
In small-town Texas, high school football is a religion. The head coach is deified, as long as the team is winning and 17-year-old schoolboys carry the hopes of an entire community onto the gridiron every Friday night. In his 30th year as head coach, Bud Kilmer (Jon Voight) is trying to lead his West Canaan Coyotes to their 23rd division title. When star quarterback Lance Harbor (Paul Walker) suffers an injury, the Coyotes are forced to regroup under the questionable leadersh... (Full plot summary below)
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In small-town Texas, high school football is a religion. The head coach is deified, as long as the team is winning and 17-year-old schoolboys carry the hopes of an entire community onto the gridiron every Friday night. In his 30th year as head coach, Bud Kilmer (Jon Voight) is trying to lead his West Canaan Coyotes to their 23rd division title. When star quarterback Lance Harbor (Paul Walker) suffers an injury, the Coyotes are forced to regroup under the questionable leadership of John Moxon (James Van Der Beek), a second-string quarterback with a slightly irreverent approach to the game. "Varsity Blues" explores our obsession with sports and how teenage athletes respond to the extraordinary pressures places on them.
Leave your thoughts about Varsity Blues.
| Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanThe movie is also brisk and wholehearted and smarter than you expect. |
| The New York TimesStephen HoldenA paint-by-numbers story that offers no surprises and a hero and villain etched in white and black with few shades of gray. |
| Washington PostMike MusgroveThis flick has modest ambitions, but it delivers the goods in a fresh manner. |
| Rochester Democrat and ChronicleJack GarnerCaptures the craziness of high school football! |
| Chicago TribuneJohn PetrakisIf you are willing to overlook the occasional missed block, clumsy tackle or dropped pass, there is more than enough in Varsity Blues to keep you engrossed. |
| Film.comTom KeoghDirector Brian Robbins ("Good Burger") and screenwriter W. Peter Iliff ("Prayer of the Rollerboys") have wrapped their moral fable in a glossy package of hard football action and towel-slapping, hard-body fun that might seem exciting if you've never seen a movie before. |
| Chicago ReaderLisa AlspectorIts depiction of teenage behavior appears calculated to seem irreverent while satisfying expectations. |
| Los Angeles TimesJohn AndersonA trashy little movie about drinking, football and drinking, is also one of those films that pretends to moralize about the very behavior it milks for every giggle it can get. |
| San Diego Union-TribuneDavid ElliottThe football action is rough, intricate and involving. |
| rec.arts.movies.reviewsDavid N. ButterworthIf you're a teenaged girl, then "Varsity Blues," which stars "Dawson's Creek" mega-heartthrob James Van Der Beek, might well be the greatest film ever made. |