I'll be the first to admit that I went into the screening of "Varsity Blues" thinking it would be just another run-of-the-mill sports "dramedy" (drama and comedy) filled with standard-issue, stock teenage characters (the smart jock, the sleep to success cheerleader, the party animal, etc...). An hour and a half or so later, I realized my assumptions had been correct.
However, I was somewhat pleasantly surprised -- but at the same time frustrated -- to find a decent little story regarding a sports-obsessed town and its inhabitants trying to claw its way out from all the mediocrity.
Unfortunately, instead of allowing that story to develop in a clever or at least intriguing way, this MTV production delivers something akin to a lackluster meeting of "Porky's" and "All the Right Moves." Consequently, the film fumbles what little chance it had at financial or critical success once its targeted teen audience is done with it after a week or two.
As such, screenwriter W. Peter Iliff ("Patriot Games," "Point Break") and director Brian Robbins (who at least has made a giant leap forward from the awful "Good Burger") simply deliver every cliche and stereotype about teens obsessed with sports and sex in a small, rural town. There are the wild parties (with drinking games and sex), the strip club sequence, the hard-nosed and belligerent coach, the parents who are more concerned with winning than their kids, the wild and rowdy player, the overweight and sensitive lineman, and, well, you get the picture.
Beyond the fact that we've seen all of that so many times before and that the filmmakers didn't chose to do anything particularly intriguing with any of those elements, the overall big question has to be why this film was ever made in the first place.
The answer, of course, is in hopes of sucking some money from the high school MTV generation (who will no doubt be drawn by a key cast member from TV's "Dawson's Creek" as well as prodding by that music channel's heavy promotion of the picture). While that makes good business sense (up to a point), it doesn't do much for a film's artistic -- or even entertainment -- potential.
Although so much of the film involves retreading of previously seen material that you'd think Michelin had produced it instead of MTV (no insult to Michelin intended), a few elements do show signs -- however meager -- of what might have been. While the film's attempt at humor via a younger brother's running "experimentation" with various forms of religions is ultimately unsuccessful, it does give a glimmer of more "sophisticated" material than what's otherwise delivered.
The film's really about football, however, and it's the moments involving the totalitarian coach and the one player who doesn't kowtow to him where the film occasionally shines and shows the minute potential that's otherwise crushed under the weight of too many stereotypes and sophomoric material.
Playing the only two characters that stand out from the mediocrity, James Van Der Beek (TV's "Dawson's Creek") and veteran actor Jon Voight ("Enemy of the State," "Anaconda") provide the setting for an epic battle -- at least for a small town -- of wills. Fortunately for the film, a few instances of that nicely boil out onto the screen.
Unfortunately, however, and despite his ferocious and on-the-nose take of such a coach, Voight -- who's now become the villain of choice in today's films -- can't escape his shallowly written character whose behavior is neither fully explained nor explored.
On the other hand, Van Der Beek's character is given more depth, and while the actor, for the most part, lends an air of credibility to his character, he occasionally exhibits behavior that's incongruous with the rest of his character (such as taking the guys out for an all-night binge of drinking and ogling at the local strip club the night before a big game).
The rest of the young and relatively unknown performers, however, fair even more poorly as they inhabit nothing more than stereotypical characters. Although Ron Lester ("Good Burger") brings a bit of depth and compassion to his overweight lineman, Scott Caan ("Enemy of the State"), model Ali Larter and the rest of the cast can't do much with their one-dimensional characters.
Most likely destined not to last in theaters much beyond this year's Super Bowl, the film isn't horrific and does work on the most basic level with the big game -- despite a goofy inspirational speech by Mox -- satisfactorily wrapping up the proceedings.
However, its tendency to jettison any halfway decently building moments in favor of the "Porky's" material (obviously to appeal to the male adolescents in the audience), along with its overall mediocrity, familiarity, and wasted potential regarding some interesting issues (sports obsession, dealing with sudden fame, etc...), makes it an otherwise forgettable picture.
Although there are signs of more intelligence lurking about, they're so obscured by the inane sophomoric material that few will recognize they even exist. As such, we give "Varsity Blues" just a 2.5 out of 10.
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