Friday Night Lights

Evansville theaters have allegedly raised their ticket prices to $8. Fascists. So instead of getting ripped off watching a movie we weren't really interested in, Cliff and I went to the cheap theater to watch Friday Night Lights.

Now, when I saw the trailer for this movie a few months ago before Collateral, I'd rolled my eyes commented, "Not another football movie." I don't really understand football (even after a year on O-Line for intramural flag) and never got into the high school hype. Friday Night Lights, however, left me pleasantly surprised.

I enjoyed the movie because it refused to glorify football. All but one player's college/professional football dreams dissipated in the arid Texas heat. It turned out that football wasn't all they had in life, and by the end of the movie they'd moved on.

I also liked that the ending wasn't cliche, but I won't ruin it for anyone who hasn't seen the film.

While I enjoyed the movie, it did have flaws. I got lost several times when the players mumbled stuff on the field. I figured I wouldn't understand it anyway, so I wasn't too upset. A few scenes at the beginning (party scenes) were difficult to watch. Fortunately, the activities in these scenes were not glorified either. And, of course, the ending finger-kiss scene between Billy-Bob and his movie wife was sufficiently cheesy. Those three seconds could have been used better elsewhere.

As a whole, I liked Friday Night Lights. If you have an extra $2.50 and a spare 2 hours, check it out. You probably won't regret it.