Varsity Blues

views updated

Varsity Blues ★★½ 1998 (R)

After star quarterback Lance (Walker) goes down with an injury, backup Mox (Van Der Beek) learns the perks of stardom in a small Texas town obsessed with high school football. It's not all free sixpacks and groupies in whipped cream bikinis, however. He butts heads with bloodandguts Coach Kilmer (Voight), whose winatallcosts philosophy is injuring his players. Mox leads the players in a rebellion against the coach, leaving the usual doubts about the inevitable “big game.” The young cast does an admirable job lifting the material above the average jock flick, but it lurches into the gutter a little too often for some tastes. 103m/C VHS, DVD . James Van Der Beek, Jon Voight, Paul Walker, Ron Lester, Scott Caan, Richard Lineback, Amy Smart, Thomas F. Duffy, Tony Perenski, Tiffany C. Love, Eliel Swinton, Jill Parker Jones, Joe Pichler, Ali Larter; D: Brian Robbins; W: W. Peter Iliff; C: Charles Cohen; M: Mark Isham. MTV Movie Awards ‘99: Breakthrough Perf. (Van Der Beek).