While staying with a family in Queretaro, Mexico, in summer 1999, I saw "Varsity Blues" in the local cinema. Since I'm totally numb to anything sports-related, I only half absorbed the movie (I spent most of the time reading the subtitles). Teenage boys are likely to only take interest in the whipped cream bikini scene. But I do know that in Texas, football is king; my mom had unpleasant experiences with that growing up in Galena Park, Texas. Obviously, the problem with calling it football is that we don't play it with our feet; that's why most of the world calls "football" what we incomprehensibly call "soccer". All in all, I'll mainly remember James Van Der Beek and Ali Larter for co-starring in "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back".

Varsity Blues bear comparison with two other football related films. One is The Last Picture Show set some 50 years before the action of this film. Not much has changed in Texas in the passing years.

The second is another high school football classic All The Right Moves with Tom Cruise. Cruise and star James VanDerBeek are both 18 and about to graduate frm high school.

The scholarship that Cruise gets from football to an engineering school is his ticket out of his drab Pennsylvania coal mining town. VanDerBeek plays football because it's expected of him. He's a second string quarterback but is in the running for a scholarship on academics.

Then first string quarterback Paul Walker is injured and it falls on VanDerBeek. At that point we see what a lot of VanDerBeek's problem is and it's coach Jon Voight.

Like in every Texas small town the local football coach is the town's biggest celebrity. But VanDerBeek s intelligent enough to see him for what he is a ruthless user of his players who doesn't care one wit about the young people in his charge as long as they win for him and win his way.

Gradually however some others start to see Voight for what he is. Te climax is quite a revelation to Voight.

Varsity Blues stands good comparison to the other high school football films I mentioned and to others also. VanDerBeek and Voight lead a well cast film that's quite a bit more than your usual teen flick.

It's West Canaan, Texas and high school football is king. Pressure is intense. John Moxon (James Van Der Beek) is the backup quarterback who spends his time in the game reading a book. Coach Bud Kilmer (Jon Voight) hates his attitude and berates him for it. His girlfriend Julie Harbor (Amy Smart) is the sister of the star quarterback Lance (Paul Walker). Offensive lineman Billy Bob (Ron Lester) passes out and Lance gets hurt being sacked. John Moxon goes into the game, throws out the playbook and wins the game. Lance is out and his future is in doubt. Lance' girlfriend Darcy Sears (Ali Larter) starts trying to get Moxon. Soon Moxon's success starts to change him into a local star.

This is basically the same plot points as 'Friday Night Lights'. The difference is that this movie keeps trying to play the outlandish for comedy. The movie misunderstands the inherit dark drama and tries to make a funny high school comedy out of it. The two clash and doesn't work together at all. This could have been a very good movie and spawn a TV show.