Varsity Blues [Blu-ray]

 

Studio: Paramount Home Video
Rated: R (for strong language throughout, sexuality and nudity, and some substance abuse)
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1

HD Encoding: 1080p

HD Video Codec: MPEG-4 AVC                
Audio: English Dolby TrueHD 5.1; French 5.1 Dolby Digital; Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital

Subtitles: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese; English SDH+
Time: 104 minutes
Disc Format: 1 SS/DL BD
Case Style: Keep case

Theatrical Release Date: 1999

Blu-ray Release Date: September 15, 2009

 

 

James Van Der Beek, circa 1999, the release date of Varsity Blues, was just about on top of the world. His TV show was all the rage and he was a new face on young Hollywood and its larger-than-life billboards, so he was the perfect choice to star in this no-brainer of a picture that tries to mash up Porky’sand Hoosiers. What was not expected was for him to actually turn in a very decent performance that didn’t just come off as Dawson trying to act tough. The movie is about how deeply entrenched high school football is to the small Texas town of New Canaan. We see just how much all the townsfolk deify their young players as well as the tough-as-nails coach, Bud Kilmer (Jon Voight). After the star quarterback gets his knee busted up, Van Der Beek’s John Moxley (or “Mox”) is thrust into the spotlight. With that fame come girlfriend issues, social issues, daddy issues and just about any other issue that MTV generation may have. Now that he is the BMOC, Mox begins to see what fame is all about even in such a small town, and he must decide if he will stay true to himself or if he will take a hit for the team.

 

Varsity Blues is really just another teen sex romp dressed up as a mildly inspirational football picture, and it succeeds slightly on both levels. The problems Mox has are nothing new to us, and he takes it with such dead pan unenthusiasm you really wonder if he’s as smart as he is alleged to be (and reading Vonnegut isn’t enough). Every character is one we’ve seen before in far better rousing team building movies such as We Are Marshall or Remember the Titans, but again, it’s not striving to send too deep a message. The movie dumbs down most every aspect of the plot and characters you know you’ve just been served a quickie meal from MTV pictures when they should have just forgotten the Q rating. As I said, Van Der Beek does pretty good job with what he’s given, but it’s Voight’s borderline insane Bud Kilmer that kept me interested with his part villain/ part driven coach who never really lets on which it is. Other than that and Ali Larter’s infamous whip cream scene, Varsity Blues is just another casualty of underestimating the smarts of your audience and their desire for something more substantial than an ice cream sundae.

 

 

 

 

The Blu-ray disc is encoded in the MPEG-4 AVC codec at 1080p with an aspect ratio of 1.78:1. The image maintains a very real world, almost dusty feel, to it, with the numerous outside scenes seemingly choking in a pale wind storm. This is not a new HD transfer by any means as the image looked very soft and even slightly hazy, but looking at it closely, it appears to have been shot pretty soft. Still, a new transfer could have revealed a lot more detail and tightened up the sloppiness of the image. The picture shows print dirt throughout and minor amounts of edge enhancement and DNR.  Black levels were very inconsistent, at times being pitch black but revealing some detail, then later collapsing in on themselves; Van Der Beek’s hair seemed to really have an issue with this as it almost looked glossy in the shadows.  The image lacks any real depth or dimensionality.

 

 

 

 

The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track was fine for this type of movie. The sound stays in the front channels and the surrounds are utilized to convey environmental sounds such as the roaring of the crowds at the games or to give a little more presence to the soundtrack. LFE’s were engaged infrequently and didn’t add much to the overall impact outside of when the players got tackled. The soundtrack is clear and clean and free of any debris or other distortions. Voices remained lifelike.

 

 

 

 

Commentary by Director Brian Robbins and Producers Tova Laiter and Mike Tollin: the commentary isn’t too bad, and it’s got some interesting discussions about making a movie for MTV Pictures, but this could have been a more interesting commentary with a couple of the contributors as I note below.

 

Football is a Way of Life: The Making of Varsity Blues (17:47): this is a usual EPK type piece, but the comparisons to Hoosiers and Jerry Maguire are out of place. It was interesting to hear this movie was originally intended to be a comedy. 

 

Two-A-Days the Ellis Way (7:48): the cast explains how they trained to be football players by Coach Mark Ellis.

 

QB Game Analysis (15:15): Ellis pops up again with NFL Quarterback Josh McCown to talk about the movie and how McCown and his peers connected to it. This is an interesting piece just to see how young these coaches are looking for talent and how they are raised in the game. Ellis and McCown would have made an interesting contribution to a commentary as their fifteen minutes here puts the real life perspective on it.

Billy Bob with No Bacon (4:38): this somewhat inexplicable piece chooses to highlight actor Ron Lester in a recent interview mixed with footage of him from the movie and deals with his weight issue.

 

 

 

Varsity Blues winds up being somewhat bi-polar in its approach and what it wants to be and for whom, but Van Der Beek turns in a good performance and holds his own against the great Jon Voight. The disc suffers from a weak transfer, and mediocre audio and extras.