Blu-ray Capsule Review: Varsity Blues

I used to love this film, but now...

By: Brad Brevet
Published: Monday, September 28th 2009 at 11:40 PM

QUICK THOUGHTS: I was 22-years-old when Varsity Blues came out and while it's about high school students, the fact the majority of the actors are older or only slightly younger than myself it pretty much fit right into my early-twenties wheelhouse. Partying, playing sports and hot blondes in whipped cream bikinis (wait… what?). I mean, what isn't there for a 22-year-old not to love? Of course, the film is downright cheesy — "I don't want… your life" — and if you are going to attempt to take it seriously you have seriously taken a misstep. However, that isn't to say this film is an entire farce. High school football in Texas is a big deal and while I have no idea if they take it as far as Jon Voight's Coach Bud Kilmer takes it, I would be surprised if the majority of goings on in this film couldn't be cherry-picked from the various lives of the footballers coming out of the longhorn state. I will say this, it's at least a lot more fun than Friday Night Lights, 2004's lackluster look at the same culture.

Considering how much I liked this film when I first saw it I would say it hasn't lost all that much luster in my eyes, although I think the glaring issues and adolescent nature of it all don't hit home nearly as much as they used to. "Dawson Creek" star James Van Der Beek is still a joke when it comes to playing a leading man, but Paul Walker fits right in as the would-be star quarterback and Ali Larter as the sultry cheerleader awards all males with her previously mentioned whipped cream bikini . Other stars include Amy Smart (Crank) and Scott Caan (Ocean's Eleven).

The one thing that really caught me off guard was the fact this is directed by Brian Robbins, a man that has now come to be known for so much cinematic crap. This isn't to say Varsity Blues is some kind of less-talked about gem, but compared to Robbins' last four films it just might be. Consider this is the guy that brought us Tim Allen's Shaggy Dog and then delivered the two Eddie Murphy films Norbit and Meet Dave, the first of which was mentioned every time someone talked about the worst films in 2007 and the second was a film Murphy refused to even show up and attend his own premiere. Strangely, if not luckily, enough, this is the only film from Robbins I have ever seen and it just may stay that way.

SUPPLEMENTS: This first-time Blu-ray release was released alongside a special edition DVD version and it comes with a fair amount of special features, but I believe a lot of this is new, or at least newly produced. Four featurettes include a making of featurette and a look at the process of creating the football scenes and training the actors, a silly QB analysis look with NFL bench quarterback Josh McCown and the best feature with Ron Lester who played Billy Bob and was close to 500 pounds at one point and about 450 during the shoot and has since had 17 surgeries (plastic and gastric bypass) and is now weighing in at 190 pounds. Lester brings a lot to this film and it is nice to see he got his weight under control and the way he tells it is quite emotional.

There is also an audio commentary specially recorded for this 10th anniversary edition with Robbins and producers Tova Laiter and Mike Tolin. It's decent, but nothing worth wasting your time over if you aren't immediately interested.

FINAL THOUGHTS: I like this film, but as I said it's something more for the younger moviewatcher in me and I really could go the rest of my life without ever watching it again. Then again, I may decide to return to it some time again in the next year, but with a not-so-special set of "special" features a Netflix rental could take care of that.

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