemingly numberless drunken orgies the boys participate in; the sensible boy whose head is not turned by sudden fame and fortune; and the supportive football-hating girlfriend who tries to keep her sweetie in tow despite his sudden ascension to the rank of football hero. All this doesn't take into account the bubbleheaded sexpot sex ed teacher who moonlights at the local strip joint; the befuddled cops; the drunken, smart-mouthed jock who hijacks a cop car and spends the evening joyriding through town with a bevy of naked, nubile girls from the neighborhood; or the horny young lady who dresses down and splashes on a whipped cream bikini only to be rejected by the pure-in-heart hero.

Then we arrive at the final game and the unconvincing showdown between the villainous coach and the righteously rebellious players led by the hero Moxon. Who will be victorious? If you have to ask, perhaps this is your first time at one of these movies. As this is an MTV movie production, the football scenes are, of course, pumped up with a blaring rock soundtrack that tries in vain to get the adrenalin flowing or the emotions charged. The major hindrance to this film comes down to the simple fact that none of these characters or situations convey the slightest aura of reality or believability.

For a far better, struggling-to-get-out-of-small-town-America film, check out 1999's "October Sky" or 1983's "All The Right Moves."

Out of all the MTV movies I've seen, "Varsity Blues" was definitely the best. It's cast did great acting and good portrayals of high school students and teachers. James Van Der Beek is just as good as the football jock as he is as movie buff Dawson on "Dawson's Creek". There is about an F word every 2 minutes and close up scenes of breasts, so this movie is not for kids. I'd say 14 and up. All out good teen movie. I would recommend it strongly.

If you can get through all of the teenage humor, there is a really great message for high school students in this movie. At the end of the movie, James Van der Beek's character gives a great speech about being a teenager and that it is important to remember that. I think that this was similar to the speech that Patrick Dempsey's character gave in "Can't Buy Me Love". I use it when teaching my students how important it is to be that, a student, not an adult. If you have never seen it, I recommend that you watch it, just remember, the teenage stuff is not as important as the message it sends out. It is important to be yourself. Enjoy life, it happens too quickly.

Varsity Blues bear comparison with two other football related films. One is The Last Picture Show set some 50 years before the action of this film. Not much has changed in Texas in the passing years.

The second is another high school football classic All The Right Moves with Tom Cruise. Cruise and star James VanDerBeek are both 18 and about to graduate frm high school.

The scholarship that Cruise gets from football to an engineering school is his ticket out of his drab Pennsylvania coal mining town. VanDerBeek plays football because it's expected of him. He's a second string quarterback but is in the running for a scholarship on academics.

Then first string quarterback Paul Walker is injured and it falls on VanDerBeek. At that point we see what a lot of VanDerBeek's problem is and it's coach Jon Voight.

Like in every Texas small town the local football coach is the town's biggest celebrity. But VanDerBeek s intelligent enough to see him for what he is a ruthless user of his players who doesn't care one wit about the young people in his charge as long as they win for him and win his way.

Gradually however some others start to see Voight for what he is. Te climax is quite a revelation to Voight.

Varsity Blues stands good comparison to the other high school football films I mentioned and to others also. VanDerBeek and Voight lead a well cast film that's quite a bit more than your usual teen flick.

I am a lover of sports movies whether they are good, bad or indifferent, but this one caught me by surprise. High school football movies are a dime a dozen so my expectations weren't high, but thiswas far better than I expected. The cast is really good led by Jon Voight as the coach and it successfully mixes high school humour, with sports and social issues. You don't need a crystal ball to figure out the ending, but it's a ride worth taking.

This is an unpretentious and entertaining movie about high school football in a small Texas community. OK, so we know who will win the Big Game, and that the Hero won't sell out to the mean and selfish 23-District-Championships-Coach (Jon Voigt). The movie is well paced and a pleasant diversion; (many in the audience actually applauded at the climactic scenes in the final moments).

What I find most interesting about the fact that this film was produced in association with MTV, is that for a Network ostensibly dedicated to iconoclastic themes and attitudes (i.e., anti-establishment and counter-culture), this movie is remarkably "old-fashioned" in the adherence to values espoused by the hero. After he becomes the starting quarterback, he resists the come-ons of his predecessor's beautiful girlfriend, and he will sacrifice his own scholarship to Brown University (an Ivy League school in Rhode Island for those of you not familiar) rather than let another player be used and potentially physically damaged by the unscrupulous coach.

Some of the scenes are reminiscent of other football films: The Longest Yard, All the Right Moves, North Dallas Forty, and so on, but I guess there are no real surprises these days after decades of the same essential stories in Hollywood. This is not just a "football movie" or a "guy movie" however, and it's well worth a look.

It's West Canaan, Texas and high school football is king. Pressure is intense. John Moxon (James Van Der Beek) is the backup quarterback who spends his time in the game reading a book. Coach Bud Kilmer (Jon Voight) hates his attitude and berates him for it. His girlfriend Julie Harbor (Amy Smart) is the sister of the star quarterback Lance (Paul Walker). Offensive lineman Billy Bob (Ron Lester) passes out and Lance gets hurt being sacked. John Moxon goes into the game, throws out the playbook and wins the game. Lance is out and his future is in doubt. Lance' girlfriend Darcy Sears (Ali Larter) starts trying to get Moxon. Soon Moxon's success starts to change him into a local star.

This is basically the same plot points as 'Friday Night Lights'. The difference is that this movie keeps trying to play the outlandish for comedy. The movie misunderstands the inherit dark drama and tries to make a funny high school comedy out of it. The two clash and doesn't work together at all. This could have been a very good movie and spawn a TV show.

The Puff Daddy-Real World-Hanson-Singled Out Network (MTV) continues their association with absolute feces. I prayed all night that my date would not drag me to see this movie but guess what? I would have preferred seeing this on a flight where they have the courtesy to provide barf-bags. I've loved Jon Voight's work in the past and his involvement here is only that much more tragic to me. He could have spent this time working on a real film. A complete waste that, sadly, appears to be destined to make enough money to keep the crap coming from MTV.

Having played football in West Texas for a 3-A dynasty team, this movie brings back the memories and the nightmares that a dynasty town can give. The scene with the convience store clerk giving Mox the beer is a regular thing as far as the players getting "special" treatment. The attitude of the players and coaches seem real. For a glimpse inside the fame Texas football attitude, this is the movie to watch!

This movie could have been much better had it not been for the pathetic football scenes where you know that they're going to win a game against all odds. A boring cliche. The sex parts were much better and reminded me of "Porky's". They were funny and sexy and could have held the movie together, putting the football stuff in the background story, perhaps making Jon Voight's character just an annoying football coach who would constantly be a victim of their pranks. Instead we're left with a would-be smart movie that just doesn't have the impact it could have, because it tries to show us how football coaches tyrannize their players. Van Der Beek isn't very believable, but the female actresses damn sure make up for it.