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Review by Susan Granger
2 stars out of 4
Teenybopper idol James Van Der Beek of TV's "Dawson's Creek"
gets a big screen break in this football flick. Its strength is that
examines the pressures placed on high school athletes by their parents
and coaches. Its weakness is that it reduces a serious topic into all
the shamelessly predictable cliches of teenage comedy that are
liberally dished out by writer W. Peter Iliff. "Football is a way of
life," Van Der Beek explains as a second-string quarterback in rural
Texas, where devotion to high-school football attains a religious
fervor. "You never question the sanctity of the coaches," he adds. Jon
Voight plays Bud Kilmer who has coached his West Canaan, Texas, AAA
team to two state championships and 22 district championships in his
35-year tenure. There's a big bronze statue of Coach Kilmer right
outside of the stadium which is named for him. The story revolves
around Van Der Beek and his girl friend (Amy Smart) who rebel against
the football mania gripping everyone around them. They're aware of the
Coach's tenacity to force ill or injured players to continue in the
game and appalled by his racist tendency to ignore black players when
it comes to scoring touchdowns. Understandably, the Coach doesn't
like him much but, when the star of the team wrecks his knee with five
games to go in a winning season, Van Der Beek's pushed up front and
center. His chances of an academic scholarship to Brown rest on his
performance. The cheerleader subplot is stupefying, as is having a
sex education instructor make students chant the common names for sex
organs in unison. Not too surprising for her character, though, since
she turns out to be a stripper in her off-hours. Unevenly directed by
Brian Robbins, on the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "Varsity Blues"
is fumbling 5. It's V for vulgar.
Copyright © 2000 Susan Granger
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