Varsity Blues (1999)

40% of critics liked it
(52 reviews)
75% of users liked it
(114,746 ratings)

In his first feature following the success of television's Dawson's Creek, James Van Der Beek stars as Jonathan Moxon, the back-up quarterback on his high-school football team, the West Canaan Coyotes. In West Canaan, the only thing that matters is football, and the man who matters is the one with… More In his first feature following the success of television's Dawson's Creek, James Van Der Beek stars as Jonathan Moxon, the back-up quarterback on his high-school football team, the West Canaan Coyotes. In West Canaan, the only thing that matters is football, and the man who matters is the one with 22 divisional championships, coach Bud Kilmer (Jon Voight). Mox, as the young "A" student is called, is wrapping up his senior year on his way to Brown University in the shadow of his childhood friend, star quarterback Lance Harbor (Paul Walker). With only five games until the end of the season, Kilmer pushes his players too hard, and Lance suffers a career-ending injury, forcing Mox to play and win the game. Now the starter, Mox must deal with his newfound celebrity; the attentions of Lance's girlfriend, head-cheerleader Darcy (Ali Larter); prevent his friends and fellow players Billy Bob (Ron Lester) and Tweeder (Scott Caan) from self-destructing; prevent Coach Kilmer from crushing everybody; and hold on to his own girlfriend, Lance's sister Jules (Amy Smart). Oh, and Mox must also win the championship and prove himself the hero. ~ Ron Wells, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: R, 2 hr.
Directed By: Brian Robbins
Written By: W. Peter Iliff
Genres: Drama

In Theaters: Jan 15, 1999 Wide
On DVD: May 31, 1999
Studio: Paramount Pictures

Critic Reviews

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly
Slickly enjoyable!
Robert Horton, Film.com
Varsity Blues eventually fizzles out badly!
John Petrakis, Chicago Tribune
The football scenes are involving, the acting is up to snuff, and there is something about those last days of high school that remains a solid background for even the most familiar of stories.
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Scenes work, but they don't pile up and build momentum.
Michael Rechtshaffen, Hollywood Reporter
Tired, corn-fed storyline and generic, plug-and-play direction!
John J. Puccio, Movie Metropolis
...tries hard to be honest and sensitive but often as not comes across as heavy-handed. (Blu-ray Edition)
John J. Puccio, Movie Metropolis
...slick, well made, and well acted, but it takes no chances. Seems a wasted opportunity.
Philip Martin, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
...someone could make a very interesting, nuanced film about the exalted place that high school football holds in some parts of Texas... this isn't that film.
Jeffrey Westhoff, Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, IL)
Van Der Beek and Voight weigh in with convincing performances .
Phil Villarreal, Arizona Daily Star
A serviceable 1990s teen flick.

Read all 10 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Jim H

A Texas high school quarterback defies convention and a hard-line coach as he leads his team to success and raucous teen fun. My favorite sports film of all time is 61*, and that's not just because I'm a die-hard Yankees fan. I think my favorite moment in… More
A Texas high school quarterback defies convention and a hard-line coach as he leads his team to success and raucous teen fun. My favorite sports film of all time is 61*, and that's not just because I'm a die-hard Yankees fan. I think my favorite moment in Billy Crystal's film is Roger Maris's response to one of the reporter's questions: the reporter asks him about the heroism of what he accomplished (I wish I could quote verbatim, but I don't have that good a memory), and Maris replies, "I don't think that's something you can earn on a ball field." And because of the attention that film pays to Maris's off-the-field struggles, we understand his point. Essentially, Varsity Blues flirts with the same point. The main character, Mox, considers his goals reaching beyond high school, and the film attempts to satirize/criticize the seriousness with which Texas high school communities take football. The problem is that the film ends up reinforcing everything it criticizes. Everything that you think would happen does, and what we're left with is a crippling contradiction: the goals these people hold so dearly are foolishly short-sighted, but we're still supposed to relish in the moments the characters achieve them. Also, perhaps it's because my high school experience was much like most people's time in prison, but I always find films that portray high schoolers as adults, with the freedoms and problems adults have, to be extraordinarily false. After all, I don't know any town, in Texas or anywhere else, where seventeen- and eighteen-year-olds would be able to drink freely, steal a police car, go to a strip club (where their teacher moonlights [a teacher's pay isn't that bad]), and still face no consequences. Overall, if you like over-drawn cliches and don't mind if a film is thematically contradictory, then enjoy Varsity Blues and the brief but delectable shot of Ali Larter in a whip cream bikini.
Jennifer X

I made it my goal to see all of the football films in the world since I love Friday Night Lights so much, and man was that a mistake. Varsity Blues is a pedestrian, fart joke sort of movie with the brain capacity of a three year old.
Manu G

Saw it again!!! I just love highschool football movie like this. Nice good cast!!! onathan "Mox" Moxon (James Van Der Beek) is an academically gifted backup quarterback for the West Canaan High School football team. Despite his relative popularity at school, easy… More
Saw it again!!! I just love highschool football movie like this. Nice good cast!!! onathan "Mox" Moxon (James Van Der Beek) is an academically gifted backup quarterback for the West Canaan High School football team. Despite his relative popularity at school, easy friendships with other players, and smart and sassy girlfriend, Jules Harbor (Amy Smart), Mox is dissatisfied with his life. He wants to leave Texas to go to school at Brown University. He also dislikes his football-obsessed father (Thomas F. Duffy) and dreads playing football under legendary coach Bud Kilmer (Jon Voight). Kilmer is a verbally abusive control freak whose philosophy can be summed up as "win at all costs". He has a strong track record as coach, remarking in a speech that "in my thirty years of coaching football at West Caanan, I have brought two state titles, and 22 district championships!" Kilmer's philosophy finally takes its toll on Coyotes' quarterback, Lance Harbor (Paul Walker). It is revealed that Lance, who is Mox's best friend, had been manipulated into taking cortisone shots into an injured knee that finally gave out on a huge sack. Lance is rushed to the hospital, where doctors are appalled at the massive amount of scar tissue found under his knee. Mox, who has accompanied Lance to the hospital, is shocked when Kilmer tells the doctor that he knew nothing at all about Lance's knee problems, when in fact Kilmer ordered the trainer to inject the shots. In need of a new quarterback, Kilmer reluctantly names Mox to replace Lance as captain and starting quarterback. The move brings unexpected dividends for Mox, one of them being Darcy Sears (Ali Larter), Lance's beautiful blonde cheerleader girlfriend, who is interested in marrying a football player in order to escape small-town life. Darcy even goes so far as to attempt to seduce Moxon, sporting a bikini made of whipped cream over her otherwise naked body, but he rebuffs her as gently as he can. Becoming fed up with Kilmer and not feeling a strong need to win, Mox starts calling his own plays on the field without Kilmer's approval. He also finally tells his football obsessed father off at one point screaming at him "I don't want your life!" Mox's father had been a football player at West Caanan, and although Kilmer dismissed him as a "no talent pussy" he did say that he at least listened (unlike Mox). Kilmer, who becomes aware that Mox has won a full scholarship to Brown, warns Mox that if he doesn't fall in line, he will alter his transcripts in order to reverse the decision on his scholarship. Another friend of Mox's, Wendell Brown, is injured on the field shortly thereafter. Kilmer manipulates Wendell into taking a shot of cortisone to deaden the pain from his injury, allowing him to continue even in the face of a permanent injury. Wendell, who is desperate to be recruited by a good college, grants his consent. At this moment, Mox tells Kilmer he'll quit the team if the needle enters Wendell's knee. Undaunted, Kilmer orders Charlie Tweeder (Scott Caan), a friend of both Mox and Wendell, to take the snaps. Tweeder refuses. Mox tells Kilmer that the only way they'll return to the field is without him. Realizing that he will be forced to forfeit the game, Kilmer loses control and attacks Mox. The other players break up the fight and then refuse to take to the field. Knowing his loss of control has cost him his credibility, Kilmer tries in vain to rally support and spark the team's spirit into trusting him, but not one player follows him out of the locker room. Kilmer continues down the locker room hall, and seeing no one following him, turns the other direction and into his office. The team goes on to win the game without his guidance. In a voice-over epilogue, Mox states that he "never played football again. Lance went on to a successful coaching career (he did not work at Wal-Mart as feared by Darcy), Wendell received a scholarship to Grambling, Billy Bob cried because he's a bit of a crier, Tweeder drank beer because, well...Tweeder drinks beers. Kilmer retired, never to coach football again. However, his statue still stands only because it was too heavy to move. I took the scholarship and will graduate from Brown University."
Conner R

This might have the reputation of being a dumb and frivolous high school drama, but it's a lot more layered than you'd think and extremely entertaining to watch. Half of the time it's a self parody of football freaks from Texas and the other half is just pure fun.… More
This might have the reputation of being a dumb and frivolous high school drama, but it's a lot more layered than you'd think and extremely entertaining to watch. Half of the time it's a self parody of football freaks from Texas and the other half is just pure fun. It's as if All the Right Moves was remade from a cynical point of view for the 90s. James Van Der Beek naturally rules supreme as Mox, the smart second string quarterback who doesn't want a life of football. So he makes his own rules and defies Texan god Bud Kilmer, the most evil man to ever coach a football team. What I like about Varsity Blues is that it doesn't take itself seriously and basically has a great message about the pressure of sports in school above everything else. It's also got just about every bizarre high school stereotype, but it's all in good fun. Who doesn't love a whip cream bikini?
Lorenzo v

"Make your own rules." In small-town Texas, high school football is a religion. The head coach is deified, as long as the team is winning and 17-year-old schoolboys carry the hopes of an entire community onto the gridiron every Friday night.… More
"Make your own rules." In small-town Texas, high school football is a religion. The head coach is deified, as long as the team is winning and 17-year-old schoolboys carry the hopes of an entire community onto the gridiron every Friday night. <center>REVIEW</center> I didn't expect much out of Varsity Blues, but the movie delivers. Sure, all the cliches and high school fantasies are included, but they are intended. The movie's exaggeration of these characters and situations is oftentimes very funny, and it works. The actual plot keeps you interested in what happens to the characters and what happens to the team. The movie is refreshing as well, in the fact that the injured quarterback does not become the "bad guy", and the blonde "ambitious" cheerleader becomes a somewhat sympathetic figure. As far as the football scenes are concerned, they are done very well, the only nitpicking thing that I could find as a football fan, is that on a long pass play the clock did not stop for a first down. In high school and college football the clock stops to move the chains, no big deal. And sure, we probably could figure out that the black running back would score a big touchdown, and that they would run the the five receiver set, and that the hook and ladder would come into play at the end, but it wasn't overly obvious like in some sports movies. Definitely should be an enjoyable movie for teens, adults, and football fans.
Jason O

Before I watched "Varsity Blues," I wasn't expecting it to be a great movie. But it turned out to be better than great, it's spectacular. Moxon (James Van Der Beek) is a football player who doesn't get the recognition he thinks he deserves because he is in the… More
Before I watched "Varsity Blues," I wasn't expecting it to be a great movie. But it turned out to be better than great, it's spectacular. Moxon (James Van Der Beek) is a football player who doesn't get the recognition he thinks he deserves because he is in the shadow of the starting quarterback, Lance. When Lance gets injured, Moxon becomes the new starting quarterback. He has to learn to be the team's new leader and how to deal with being the superstar. "Varsity Blues" is an all-around great movie. It has a great plot and even better acting, especially by Jon Voight as Coach Kilmer, James Van Der Beek as Moxon, and Ron Lester as Billy Bob. It's a great movie with a lot of drama, and it has one of the best endings of any movie I've seen lately. Billy Bob is the one that really makes this movie and after you see it, you'll know what I'm talking about. I recommend anybody to get "Varsity Blues." Note: That was my Amazon review from the year 2000. I'd have to see it again to know how it really stacks up to me.
Sanjaya &

Well, I'm surprised how good this film turn into... I know it is a typical teenager movie, but this time it's about football... The story in this movie was wrapped beautifully, I must say that I enjoyed the story... And for the cast, having Jon Voight in this movie make this… More
Well, I'm surprised how good this film turn into... I know it is a typical teenager movie, but this time it's about football... The story in this movie was wrapped beautifully, I must say that I enjoyed the story... And for the cast, having Jon Voight in this movie make this movie got a higher score than it should be because of Voight shows a strong performance in this movie... And for the teenager cast, they grow up well... Paul Walker, Ali Larter, Scott Caan, and Amy Smart, maybe not too popular in nowadays, but I know about them... Just James Van Der Beek who I never heard about... But overall, it's entertaining!!!
Chris W

Very entertaining, and filled with a number of scenes that work well, but unfortunatly, there are a few too many that aren't as good. The performances are probably the real highlight here, along with the accurate depiction of Texas football culture.
Jason S

Good flick about high school football. It is a staple in the teen movies of the late 90's and early 2000's. The cast played it off well and some of them went on to do other things. I liked it.
Rachel F

It's sad but it's good.
jay n

better then expected
danny d

brainless but ok, no classic but worth watching
Dean M

I like this comedy-drama high school footballer as they make up their rules - cool! Jon Voight's character is a bastard. Ali Lester's hotter in nudity scene with cream on.
Leigh R

It was alright.
Jackson W

This movie had instilled tradition of a high school football team where most of its kind comes up one yard short.
ashley h

Reminds me alot of Friday Night Lights in the way that the entire town is consumed w/ football. It had alot of things I felt it could have done without.I thought VanDerBeek did a pretty good job and I liked the ensemble.
Chad R

Come on - whipped cream bikini and football - what could be better? This movie started the career of many recognizable names today. Ali Larter (whipped cream bikini) - now on Heroes, Paul Walker (Douchebag) - but good in Fast and Furious, Amy Smart (super hot) - recently in many… More
Come on - whipped cream bikini and football - what could be better? This movie started the career of many recognizable names today. Ali Larter (whipped cream bikini) - now on Heroes, Paul Walker (Douchebag) - but good in Fast and Furious, Amy Smart (super hot) - recently in many movies including Just Friends, Scott Caan, (son of James Caan) - many bit roles in a lot of movies...oh yeah, and the absolute death of the career of James Vanderbeek. What has he done since? does anyone care? Anyway the movie has many memorable lines and scenes, one of those I rewatch as it is always on cable. Chicks ain't nothing but panty droppers --Tweeter.
jason d

dawson's football team.
Ira Z

Sappy, to say the least.
Lee K

I loved this movie and watch it everytime its on the tube