Friday Night Lights is like a third-down play that needs to pick up four yards but gets only two.
Friday Night Lights (2004)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:162
Fresh:132
Rotten:30
Average Rating:7.2/10
Consensus: An acute survey of the football-obsessed heartland that succeeds as both a stirring drama and a rousing sports movie.
Rated: PG-13 [See Full Rating] for thematic issues, sexual content, language, some teen drinking and rough sports action
Runtime: 1 hr 58 mins
Genre: Dramas
Theatrical Release:Oct 8, 2004 Wide
Box Office: $61,188,085
Synopsis: From Oscar®-winning producer Brian Grazer and Imagine Entertainment and based on the best-selling book about high school football by H.G. Bissinger, Friday Night Lights chronicles the entire 1988... From Oscar®-winning producer Brian Grazer and Imagine Entertainment and based on the best-selling book about high school football by H.G. Bissinger, Friday Night Lights chronicles the entire 1988 season of the Permian High Panthers of Odessa, Texas, with football players, coaches, mothers, fathers, pastors, boosters, fans and families struggling with ongoing personal conflicts while the team fights for a state championship. A town for sale, Odessa, Texas has seen better days--the financial bust evident in its boarded-up shops and broken lives. Yet one hope sustains the community where, once a week during the fall, the town and its dreams come alive beneath the dazzling and disorienting Friday night lights...when the Permian High Panthers take to the field. In a city where economic uncertainty has eroded the spirit of its inhabitants, nearly everyone seeks comfort in the religion of the Friday night ritual, where the unfulfilled dreams of an entire community are shifted onto the shoulder pads of a team of high-school athletes. Friday Night Lights captures the frenzy of a small town that reveres its school team and their weekly games. With Odessa standing in for places just like it all across America, the film provides an illuminating look at the hoped-for successes and the built-in failures of trying to live the American Dream through the efforts of a group of talented young men. The film is produced by Academy Award® winner Brian Grazer, directed by Peter Berg (The Rundown, Very Bad Things) and adapted from Bissinger's book by Berg and David Aaron Cohen (The Devil's Own). -- © Universal Pictures [More]
Starring: Billy Bob Thornton, Tim McGraw, Derek Luke, Jay Hernandez
Starring: Billy Bob Thornton, Tim McGraw, Derek Luke, Jay Hernandez, Lucas Black, Garrett Hedlund, Lee Thompson Young, Lee Jackson
Director: Peter Berg
Director: Peter Berg
Screenwriter: Peter Berg, David Aaron Cohen
Producer: Brian Grazer
Composer: Explosions in the Sky
Studio: Universal Pictures
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Reviews for Friday Night Lights
Berg takes you so deep into the action, you can hear the bones crunch.
The film feels like an anthology of cliches from a hundred football movies.
Boilerplate stuff, though livened by flashy editing and cinematography.
Lights feels real, honest and -- most of all -- heartfelt, and it's filled with good performances and a fine spirit.
You will watch as though you've been rooting for the Panthers your entire life. The movie is that good.
You'll be surprised -- and thrilled -- by how completely this film engages you.
How you view the film will undoubtedly depend on how much you share the movie's unhealthy attitude towards competitive sports.
... had me literally in goose bumps and with my heart going into overdrive.
Football flick that will have you crying like a little baby. Powerfully directed, well-written with stalwart acting. However, gritty audio/visual may abrade.
Dizzying handheld camera shots make us part of every hard-hitting tackle
far too long with too many magnolious collisions on the field with little consequence, pretty much a movie without a premise.
The games are dynamically filmed...but they lack credibility as players on both teams are obviously on a script and big plays are stage-managed to a ridiculous degree.
Friday Night Lights is a captivating movie for anyone from the most avid football fan to the people who aren't sure how many points you get for a touchdown
After stumbling out of the huddle and getting flagged for a few false start penalties, Friday Night Lights finally gets the chains moving in the second half.
Director Peter Berg’s adaptation is the cinematic equivalent of a recovered fumble: not disastrous, but also not terribly good.
I'll stop short of calling it the greatest sports movie ever created, but it's certainly got to be up there in the top five.
Latest News for Friday Night Lights
August 08, 2008:
Play Ball With RT's Top Sports Movies!
It's a busy time in the sports universe: the Olympics are underway, baseball's pennant races are heating up, and NFL players are in the midst of training camp. (Oh, and Shaq and... More...
December 23, 2007:
Peter Berg Confirmed to Direct New Dune Film
Score another one for the rumor mill: Peter Berg has been confirmed as the director of a new Dune. More...
October 16, 2007:
And the Possible Dune Remake's Director Might Be...
A few weeks ago, we discussed a CHUD report about Frank Herbert's Dune possibly heading back to the big screen. Now, according to Ain't It Cool News, some of the details... More...
June 05, 2007:
Scott Porter Signs On for a "Speed Racer" Role
Fans of TV's "Friday Night Lights" may be familiar with actor Scott Porter. Movie fans will see him in next year's "Speed Racer" adaptation. More...
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