Blu-ray Movie Reviews

At first, backup quarterback Jonathan "Mox" Moxon is nowhere close to being a football star. He's perfectly content to stay on the bench and out of the win-at-all-cost strategies of coach Bud Kilmer. But when the starting quarterback is injured, Mox is in the game...and in direct conflict with his hotheaded coach and girlfriend. Soon everyone in Mox's football-crazed community will realize there's not just a new star quarterback in town, there's a new kind of hero.

This has always been my favorite film from MTV productions and takes a lighter look at the craziness of high school football. It is very similar to the popular Friday Night Lights, but is a bit more toned down in seriousness, giving it a higher replay value. The performances and pace of the film make it a lot of fun and the photography on the field is excellent. Anyone who is even a casual fan of sports films needs to give this one a look.

The HD presentation is good but lacks the refinement of the best reference discs out there. Detail and dimension are strong, but fine object detail could be a tad sharper. Colors look natural with no obvious tweaking and contrast is strong throughout. I didn’t see anything to complain about in terms of compression, but I was hoping for a bit more sharpness overall.

The soundtrack is presented in Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and delivers some solid thrills. The soundtrack selections really keep the tempo of the film going and the score delivers. Hits have some solid oomph behind them and atmosphere during the games is pretty convincing. While this isn’t the best sports soundtrack out there, it gets the job done.

Extras include a feature commentary along with some short promo style features that stick to the characters and themes of the film. You also get the trailer and a look at the making of the film.

This is a solid catalog film and one of the more entertaining high school football films out there. Paramount has delivered a pretty solid presentation making this an easy recommendation for fans of the genre and film.