What’s Aged the Worst?
The 'in Virginia football is a way of life' opening lifted from Varsity Blues; Virginia sold as a big football state; Hayden Panettiere's coach's daughter (disputed); the 'this is not a democracy' line; Gary's paralysis getting no extra scene; locker-room singing; football scenes shot too close; the racist-officiating subplot; Will Patton's 'remember the night they played the Titans' line; bending the real-life facts
In the discussion (11)
Approx. transcript time · 00:57:58Read transcript
- The first line, 'in Virginia football is a way of life', is exactly how Varsity Blues started a year earlier with Texas; treating Virginia as a southern football state has not aged well since it is at most the eighth most important football state in the South, and 'we play 3A here' sounds like babies to a Texan used to 5A.
- Fewer than ten states could claim football as a way of life: Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Nebraska, not Maine.
- Hayden Panettiere's coach's daughter is nominated as the worst for dialing up an annoying know-it-all, but another host argues she knew her stuff and the Titans lose the championship without her sensing her dad needed to ask Boone for help; the hosts joke that a tiny white woman is why Obama got elected.
- The 'this is not a democracy, this is a dictatorship and I am the law' line is weak from the screenwriter who gave us 'left side, strong side' and four or five incredible lines, and could have been workshopped.
- After Gary is paralyzed and Julius visits, the film drops him; it needed one more scene, an Oscar-clip moment with the nurse, and the hosts ask whether we are done with characters singing Ain't No Mountain High Enough in a locker room.
- Some football scenes were filmed too close and needed more wide shots; the racist officiating in the semifinals, with Yost confronting the referee, is corny and the ref gives up his racism very quickly, though the film needs white-ally moments by the end.
- Will Patton's 'make sure they remember forever the night they played the Titans' speech divides the hosts: one wanted the line given to Denzel, another says let the chef cook since he is talking to his own defense, and Denzel was not coaching the defense until the championship.
- As the tiebreaker, the issue with the line is that it is so big and he never says 'the Titans', going 'the time they played the Titans' with eight more words, which was hated. — Rembert Browne
- The line is bad because it is the name of the movie and the actor is clearly going for the movie show; the hosts love when somebody says the title during the movie, like Travolta in Face Off, and Will Patton is defended as great in the moment because he has learned from Boone; Gary pointing at the coach after a play in the semifinals is another bad part.
- Bending all the facts from real life is another thing that aged worst.
- Will ignore the fact-bending forever; as far as he is concerned this is like The Social Network and that is how Facebook was founded. — Shea Serrano