Featured Audience Ratings

• Phil H

  
  Bit of a classic Cruise machine this, backed up by a sterling cast including Craig T. Nelson, Lea Thompson and Chris Penn. Its a solid gruff story about a blue collar town that is kept alive by the local steel mill and how all the local kids wanna escape the town and reach for the… More
  Bit of a classic Cruise machine this, backed up by a sterling cast including Craig T. Nelson, Lea Thompson and Chris Penn. Its a solid gruff story about a blue collar town that is kept alive by the local steel mill and how all the local kids wanna escape the town and reach for the stars, grimy and emotional? check! I've always found the US school system quite amusing actually and this film really bugs me to tell the truth haha. I'm not sure if its really like this or if it was but football seems to be SO important in US schools, it runs peoples lives and they take it so so seriously that it can make or break their future. This is the plot within this film, football is Cruises live and because he insults the team coach he gets chucked off the team and practically loses his life plans in the process. What is also so odd about it (if its like this I don't know) is the fact the school coach seems to decide wether you can go to a better school or not no matter what grades you have, even though you are going for a football scholarship surely your grades count? bizarre!. So whilst watching I can only feel total confusion and frustration at the US school system hehe I just wanna say to Cruises character, forget football and just do what you wanna do, you have the grades. Besides this its a good film and well acted, Cruise goes over the top as per usual but he clearly shows talent when compared to other guys of his own age. Thompson is beautiful and such a dream as always whilst Nelson is quite unnerving as the hardass coach, he fits those kind of roles so well.

• Cassie H

  
  Great sports movie/love story!!! Tom Cruise is also so cute in this movie and Lea Thompson is adorable. Also it has a good story too about never giving up. I love it! :) I could watch it over and over. :) :) :)

• AJ V

  
  A fantastic teenage drama, I loved seeing Cruise and Thompson together in this movie, I love this movie.

• erika b

  
  this film was totally unrated . It was so touching and really good acting.

• Conner R

  
  The Varsity Blues of its time and an extremely effective story about goals and dreams. It's a lot more serious and dynamic than one might expect. Much of that goes to Tom Cruise's great performance as a very tangible high school football player who just wants to escape his… More
  The Varsity Blues of its time and an extremely effective story about goals and dreams. It's a lot more serious and dynamic than one might expect. Much of that goes to Tom Cruise's great performance as a very tangible high school football player who just wants to escape his family profession of working at the coal mine. This is about the pain and hardship that goes into getting what you want and doing everything you can to survive. Some might call it sappy, but I call it amazing.

• Dean M

  
  Emotional drama of a high school athlete's life for anything to escape his boring home town. Tom Cruise makes an excellent performance in his character role and Lea Thompson does a wonderful supporting role as a high school athlete's girlfriend.

• xGary X

  
  Once more Tom Cruise struggles with teen dilemmas and I find it almost impossible to give a shit.

• Mike T

  
  Tom Cruise flaunts his natural energy and charisma in this sappy melodrama. The concept is interesting, but the supporting cast is extremely weak. Lea Thompson is particularly abysmal as Cruise's annoying girlfriend. Really badly written dialogue, too.

• RJ M

  
  Tom Cruise plays a high school football player who is desperate for a college scholarship to escape his small Pennsylvania home town. It's a typical coming of age story brought to life by a full roster of very believeable characters. Cruise shows, even in this very early… More
  Tom Cruise plays a high school football player who is desperate for a college scholarship to escape his small Pennsylvania home town. It's a typical coming of age story brought to life by a full roster of very believeable characters. Cruise shows, even in this very early performance, that he's one of the most solid, and dependable actors around. He's surrounded by a host of familiar character actors like Lea Thompson as his girlfriend, Craig T. Nelson as the coach, and the late Chris Penn as his best friend. The cinematography really drives home the small town feel. Filmed in a Pennsylvania steel town, almost every shot in the movie is overcast, and it almost always appears to be raining. Symbolic perhaps of the many struggles of the young characters. An ironic bit of history for the movie...although it was released in 1983, the same year as Risky Business, it was actually filmed BEFORE that film was made. It went unreleased by the studio, until Business made Cruise a superstar overnight. Then 20th Century Fox decided to try and make a profit of Cruise's sudden fame, and put the movie into theaters.

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