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, 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.

It’s 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 90s update of the John Hughes-style high school teen comedy dramas of the early 80s all seemed a bit passé in 1999, but it passes the time well enough and provides a bit of innocent, good-natured uplift.

Jon Voight amuses as he goes over the top and down the other side as the lads’ hard-driving bully of a coach. 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’s not too bad at all, especially given that it’s made by Brian Robbins, the director of Good Burger (1997) – two words to strike terror in adult hearts.

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

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.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 465

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