Texas Hold 'em!

A Friday Night Lights (2004)

Starring: Keenu Reeves, Gene Hackman Directed by: Peter Berg Rating: PG-13 Genre: Drama Other

Review Having grown up in Dublin, Ohio (home of Wendys!) I'm very well acquainted with Texas high school football and I must say this inspiring yarn tugged pretty good at the old ticker threads. Keenu Reeves (Shakespeare in Love) plays a washed-up high school quarterback who is tracked down to a shrimpboat trawler abandoned in a Wal-Mart parking lot by red-assed coach Gene Hackman and given one chance at redemption. I know I've seen it before, but if the formula grows hair, who am I to stay bald? An odd subplot involving a charity game with a team of misfits, spastics and renegades from a nearby penitentiary (led by a hideously disfigured Billy Joe Thornton) sends the flick a little off course, but when Reeves' plucky girlfriend (the scrumptious Oliva d'Abo) announces she's pregnant and Keenu realizes he's got only one chance to make it to the pros and out of town we know we're on to a good thing. Put down the bon bons, pick up the pom poms and Enjoy!