Based on H.G. Bissinger's book, which profiled the economically depressed town of Odessa, Texas and their heroic high school football team, The Permian High Panthers.
Director:
Peter Berg
Stars:
Billy Bob Thornton,
Jay Hernandez,
Derek Luke
Several players from different backgrounds try to cope with the pressures of playing football at a major university. Each deals with the pressure differently, some turn to drinking, others to drugs, and some to studying.
Rudy has always been told that he was too small to play college football. But he is determined to overcome the odds and fulfill his dream of playing for Notre Dame.
When a plane crash claims the lives of members of the Marshall University football team and some of its fans, the team's new coach and his surviving players try to keep the football program alive.
Director:
McG
Stars:
Matthew McConaughey,
Matthew Fox,
Anthony Mackie
The new owner of the Cleveland Indians puts together a purposely horrible team so they'll lose and she can move the team. But when the plot is uncovered, they start winning just to spite her.
Director:
David S. Ward
Stars:
Tom Berenger,
Charlie Sheen,
Corbin Bernsen
The Indians are now a World Series contender. But last year's hunger is now replaced with complacency, and bad decisions by the new owner threaten to tear the team apart.
Director:
David S. Ward
Stars:
Charlie Sheen,
Tom Berenger,
Corbin Bernsen
Based on the story of Vince Papale, a 30-year-old bartender from South Philadelphia who overcame long odds to play for the NFL's Philadelphia Eagles in 1976.
Director:
Ericson Core
Stars:
Mark Wahlberg,
Greg Kinnear,
Elizabeth Banks
The true story of Herb Brooks, the player-turned-coach who led the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team to victory over the seemingly invincible Russian squad.
Director:
Gavin O'Connor
Stars:
Kurt Russell,
Patricia Clarkson,
Nathan West
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 35th 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.Written by
Steven Chea <schea@mail.utexas.edu>
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.
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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.