This is a predictable football movie that lacks intensity. Read critic reviews
Varsity Blues
1999, Comedy/Drama, 1h 44m
56 Reviews 100,000+ RatingsWhat to know
You might also like
See More
Undercover Brother
Hardball
The Whole Ten Yards
Bad News Bears
Envy
Where to watch
Rate And Review
-
What did you think of the movie? (optional)
You're almost there! Just confirm how you got your ticket.
You're almost there! Just confirm how you got your ticket.
What did you think of the movie? (optional)
How did you buy your ticket?
-
Fandango
-
AMCTheatres.com or AMC AppNew
-
Cinemark Coming Soon
We won’t be able to verify your ticket today, but it’s great to know for the future.
-
Regal Coming Soon
We won’t be able to verify your ticket today, but it’s great to know for the future.
-
Theater box office or somewhere else
Varsity Blues Videos
Varsity Blues Photos
Movie Info
In West Canaan, Texas, high school football reigns supreme. When starting quarterback Lance Harbor (Paul Walker) turns up injured, the Coyotes' ruthless coach, Bud Kilmer (Jon Voight), must promote benchwarmer Jonathon "Mox" Moxon (James Van Der Beek) to lead the team in its quest for a divisional title. Suddenly thrown into the spotlight, Mox must deal with the pressure of carrying the aspirations of an entire town on his shoulders, as he struggles to pursue his own very different dreams.
-
Rating: R
-
Genre: Comedy, Drama
-
Original Language: English
-
Director: Brian Robbins
-
Producer: Tova Laiter, Brian Robbins, Michael Tollin
-
Writer: W. Peter Iliff
-
Release Date (Theaters): original
-
Release Date (Streaming):
-
Box Office (Gross USA): $52.9M
-
Runtime:
-
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
-
Sound Mix: Surround, Dolby Digital, DTS
-
Aspect Ratio: Flat (1.85:1)
Cast & Crew
News & Interviews for Varsity Blues
Critic Reviews for Varsity Blues
Audience Reviews for Varsity Blues
-
Basically a cliched 90s football film, but still pretty damn entertaining. But then again, I'm a pretty big football fan, so this probably wouldn't be for everyone.
-
Voight helps guide this ship and the young cast are surprisingly up to the challenge of being in his presence. The film is a little mixed early on as it flirts with teenage storylines and humour, but it course corrects alter on. The film is better when it deals with the competitive nature of sport in small towns. The final third of this movie is the best part and saves an odd film narrative from being completely overshadowed by teenage humour. The film is strongest when allowing the material to flow, not force the humour. 20/04/2019
brendan n Super Reviewer -
This movie had instilled tradition of a high school football team where most of its kind comes up one yard short.
-
A Texas high school quarterback defies convention and a hard-line coach as he leads his team to success and raucous teen fun. My favorite sports film of all time is <i>61*</i>, and that's not just because I'm a die-hard Yankees fan. I think my favorite moment in Billy Crystal's film is Roger Maris's response to one of the reporter's questions: the reporter asks him about the heroism of what he accomplished (I wish I could quote verbatim, but I don't have that good a memory), and Maris replies, "I don't think that's something you can earn on a ball field." And because of the attention that film pays to Maris's off-the-field struggles, we understand his point. Essentially, <i>Varsity Blues</i> flirts with the same point. The main character, Mox, considers his goals reaching beyond high school, and the film attempts to satirize/criticize the seriousness with which Texas high school communities take football. The problem is that the film ends up reinforcing everything it criticizes. Everything that you think would happen does, and what we're left with is a crippling contradiction: the goals these people hold so dearly are foolishly short-sighted, but we're still supposed to relish in the moments the characters achieve them. Also, perhaps it's because my high school experience was much like most people's time in prison, but I always find films that portray high schoolers as adults, with the freedoms and problems adults have, to be extraordinarily false. After all, I don't know any town, in Texas or anywhere else, where seventeen- and eighteen-year-olds would be able to drink freely, steal a police car, go to a strip club (where their teacher moonlights [a teacher's pay isn't that bad]), and still face no consequences. Overall, if you like over-drawn cliches and don't mind if a film is thematically contradictory, then enjoy <i>Varsity Blues</i> and the brief but delectable shot of Ali Larter in a whip cream bikini.
Verified