Varsity Blues *** (1999, James Van Der Beek, Jon Voight, Paul Walker, Ron Lester, Scott Caan, Amy Smart, Richard Lineback) – Classic Movie Review 465

James Van Der Beek makes a pleasant high-school hero in the jolly 1999 American coming-of-age sports comedy drama film Varsity Blues about five football players put to the test as they bid to be heroes in a near-perfect season.

Director Brian Robbins’s 1999 American coming-of-age sports comedy drama film Varsity Blues stars James Van Der Beek, Jon Voight, Paul Walker, Ron Lester and Scott Caan.

James Van Der Beek, from TV’s Dawson’s Creek, makes a pleasant enough high-school hero in director Brian Robbins’s undemanding but jolly 1999 tale of five football players put to the test as they bid to be heroes in a near-perfect season.

Varsity Blues is set in a high school in a Texas small town, where high-school American football is virtually a religion and the head coach is a god, provided his team are winners.

The 26-year-old Paul Walker co-stars the team’s star quarterback Lance Harbor. But when he is injured, the West Canaan Coyotes are compelled to reorganise under the dubious command of John Moxon (Van Der Beek), a second-string quarterback with offbeat attitudes.

This late Nineties update of the John Hughes-style high school teen comedy dramas of the early Eighties all seemed a bit passé in 1999, but it passes the time well enough. It has plenty of US small-town atmosphere, and it provides a fair bit of innocent, good-natured uplift. And above all it has a likeable bunch of actors to sell it.

Jon Voight amuses as he goes over the top and down the other side as the lads’ hard-driving bully of a coach. Ron Lester as overweight Billy Bob, Scott Caan as cocky Charlie Tweeder, Amy Smart as Julie Harbor, Ali Larter as Darcy Sears and Jesse Plemons as Tommy Harbor are all also useful members of the film’s team.

As a teen-oriented sports comedy drama with tension and humour, plus something worthwhile to say about sport madness and the way young players are affected by undue pressures, it is not too bad at all, especially given that it is made by Brian Robbins, the director of Good Burger (1997) – two words to strike terror in adult hearts.

It is written by W Peter Iliff. 

It was made by MTV Productions and Michael Tollin/ Brian Robbins Productions, and released in the US on 15 January 1999 by Paramount Pictures, grossing $54.3 million worldwide against a $16 million budget.

Paul William Walker IV (September 12, 1973 – November 30, 2013) 

Tragically, Paul Walker died in an appalling car crash on November 30 2013, aged only 40.

Ron Lester

Ron Lester, who plays Billy Bob and was Spatch in Good Burger (1997), died on June 17 2016, age 45. He was hired as the lovable fat kid but by 30 he weighed a life-threatening 508 pounds.

James Van Der Beek (March 8, 1977 – February 11, 2026)

Van Der Beek died on February 11, 2026, at the age of 48 after having been diagnosed with colorectal cancer on August 31, 2023.

His films include Varsity Blues (1999), Texas Rangers (2001), The Rules of Attraction (2002), Formosa Betrayed (2009), Labor Day (2013), and Bad Hair (2020).

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 465

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