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El Lobo
Reviews
A Brother's Promise: The Dan Jansen Story (1996)
good lord is this awful
Before I get into this. Dan Jansen's story really is amazing and quite sad. However, this movie DOES NOT do him justice. This movie, from beginning to end is GOD AWFUL. The story jumps too much, the acting is mediocre, and the writing is terrible. It's a good thing this was a TV movie, or I would have been upset if I paid any money to see it. Honestly, the way it was written, you'd think that Dan had an unhealthy sexual obsession with his sister. Oy. Don't waste your time.
Varsity Blues (1999)
What a waste of time...
This film, in my opinion, seems as if a bunch of executives at Viacom (parent company of MTV) were sitting around in a meeting one day and said... "I got it... we'll make a movie about high school football. Throw teen heart throb James Van Der Beek in there, put the MTV logo on it and we've got a cash cow!" This movie was terrible. I watched this for free on TV, and still think I should have gotten a refund. I rated this movie a 3 out of 10. And it's lucky it even got that much. First, let me point out it's good qualities, before I tear into it.
It got one point just because of the fact that whole movie is about a town in Texas where the entire community bases its existence on high school football. I related to this because in my hometown, or at least in my school district, it's the same thing. It's not as extreme as it was in "Varsity Blues" but it is just as pathetic. I laughed because of the fact that some of the characters are carbon copies of the community from my alma mater.
It got another point for Jon Voight. Voight's character may be a little far-fetched (the evil football coach who is hell bent on winning regardless the safety and welfare of his players), but was played to a "T" by the veteran actor. In the entire movie, he was the best actor, and it was a pleasure seeing him perform.
And the third point is the cinematography. Granted, the actual movie itself isn't all that visually stimulating, but the football scenes... were tremendous. Out of all the football movies ever made, the scenes for this movie were expertly well done with some excellent choreography, lighting, and photography.
Other than that... this film SUCKED. It is full of so many flaws that it's hard to narrow it down for the purposes of this critique.
First, the casting. With the exception of the phenomenal job down by Voight, the acting in this movie is laughable. Van Der Beek falls in and out of his Texas accent so frequently, it makes Keanu Reeves' southern accent in "The Devils Advocate" sound authentic... ok... well, maybe it's not THAT bad, but bad nonetheless. The casting for this movie (again, with the exception of Voight) was badly done. Van Der Beek as a star quarterback? Give me a break. He's way too much of a pretty boy to seem like he ever even put on shoulder pads. There were also some points in the script, where you know the scriptwriter wanted a point to be made, but Van Der Beek's lackluster performance didn't drive the point home. The rest of the cast was adequate, but nothing spectacular. The character Billy Bob, I must say though, was well cast... because he was a disgusting pig which I never want to lay eyes on again unless he sheds a couple of tons.
The script, too, was horrendous. First of all, the characters were all one-dimensional. The quarterback who gets all the glory but is still of noble heart. The slut cheerleader who's not as happy as she lets everyone beleive. The low self-esteem fat kid. The football-obsessed father who wants his son to have what he never could. I could see right through all theses charcters.
Another problem with the script was that it was full of holes. First Moxon (Van Der Beek) doesn't like football because he's pressured into it by his father, than he loves it when he becomes a star, than he hates it, than he loves it... etc, etc. There's one point where Moxon is trying to cheer up the depressed Billy Bob by telling him to quit the foot ball team... than... NOT TWO MINUTES LATER, he says (and I'm paraphrasing) "Come on, Billy Bob... we need you." Jeeze! Make up your mind! This is just one of the many plot holes in the movie, but to discuss any more might cause me to reveal some spoilers. (although this movie does a pretty good job of spoiling itself)
And the kid who's always changing religions, this was supposed to be a running gag, but somehow I found myself not smiling. Not because I'm offended mind you, but it just wasn't funny.
Regardless, this movie, from what I'm told, did pretty well with all the teeny boppers, which isn't surprising. Again, the actual football scenes in this movie are the best I've ever seen. If you take every scene that doesn't take place on a football field and throw it away, this is the best football movie ever made (at least from the ones I've seen.) But if you're looking for something other than eye candy, than look elsewhere.