'Any Given Sunday' (R)
An aging football coach (Al Pacino) finds himself struggling with his personal and professional life while trying to hold his team together. A star quarterback (Dennis Quaid) has been knocked out of the game and a third string QB (Jamie Foxx) replaces him only to become exposed to the world of sports and become a danger to himself and to his players. Meanwhile, the coach finds himself constantly at battle with the team owner (Cameron Diaz) intent on moving the team out. With LL Cool J as the star running back, Aaron Eckhart as the offensive coordinator, James Woods as the team doctor, Matthew Modine as his assistant, and various former NFL players popping up in cameos.
The first time I tried watching this was at a friends house...and I fell asleep. I just couldn't get invested into it at all and I guess I was a bit tired. But I decided to finally watch all of it as part of this Football Movie Draft. It's a darker look at football and fully earns it's R rating. At 156 minutes this movie is way too long. The football scenes are seemingly edited haphazardly. And it's a bit of a stretch believing that Cameron Diaz could be a knowledgeable owner of a football team. But the performances by Al Pacino and Jamie Foxx make this watchable. Really that is all I have to say about this movie.
DRAFT PROJECTION: Mid fourth round.
'Varsity Blues' (R)
In Texas, football is life. In his 35th year as head coach, Bud Kilmer (Jon Voight) is trying to lead his West Canaan Coyotes to their 23rd division title. When star quarterback Lance Harbor (Paul Walker) suffers an injury, the Coyotes are forced to regroup under the questionable leadership of John Moxon (James Van Der Beek), a second-string quarterback with a slightly irreverent approach to the game.
I only knew of this movie by reputation. I had heard that it wasn't very good and that the acting, particularly from 'Dawson's Creek' star James Van Der Beek, was rather poor. Did I think that it was that bad? No. Sure it's an extremely unrealistic portrayal of high school football that goes above and beyond any BS meter (all the kids should have been arrested and kicked off the team, and the head coach shouldn't have been coaching, one of the teachers shouldn't have been working at a school) but it is watchable. When it tries to be a comedy honestly it is pretty funny. When it wants to be a drama it gets a little too heavy handed and melodramatic. The football scenes are admittedly fun to watch. And yeah, James Van Der Beek's accent is pretty bad. But overall it's an okay movie.
DRAFT PROJECTION: Also mid fourth round.
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