Varsity Blues (1999)

Directed by Brian Robbins
Written by John Gatins & W. Peter Iliff
Starring James Van Der Beek, Jon Voight, Paul Walker, Ron Lester, Amy Smart

My Advice: Wait and Rent It.

John Moxon (Van Der Beek) is a perpetual second stringer on his high school football team, driven by his tyrannical coach (Voight) and his father (Thomas F. Duffy) to quit reading Vonnegut and for God's sake play some ball.  When he is suddenly rocketed to the position of star player, he has to deal with the fame he'd always envied of his friend, star quarterback Lance (Walker).

Formulaic, predictable, yet guiltily satisfying, this film is little more than a John Hughes' directed remake of the 1986 film Wildcats.  However it is able to transcend its fits of  paint-by-numbers sentimentality and be extremely entertaining.  This is largely due to the shenanigans the football players get up to.  Whether it's stealing a cop car or a night out at a strip club, their leader in all things naughty is Tweeder (a highly-amusing Scott Caan).  Any distracting lulls from the fun are temporary, mainly with Van Der Beek doing "the right thing" or convincing a friend to, then there's the obligatory "Dad, Let Me Live My Own Life" Speech ^TM.  These are gratefully few and brief.  They are forgivable largely because the cast seems to be having fun with their respective roles.  The standout is Ron Lester as the tremendously huge Billy Bob, a young Chris Farley on Prozac.  You just know Voight has a lot of fun being completely over the top as the ogre coach.  And we can't forget John's little brother Kyle (Joe Pichler), who is about eight or nine and spends his time sampling various religions.  One scene where he dresses up like a follower of the Nation of Islam is especially twisted in its pricelessness. 

As mentioned, the film has no real additions to make to the football movie genre, but really, what else is there to say on the subject?  We are given a bit of light fare in this outing that delivers many humorous moments and an ending that still is capable of putting you on edge, predictable or not.