KnotMissPriceless Why so much hype?

Cleveronix A different way of telling a story

Kailansorac Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

pramsalim I always had a soft spot for sport movies. I felt this movie was exceptional. In a small town inside of Texas, high school football is the most important event. When the Permian High Panthers loses its main star Boobie Miles, all hope is lost. It is up to newly appointed coach Gary Gaines to flare that hope again. The movie was shot in documentary-style. Similar to a reality show. It gives a realistic feel to the movie which helped the movie a lot. It distinguished itself from the other sport movies. It brings us closer to the team.What I loved the most in this movie is the sense of importance they brought to the football match. Everyone lived their everyday lives in the poor town without passion. Drinking beers, driving trucks, working in a gas station. But when it comes to the football match, It lights up their excitement like a firecracker. It seems as if the football match was their only source of happiness. They acknowledge this as well as the players. The seniors were doing their final year as a football player. They know they weren't good enough to go pro, and surely they weren't smart enough nor rich enough to pursue higher education. This was as good as it gets. That was why every match felt very exciting and heartbreaking to watch.

eddie_baggins Perfectly encapsulating not only the high stakes sport that is American college football but the trials, triumphs and all in between for those growing up in an environment that builds pressure upon shoulders not yet acclimatised to the highs and lows of adult life, Peter Berg's frenetic and heartfelt Friday Night Lights is a stunningly crafted example of the power of sporting themed movies and a career highpoint for many involved.Based upon H.G. Bissinger's book which is itself centred around the real life Permian High Panthers football team that was the heart and soul of the small Texan town of Odessa in the late 1980's, Friday Night Lights is not merely built for an excuse to deliver action packed staging's of football matches but is built to allow heartfelt and important messages to play out around it, so much so that this moderately financially successful film spawned the well liked Emmy winning TV series of the same name.Berg (who at the time was better known as a character actor in films like Cop Land and Smokin Aces) displays a natural talent as a story teller here, as well as a fine orchestrator of his young actors (who almost pass as 17/18 year olds) and as we're introduced to the Panthers team from Billy Bob Thornton's well-meaning and measured Coach Gaines, Lucas Black's conflicted quarter back Mike Winchell, Garret Hedlund's pressured Don Billingsley and Derek Luke's flashy star playmaker Boobie Miles, it's easy to be pulled into this world of eventual pettiness and goal driven attitudes that consumes all those that inhabit it.These characters feel alive, cut from reality, the town they live in eats, drinks and thrives off them and their sport and Friday Night Lights showcases a realistic view of what the college football scene represents to those that follow it. There's the young men who have had their chance to build their life upon one successful year, those that have found success in the arena and now struggle to live out of it and those that merely find themselves driven by the idea of the team's success, an outlet if you like to allow them to forget their woes. It's in this broad spectrum of characters and snippets of Odessa life that we get that sets Friday Night Lights aside from other films of its ilk and become something more, something truly special.Much more than a mere sports movie, Friday Night Lights is quintessential viewing for movie lovers even if sport is but a foreign occurrence to them. From Berg, the fantastic soundtrack by Explosions in the Sky through to Billy Bob Thornton and an impressive young (at the time) cast with standout turns from Black, Hedlund and Luke, Friday Night Lights saw the nigh on perfect culmination of material and participants come together to deliver one of, it not the best sport movies ever made.5 coin tosses out of 5

Sam smith (sam_smithreview) Almost everything works in this portrait of the madness for and around high-school football in a small Texas town. One of the best sports movies I've seen, largely because it's not really about the sport, or the big game, or winning and losing. It's about growing up, letting go of dreams, the pressure adults put on kids to fulfill their own dreams, losing perspective and gaining it. It seems to try and honestly look at both sides of high school football; how it helps young men grow, challenge themselves and bond, but at the same time how it subjects them to physical harm, an unrealistic set of expectations about life after being a local star, and being forced to carry a whole town on your shoulders when you're only 17. Some terrific visuals, both in the quick cutting ferocity of the games, and in the long aerial views of the empty Texas plains. A movie like this depends on its actors, because it is a character drama at its core. Much noise has been made of Billy Bob, and how he gives a great performance, and this is very true, but he is not the only star in this movie. The boys all do a great job too, especially Lucas Black. I have never noticed this actor before, but he is so intense as Mike Winchell that he makes you really feel for him. The other boys, including Derek Luke and Jay Hernandez, are also note- perfect.Few plot twists feel too familiar from other films. I understand those that say the film displays a superior attitude towards these small town people. But I found those weaker moments fleeting in a film that surprised me with the strength of it's acting, writing, and film making.

sytske-s I did a high-school sort of chick-flick marathon; watching movies like "Mean Girls" and "Grease", when I ran out of cliché movies on girls with trouble at school. I started searching the web for other movies with "high school" as an important theme and crossed paths with this movie. I read the summary and thought that it wasn't going to be a movie I liked, nor a movie that would fit my high-school marathon. But hell, I watched it anyways. And loved it! It is not a regular sports movie, nor anything like the high-school movies I was watching. It was rough, exciting and most importantly very real. The recognition with the characters and their problems, as well as the fact that it is a autobiographical work, made it an incredibly touching movie. It's the story of a Texan Amercian football team that is fighting to become state champion, not only on the field, as well as with themselves. It just doesn't all go as easy and smooth as planned. Don't expect anything feel-good, or warm and cozy for your sweet little soul. I cried my heart out for over an hour of the complete movie. The last time I cried that bad with a movie was with "The Bridge to Terabithia" (also wonderful, very different from this one). I surely recommend everyone to watch this. Just take a box of tissues.