A mediocre Varsity Blues

Rating: 3/10 (10 October 2004)

I find football a far more interesting sport than baseball, but for some reason baseball gets much better films (there is no equivalent of The Natural or Field of Dreams for football. Football fans get crap like Rudy). Friday Night Lights, unfortunately, does nothing to break that tradition.
The movie follows the book by Buzz Bissinger and touts to be based on a real story, but oddly enough for such claims the movie has less emotional impact than another movie I found similar, Varsity Blues. Lights follows the story of a high school football team from Odessa, Texas as they make their way to the state championship in 1988.
The main problem with the film is that there's no central character. We're given a potentially interesting ensemble, but no one to connect with. Coach Gaines (Billy Bob Thornton) isn't particularly deep; he's neither likable, like Gene Hackman from Hoosiers, nor talented but venal, like Robert Voight from Varsity Blues. He's just sort of there, in theory the leader of the team but actually having very little impact whatsoever (other than to broadcast the unorthodox ending). Likewise with players Mike (Lucas Black), Don (Garrett Hedlund), and Chavez (the almost always reliable Jay Hernandez); we get glimpses into their lives (well, okay, not Chavez's, at all) but only glimpses, not anything near enough to make them engaging characters. And what we are given is pretty rote: Mike has problems with his mother, who might or might not be losing her mind; Don's dad (country singer Tim McGraw) is an overbearing and often drunk former high school football star (which we saw done to far better effect, again, in Varsity Blues); and so on. We aren't given any meat to these characters, except for one guy, Boobie Miles (Derek Luke), and Boobie is such a jerk it's impossible to like him.
The movie chronicles the team's 1988 season, taking them from their first game straight through to the championship. Most of the game footage is acceptable but not overly exciting, and we get no special sense of any player's skill or weaknesses. Only when we get to the final game in the Astrodome does the pace step up; the second half of the game is portrayed in vivid style, exciting, and the movie comes to life and becomes riveting for about fifteen minutes. But that's a really long buildup for so little payoff, even if the plot does go in a slightly unexpected direction at the very end.
The performances are all adequate but hardly anything exciting. I was impressed by McGraw in one scene, where we find out why he is the way he is; but everyone else gives good solid performances. No one stands out, and no one is particularly bad. Firmly middle of the road.
Although I should probably take this movie on its own merits, there are so many similarities to Varsity Blues (one wonders if they weren't inspired by Bissinger's book a little) that it's frankly hard not to make the comparison, and Blues does a much better job with almost the same material (including remembering to round out its principals into actual characters). Lights is only so-so; worth maybe a rental on a bored Friday night, though I'm not sorry I saw the final ball game. But it's a definite pass on the big screen. If you want to see this story told in a much more interesting and entertaining way, rent Varsity Blues.