Synopsis of Varsity Blues: The "hero" in this movie is John Moxon (James Van Der Beek), a senior at West Canaan High School and second string quarterback on the varsity football team. He's really hoping to get a scholarship at Brown University so that he can get out of the dead-end town, West Canaan, Texas. The town is portrayed in the film as small and pathetic, treating the weekly football games as the Second Coming. When the star quarterback is severely injured, John becomes the star of the team. And after staying out all night with his drinking buddies at a strip joint (all of the teenagers in the film are portrayed as raging alcoholics), the team loses their second-to-last game, putting John in a bad position with the coach (Jon Voight). Worse yet, the coach is threatening to ruin John's scholarship chances if the Coyotes don't win their final game.
Opinion:I personally didn't like the movie. There were moments where it was quite funny, but it was really more of a movie for my brother. The nudity and the stripping really wasn't that vital to the film, and other than that it was completely football. It was quite predictable. In short, if I could do it again, I wouldn't spend my money on it. * 1/2
The Wedding Singer: Adam Sandler does an about face in this predictable, yet quite funny romantic comedy set in 1985. Instead of playing the smart ass (ok, he's still somewhat of a smart ass!) as he did in previous films, he plays a romantic fool named Robbie Hart, who hasn't found the right girl. Robbie, who quit his rock band years earlier is now a wedding singer. His fiance doesn't deem that to be a worthy job (she just wanted him for his spandex) and leaves him at the alter. Discouraged, Robbie gives up, but then he meets Julia (Drew Barrymore), and though she is engaged, falls in love with her. You've seen it before? Sure, but the film has some real high points with it's use of nostalgic humor (the 80's are nostalgic already?) and a great cast, who have a good deal of fun. I give it ***** stars.
