Freedom Films, Palo Verde, Hannibal Classics,
Brian Presley, Kurt Russell, Melanie Lynskey, Marc Blucas, Christine Lahti, Sarah Wright, Drew Powell, Steve Turner, Kevin Covais, James Duval, Sianoa Smit-McPhee, Austin Ross, Jacquelyn Evola
Fifteen years ago, Scott Murphy (Brian Presley) was on top of the world. He had a full ride scholarship to college, and as the small town hero quarterback, he had one more game to play. This game was against a team much bigger and stronger than them, and they were outmatched, but on the last play of the game, Scott is injured and it put an end to his career. Fifteen years later, Scott is still stuck in the small town, trying to eke out a living on his farm, and facing serious financial trouble. He gets the chance to go back in time 15 years and relive the week of the big game and come to a conclusion of whether to sit out the game and take the scholarship, or to play and risk injuring himself all over again. He looks to Coach Hand (Kurt Russell) for advice in determining what’s the right thing to do.
This is a familiar film in a lot of ways. We’ve seen a lot of these kinds of movies. We’ve had the Mr Destiny film where Jim Belushi gets a chance to hit the home run on that pitch where he struck out the first time, and change his life. This has a different look at it though, and I kind of liked the way they addressed it. Of course there’s the flashback in time, and the confusion of being 15 years younger and going back to high school, naturally. But the focus isn’t on how his life will change if he does it differently. It’s more on what decision should I make? How will it affect me? How will it affect my coach and my teammates? What will it do to my character? What is the most important thing to me, really? It’s very introspective about the choice, and not so much on what happens after. Additionally, this was a really good football movie. I think they did a great job of showing the football games without overdoing it, but with enough technical detail that football fans who really understand the games will not feel like they’re watching a movie version dumbed down for the non-football crowd. I think it’s really well done for anybody to watch.
The serious questions are handled well, and it does make you think, but but it’s also highly entertaining. The film is very well put together, and I am really glad I rented this. It’s new on DVD even though this is a couple years old, and I’m glad they decided to release it on DVD. It was a pleasure to watch.
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