Friday Night Lights - Review
Posted: Sat Jan 22, 2005 6:52 pm
I just watched this with my wife last night. I tried to get the kids to watch, but they only lasted about ten minutes.
The movie starts off with some football lingo and character development-type stuff, which spawned some kid questions like "What's a 'cover two?'" Didn't take much of that before they were gonzo. But the OL, who took a bit of convincing to sit down and watch it in the first place(telling her that the box says Larry King called it "One of the best sports movies ever" didn't seem to help :D ), ended up saying that she liked it quite a bit.
Billy Bob Thornton was, as always, very good. I usually like him in films and am always amazed at how good he is at hardly changing his facial appearance, but conveying a different character in each film with different nuances. Or, maybe it's just that he can act, and I'm not used to seeing that in movies. :D He did pretty well though. It wasn't the canned "Now get out there and give 'em hell!!!"-type of football coach that we see in most sports movies.
Tim McGraw was excellent as the dickhead, verbally-abusive alcholic as well. In fact, he did such a good job of playing a dick, that I didn't even know it was him until they rolled credits. The depressing alcoholic story is one that I have zero interest in normally, as I watch movies to be entertained, not depressed. But this works since it is one of several characters' stories that are told and not the focus of the movie.
The high school players are all portrayed (refreshingly) by pretty good actors, who aren't all 27. You know how most sports movies have high school boys with receding hairlines and Grizzly Adams beards? Thankfully we were spared that this time. Derek Luke does an outstanding job as "Boobie Miles." He managed to make you dislike him, yet want him to do well at the same time.
The stuntwork in this movies is CRAZY. Most football movies or scenes have quick cut-a-ways and fast camera movements with guys flipping around on Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon wires. This movie had long camera shots with guys just getting full-on lit up. I have no idea how they didn't kill or paralyze at least five people making this movie.
Overall, I'd give this movie an A-/B+. It was very entertaining all the way through, but it put itself in the difficult position of trying to portray an entire football season in two hours. They can't possibly show everything that happened, so they had to fast forward from them making the playoffs [whoosh]through four rounds of the playoffs[/whoosh], and suddenly they're in the championship game a month later. They did an okay job of that, considering the circumstances, but I felt like I wanted to see more of what went on in those games, since the team was struggling as it made the playoffs. Basically, the film captured my interest, got me riveted to the screen and then fast-forwarded through a month of games.
The movie starts off with some football lingo and character development-type stuff, which spawned some kid questions like "What's a 'cover two?'" Didn't take much of that before they were gonzo. But the OL, who took a bit of convincing to sit down and watch it in the first place(telling her that the box says Larry King called it "One of the best sports movies ever" didn't seem to help :D ), ended up saying that she liked it quite a bit.
Billy Bob Thornton was, as always, very good. I usually like him in films and am always amazed at how good he is at hardly changing his facial appearance, but conveying a different character in each film with different nuances. Or, maybe it's just that he can act, and I'm not used to seeing that in movies. :D He did pretty well though. It wasn't the canned "Now get out there and give 'em hell!!!"-type of football coach that we see in most sports movies.
Tim McGraw was excellent as the dickhead, verbally-abusive alcholic as well. In fact, he did such a good job of playing a dick, that I didn't even know it was him until they rolled credits. The depressing alcoholic story is one that I have zero interest in normally, as I watch movies to be entertained, not depressed. But this works since it is one of several characters' stories that are told and not the focus of the movie.
The high school players are all portrayed (refreshingly) by pretty good actors, who aren't all 27. You know how most sports movies have high school boys with receding hairlines and Grizzly Adams beards? Thankfully we were spared that this time. Derek Luke does an outstanding job as "Boobie Miles." He managed to make you dislike him, yet want him to do well at the same time.
The stuntwork in this movies is CRAZY. Most football movies or scenes have quick cut-a-ways and fast camera movements with guys flipping around on Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon wires. This movie had long camera shots with guys just getting full-on lit up. I have no idea how they didn't kill or paralyze at least five people making this movie.
Overall, I'd give this movie an A-/B+. It was very entertaining all the way through, but it put itself in the difficult position of trying to portray an entire football season in two hours. They can't possibly show everything that happened, so they had to fast forward from them making the playoffs [whoosh]through four rounds of the playoffs[/whoosh], and suddenly they're in the championship game a month later. They did an okay job of that, considering the circumstances, but I felt like I wanted to see more of what went on in those games, since the team was struggling as it made the playoffs. Basically, the film captured my interest, got me riveted to the screen and then fast-forwarded through a month of games.