Dawson’s Creek star James Van Der Beek is the school American football player who challenges the authority of his control-freak coach (Jon Voight in a hilariously over-the-top performance) when he becomes the team’s star player in this teen drama.
It’s basically a nineties update of eighties sports movies like Youngblood (dire hockey drama with Rob Lowe and Patrick Swayze), All the Right Moves (dire football drama with a very geeky-looking Tom Cruise) and Vision Quest (dire wrestling drama, aka Crazy for You, renamed after the Madonna theme song), with the usual mix of sports action (which may go over the heads – no pun intended – of non-American football aficionados), drinking, girls (the team discover one of their teachers is a stripper) and the odd moral tale thrown in. Predictable stuff for grown-ups but heaven on earth for hormonal Van Der Beek fans, if there are any left.
Is Varsity Blues suitable for kids? Here are our parents’ notes...
None.
If you like this, why not try: The Breakfast Club, Class, Dangerous Minds, Gregory's Girl, The Flamingo Kid,