Friday Night Lights

Starring: Billy Bob Thornton, Jay Hernandez, Lucas Black, Derek Luke, Tim McGraw
Directed by: Peter Berg
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Sports, Drama
Box Office: $61,255,921
2004

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Follows the season of the 1988 Odessa Permian Panthers, a high school football team that holds the obsessed focus of the entire town (pretty much like every high school team in Texas). The team, led by a somewhat popular coach (Billy Bob Thornton) enjoys successes as well as failures.

Review:
Tim: Some have called this the greatest sports movie ever made. This is a pretty lofty expectation for the film and it never quite lives up to it.

Friday Night Lights is a very realistic look at high school football in Texas, where as we all know, is a religion. That is what this movie is all about. The residents of Odessa breathe, eat, sleep, and dream about football.

The gridiron scenes are pretty intense and oftentimes spectacular. Best of all, they are realistic. For example, the game scenes in a film like Any Given Sunday are great, but not very realistic. Here, the football action is incredible, but believable.

The movie is also pretty impressive because it is based on a true story. The film takes some bold chances, showing the players and their families for what they are, and that honesty pays off.

The cast is decent, but not great. Billy Bob Thornton makes a surprisingly good football coach, but I've seen much better in movies. The players are all good, but we don't really identify with them as closely as in films like Remember the Titans. The highlight of the cast is Tim McGraw. I couldn't believe it was really him I was watching. I'm not a big country music fan, but I know how musicians look early in an acting career. McGraw gives a powerful, emotional, and oftentimes difficult to watch performance. He amazed me.

Friday Night Lights is slightly anticlimactic and occasionally boring. It is a pretty good football movie, but by no means is it close to the best football movie ever, let alone the best sports movie.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 7



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Remember the Titans, Any Given Sunday, The Replacements, The Longest Yard, Field of Dreams, Hoosiers