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Glory Lasts Forever: Varsity Blues vs. The Replacements
187 Plays2 years ago
Alex Rocklein and Rob Mansfield throw on the pads to battle out Varsity Blues (1999) and The Replacements (2000). Find out which movie emerges victorious as they are put through seven rounds of questions such as 'better lines or moments', 'bigger plot holes' and 'which cast would win in a real football game.'
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Transcript
Iconic Movie Quotes
00:00:00
Speaker
Ladies and gentlemen, can I please have your attention? Brothers don't shake hands. Brothers gotta hug. Your voice is like a combination of Fergie and Jesus. I don't want your life. I award you no points and may God have mercy on your soul. Okay, a simple wrong would have done just fine.
Podcast Introduction
00:00:27
Speaker
What is up everybody and welcome to the movie showdown with Rock and Rob. My name is Rob Mansford and with me, the Rock to my Rob, Alex Rockline. Good to see your face, Alex, it's been too long. Oh man, this, you know, this takes me back to when we were roommates in college and we were upperclassmen and we were stuck in the underclassmen dorm. And basically we just spent all our time together watching movies or shows and just doing this essentially before podcasts were a thing.
00:00:54
Speaker
You know, it just feels right. It really does. All I can really say is thank God we got out of that dorm when we did. We did. And look at us now. Look at us now.
00:01:04
Speaker
I know it's good to see you, good to talk to you. I feel like we've just been texting for like the past couple of years. We were briefly in the same state for a bit and then you left, I left and now we're further apart. That is true. But never closer Rob. Never closer.
Podcast Premise: Underappreciated Movies
00:01:18
Speaker
If this is your first time listening and since it's our first episode, I'm going to assume that's true. You want some more background on us, check out our trailer episode. A quick rundown of what this show is. Alex and I are huge movie fans and we feel that oftentimes amazing movies are underappreciated by the critics.
00:01:34
Speaker
So our goal here is to take two movies we love that have less than stellar Rotten Tomatoes scores and battle them out over seven rounds of questions We'll award a point after each round and at the end the movie with the highest score wins So Rock you live in Texas now. Are you judged for not playing football growing up? You know
00:01:52
Speaker
That's a good question. Since I didn't grow up here, I think people will let it slide a little bit more. But if I were living here when I was a teenager, I would definitely have to play football. You can see the high school stadium from my house and Friday nights, that thing is lit up. I got to say the culture around football town, everything shuts down. It is pretty cool. I don't think I'm judged for not playing, but kind of wish I lived in a small Texas town and played football.
00:02:16
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, you watch obviously the movies, the TV shows, anything set in Texas, but really any like football movie show and you just get sucked in, you just want to be part of it. Yeah, you watch the movie, you want to go out and play, you know, you want to run some past patterns with your buds and just see what happens from there.
Showdown: 'The Replacements' vs 'Varsity Blues'
00:02:31
Speaker
That takes us to this week's showdown, which is between Rock's choice, the Replacements, and my choice, Varsity Blues. Rock, what can you tell us about the Replacements? The Replacements. Oh, this was a fun one. The quick summary, pro players strike, new players play, Keanu does Keanu things. This movie came out August 11th, 2000. Wow. Just about to head into eighth grade, I think.
00:02:53
Speaker
Budget for this movie was $50 million. Box Office brought in $50.1 million. There's a success. And we got a Rotten Tomato score of 41 and a Google score of 75. All right. And I have Varsity Blues.
00:03:09
Speaker
West Texas high school backup quarterback must win to appease his town, family, and abusive coach. But he doesn't want your life. Also, whipped cream bikini. Released January 15th, 1999 with a budget of $16 million. Brought in $54.3 million. That's three times the budget. I would say that's a success right there. I would say so.
00:03:31
Speaker
Rotten tomato score, 43%. Google audience score, 64%. Alex, do you remember anything about the first time you saw these movies? Yeah. You know, these movies came out quite a while ago, definitely in the more formative years. I can safely say did not see these theaters. That was definitely off the table. So we're talking more like reruns on TV. It's been a while for varsity blues replacements.
Comparing Two Football Movies
00:03:53
Speaker
I feel like you see more on TV. So, you know, that one sticks a little bit more with me. Uh, what about you?
00:03:59
Speaker
I also don't think I saw either of these in theaters. I mean, I was in middle school when they came out like you. I do remember I owned the VHS of Replacements and watched it every single night for a month straight in eighth grade, which I don't know what that says about me as a person, but it was fun. And Varsity Blues, that was like a prime high school movie. I played football. It was something that me and my buddies would watch often. What stands out to you about them? Which one did you like more this time around?
00:04:26
Speaker
This time around, yeah. So it's, it's interesting watching these back to back because they're, you know, you think football movie, they're going to be the same. Yeah. There's some elements that are very similar, but man, these things are very, very different. First gut reaction to replacements is it's quick. The movie goes, it just starts and it keeps moving. Farsity blues, not that it drags, but they have a little bit more, you know, a little bit more time spent on character development, plot development. It is interesting seeing how different they are when they're both football movies.
00:04:56
Speaker
Yeah, Replacements kind of had more of that joke, silly joke, silliness, silly situation, a little bit of seriousness, but not overall. Varsity Blues, absolutely. You're dealing with, I'm not going to say a more heavier subject matter, but the movie at times took itself more seriously. I mean, both of them cruise, but Replacements, it's just boom, boom, boom.
00:05:15
Speaker
Yeah, to me, it feels like Varsity Blues is almost a drama that's funny, whereas Replacements is a comedy with the typical serious parts, but I don't know. I think if you look at it through that lens, you can really see where they split off from each other. Other thing, it's funny, you look at it now and Varsity Blues has kind of taken on a life of its own.
00:05:34
Speaker
right in mean girls they say regina george that's her favorite movie and then michael scott kept it in a vault in his right his office lots right now let me ask you did you watch this movie did you watch varsity blues the same way michael scott watches it which is 30 minute installments every monday
00:05:52
Speaker
Or did you watch it right through? Were you able to make it all the way through? I did watch it all the way through, but that was a hilarious addition to The Office. Whoever wrote that joke, that's phenomenal. It's just like the perfect movie to include there. I mean, also extremely inappropriate movie to watch. That's a great point.
'The Replacements' NFL Strike Inspiration
00:06:13
Speaker
So Alex, obviously the replacements based loosely on the 1987 NFL strike. What can you tell me about how this movie pulls from that?
00:06:22
Speaker
Yeah, so this movie is obviously inspired by that 1987 NFL strike where the real, we'll call them the real Washington Redskins, not the fictional Washington Sentinels, did get replacement players for three games and they won all three of those games. The strike is resolved, the regular players come back, the Redskins actually go on to win the Super Bowl.
00:06:44
Speaker
You know, I was doing a little bit more reading on the 87 strike because I didn't know much about it. I think one of the interesting things is so in the real strike, the Redskins used replacement players for three games, won all three of those games, which a lot of people say got them into the playoffs. They go on, they win the Super Bowl. None of the replacement players received a Super Bowl ring. They did get a portion of the money share. But after 30 years in March of 2018, the team finally recognized the replacement players contribution and gave them Super Bowl rings.
00:07:12
Speaker
So the teams played by the Washington Sentinels mere the teams played by the Redskins during the 87 strike, including a Dallas team where all the regular starters did cross the picket line and return before that game. Unlike in the movie, no Redskins players ever crossed the picket line. They were one of two teams who no players crossed, the Redskins and the Philadelphia Eagles. Shane Falco in the movie wears number 16 because the Redskins replacement quarterback Ed Rupert wore number 16.
00:07:38
Speaker
In the 87 strike, 15% of players crossed early, including Joe Montana, Doug Flutie, Howie Long, Steve Largent. The one thing that really stood out to me regarding this movie that I thought the writers took a lot of liberty with until I did some research was I said there was no way they would ever let a guy out of jail play football.
00:07:57
Speaker
Right. Wrong. They did. Earl Wilkinson was based on Tony Robinson, who was a replacement quarterback for the Redskins in the game against the Cowboys. Robinson was an inmate on work release playing for the Richmond Ravens of the Continental Interstate Football League. Signed with the Redskins as a backup quarterback. Their starter gets injured. He leads the Redskins to a 13-7 victory on Monday night. It was one of the biggest upsets of that 87 season.
00:08:22
Speaker
I don't really understand how jail works because I didn't think you could just get released to go play in a- Yeah, work release. What kind of permission is needed for that? Because I feel like there's going to be some paperwork. And if you're saying, excuse me, Warden, like my work release, I would like to go play quarterback.
00:08:38
Speaker
Yeah, sure. Let me sign that paper. I know he wasn't in jail for a violent crime, but still, how do you get just a season-long work release to play football? That's a great question. Jail is weird, man. The justice system is really weird. Anyway, let me talk a little bit about varsity blues versus Friday
Comparing 'Varsity Blues' to 'Friday Night Lights'
00:08:56
Speaker
Night Lights. This is often something that comes up. They're basically the same type of movie, and then you get the Friday Night Lights TV show. They all deal with West Texas football, high school football.
00:09:05
Speaker
Paramount raced to get Varsity Blues in theaters ahead of Friday Night Lights because they didn't want another Armageddon Deep Impact situation. Writer Peter Illiff, who also wrote Point Break and Patriot Games, did read the Friday Night Lights book but wanted to do a dramedy. He was influenced by the book and Paramount wanted him to do kind of the MTV version of a football movie.
00:09:24
Speaker
They initially hired Marv from Home Alone, Mr. Daniel Stern to be the director, but he wanted to completely rewrite the script so he gets fired. I cannot imagine this movie with Marv as the director. Well, I mean, it was probably just like he took all the all the stunts from Home Alone and just inserted them into the football movies. What I am picturing currently. Absolutely.
00:09:43
Speaker
So he gets fired. They bring on director, Brian Robbins, who up to that point had only done the masterpiece, Good Burger, but since went on to do some decent movies, Perfect Score, Hardball. He brought in John Gatton's to rewrite it. John Gatton's of Summer Catch, Hardball, Coach Carter, Flight, which really makes sense why Varsity Blue seems like two different movies at some times. Is it funny? Is it serious? It's really interesting, the dichotomy. And you can really tell that it was written by two different people.
00:10:13
Speaker
So John Gatton's added all the religious brother stuff. He added the whipped green bikini, so I should probably send him a personal thank you card. Initially, they were going to have tweeter commit suicide, but the new writer changed all that. He wanted to give Mox another hero moment with that Billy Bob in the truck situation. So Alex, where do these movies rank on your list of football movies?
Favorite Football Movies
00:10:34
Speaker
Rudy's probably one. Remember the Titans? Any given Sunday? You know, those are pretty solid. Yeah. Varsity Blues. I don't know. It's, it's sneaking up there. Replacements is just, I very much enjoy it. I could probably watch that one over and over, but I still think, I don't know if it cracks top three. What about you? Yeah. I love Rudy. I love Remember the Titans. Rudy is what made me a Notre Dame fan growing up. I would probably say Varsity Blues is number three. Replacements probably top four.
00:10:59
Speaker
five. I'm sure I'm missing some stuff. Obviously, there's some of the older football movies, longest yard original, all those kinds of things, but I think I've got Rudy, Remember the Titans, Varsity Blues, but replacement's not too far outside of that. So you don't consider Napoleon Dynamite a football movie with Uncle Rico? I consider Napoleon Dynamite the ultimate football movie. No, it transcends all other football movies, so I can't even utter it in the same breath as these. That makes sense.
00:11:26
Speaker
So, Rock, what do you say? You want to get into the round, see who wins the switch up? Let's
Cast Highlights in 'The Replacements'
00:11:31
Speaker
do it. All right. Round one, best cast, best performance. Alex, you've got replacements. Let's see what you got to say.
00:11:38
Speaker
Okay, the Replacements director, Howard Deutsch, known for Pretty in Pink, some kind of wonderful, the great outdoors, starring Keanu Reeves. Not sure if you have heard of him before, he was in a few movies, John Wick, Point Break, Speed, The Matrix. I'll stop there, because I don't think we have enough time to go through just how awesome Keanu Reeves is. So in Replacements, Keanu Reeves is our star. He is Shane Falco. Is that the coolest quarterback name?
00:12:06
Speaker
It has to be. Honestly, I googled cool quarterback names and nothing came even close. It sounds like a winner. He looks like a quarter. Like when he's got the uniform on, he's got the pads on. I'm like, this dude looks like a quarterback. I mean, I love Keanu and everything. He could be in any movie and I would be like, this guy makes mowing the lawn look cool. He makes being a quarterback look cool.
00:12:27
Speaker
Is Keanu the coolest male actor of the past 30 years? It's hard to think of anyone cooler. And the thing that makes him cool is he probably knows he's cool, but he just doesn't care at all. And he would probably come on this podcast. That's how cool he is. Wow. Keanu, open invite.
00:12:45
Speaker
Every story you hear about him is positive. He has a good sense of humor, for sure. I mean, he played himself in that, like, Netflix rom-com. That always be my maybe. And he was, like, super funny in it. He's just cool. I mean, I would say somewhere he's probably one for me. I don't think you can discredit Denzel, Sam Jackson, Brad Pitt. They're all pretty cool. I just I got to give it to Keanu.
00:13:05
Speaker
I mean, when The Matrix came out and I saw it, I had no idea what I was watching. I didn't understand a second of it, but I knew it was the coolest movie I've ever seen. I think from there, it just took off for me. I was like, all right, Keanu's in it. I'm watching it. He delivered the line, I know Kung Fu, so cool that everybody still quotes that. Everybody still says that for no reason. Only somebody as cool as Keanu could pull that off. I agree. So who else we got?
00:13:33
Speaker
All right, we got coach Jimmy McGinty played by Gene Hackman. He of Hoosiers Lord. You have Unforgiven, Enemy of the State, Royal Tenenbombs, and two Academy Awards for French Connection and Unforgiven. I'm going to be honest, I didn't love him in this.
00:13:49
Speaker
No, no, and he as a coach just was like, okay, we'll see what happens. And what I would imagine would be a, first of all, very stressful time, a very important time for his career. He chuckled a lot, which seems like an interesting coaching tactic. I mean, I've never coached professionals, but I feel like if you just chuckled after everything you said, it would be hard for somebody to take you seriously.
00:14:11
Speaker
Yeah. He's wearing that Bear Bryant type suit. I like Gene Hackman. I just wanted more Hoosiers energy, not what we got. Yeah, see, I wanted, yeah, I wanted more passion. I did not want John Voight passion. Varsity Blues, which we will get to. Somewhere in the middle there. Yeah.
00:14:26
Speaker
And also in the cast, we have David Denman. Now, David Denman, as most people know, Roy from The Office, this
Performances in 'Varsity Blues'
00:14:35
Speaker
is his first film. You know, it's funny. I feel like most people knew him as Roy. I knew him as Brian Murphy, the death tight end. See, I knew him from Out Cold as the bartender. Another movie, which we will do. You got to keep listening. Stay tuned. A second movie, right? His second movie after Replacements was Out Cold. So, I mean,
00:14:54
Speaker
What a way, what a way to start. Brian Murphy in the movie was a deaf player from Gallaudet. I used to coach college baseball. We actually played Gallaudet school down in the Washington DC area. And it was really interesting. They have some really phenomenal athletes there, but it was really interesting competing against a deaf school. So I can only imagine what it would be like playing them at football.
00:15:14
Speaker
Yeah, football, I feel like of all the sports, would that be the toughest to play deaf? Yes. I mean, a lot of it, you know, you're auto bowling here at the snap count. That's got to be tough. Pretty impressive. Yeah, absolutely. Brian Murphy, the player, was really good. Do you see him as more of a Travis Kelsey or a Gronk type tight end? I see David Denman as a Travis Kelsey. And I'll say that.
00:15:36
Speaker
I could go on and on about Rob Gronkowski. He just so happened to play for the team I root for. But as players, they are both two of the best three ever to have played tight end in the NFL. They are vastly different. And I feel like when I was watching the movie, I was thinking about, you know, tight ends, who could he be? Kronk is the catch football, run football, spike football.
00:15:54
Speaker
Travis Kelce is, you know, I'll run a route, I'll find the soft part of the zone, I'll sit there, I'll make a nice catch. That's how I see him. All right, who's next? Next we have Jon Favreau. Let's, I think we need to pause here and go over some credentials on Jon Favreau. The list is long, but we'll give some highlights. We got Rudy, Swingers, Elf. He's in a bunch of the Marvel movies. Couples retrieve four Christmases. He was on Friends. He was on Seinfeld. He's everywhere. And Range, man. He's in sitcoms. He's in,
00:16:23
Speaker
action movies. He's in comedies. He directs movies. He produces movies and TV shows. I mean, the dude directed Elf, which is one of the top Christmas movies ever. And he essentially started the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Iron Man. Yes. He's also extremely jacked in this movie, which was kind of really threw me off. So yeah, he's in Friends, as you remember, he is super rich and he wants to get into MMA, right? Yeah, but he was not jacked. He was not like, replacements jacked.
00:16:51
Speaker
I think if his character from Replacements was in MMA, I think he would do very well for himself. Yes. Who else? Nice cameos here from John Madden and Pat Summerall. What did you feel when you hear those voices again? I really felt like I was playing Madden again. Yeah. It just took me back. Although it really threw me off when Madden said, He seems to be knackered with that cheerleader. How are you dating yourself that much?
00:17:21
Speaker
I will say the, uh, telestrator scene was perfect. He's doing all the, and that somewhere else is kind of like, yeah, he's off in his own world. Like that, I feel like that was every game in that booth. I remember distinctly Sunday nights watching them break tape down and it was like the same thing. Yeah. They, you're just, yeah, you put them in a game, no matter who's playing, you put them in Madden. It was, you know, it was nice. So source, source of comfort to hear them again up in the booth, even though they did every single game. Was it just because no other games were on, but they did all of the Washington sentinels games. Did you notice that?
00:17:50
Speaker
Now that you mentioned it, it's another one of those plot holes. I guess John Madden was the Sentinel's regional broadcaster in this alternate universe. I found it really funny. The Dallas coach seemed exactly like Andy Reid. It was like they took Andy Reid and they just mimicked him for the Dallas coach. And then I'm pretty sure Sean Payton mimicked his style off the San Diego coach.
00:18:12
Speaker
I can see that. I can totally see that. I have to post the side by side picture of those two. Yeah, we definitely should do that. Let me ask you a question. All right, so we mentioned some really good actors. We've got John Favreau. We've got Gene Hackman and Keanu Reeves. Who has had a more successful career? Oh, man.
00:18:29
Speaker
Jeez, is there a wrong answer on this? I mean, you could make a case for any of them, but I mean, Favreau for me, just, I don't know if it's recency bias, but I mean, we talked about the range, all the stuff he's produced and directed and acted in and legendary shows, legendary movies, like the guy is everywhere.
00:18:48
Speaker
I think I have to agree. I love Keanu Reeves. I'd watch him over anybody in this, but Jon Favreau, besides the stuff he's acted in, starting the greatness of the MCU, he was the executive producer on all of the Avengers movies, which is kind of crazy. He's the director and executive producer of The Mandalorian and a bunch of the new Star Wars shows. I mean, this guy's killing it. He is
00:19:10
Speaker
making bank doing all of it. I got to go John Favreau here too. All right, let me break down varsity blues. So we've got James Van Der Beek of Dawson's Creek fame. He also played himself in Don't Trust the Bee in Apartment 23, which I always appreciate when actors can do that kind of poke fun at themselves a little bit. So James Van Der Beek plays John Moxson, nickname Mox for short, which I find to be a very cool nickname. I don't know why, just, I like it. But he won the part over Dawson's Creek
00:19:39
Speaker
co-star Joshua Jackson. Do you think it was awkward for them on the Dawson's Creek set after that? No, absolutely. Has to be. I think they made the right choice. I don't see Pacey being a good mox. No, you know, he had his moment when he was Charlie Conway in the Mighty Ducks. So, you know. You can't top that. No.
00:19:56
Speaker
Mox wears number four because Beak really liked Brett Favre. There's also another person that wore number four as their college number. Maybe you've heard of him, Rob Mansfield. I have heard of him. Yeah. That's my college baseball number. Not because I liked Brett Favre, but because our team for some reason didn't have number two, which is what I wanted. So I took the next best thing. Two makes four. Exactly. So Alex, you live in Texas. I want to get your opinion on the Texas accents in this movie.
00:20:25
Speaker
Yeah, so since this movie, you know, we're, we're in a small, small town, which I'm sure is out in the boonies. I think it really depends on where you are in the state is what accent you're going to hear. So I have definitely heard a whole range since I've been here and you know, some.
00:20:43
Speaker
In the movie, I will say like one as great as some of the other ones, but overall, not as bad as when you hear fake Boston accents in movies. That is true. Fake Boston accents are probably the worst. There's so many Southern dialects that you can probably get away with doing a bad one and not having people know. Exactly.
00:21:01
Speaker
now i will have to point out the guy that played lance's dad in that barbecue scene that
Billy Bob's Character Development
00:21:06
Speaker
was truly awful yes yeah his his was probably the worst now my favorite though were those guys at the bar when they said they put their waners on the glass at the elano club yes
00:21:19
Speaker
The way they pronounced Wayne-ers, that got me. So Mox, obviously we've established, star of the movie. Really good quarterback, playing in the shadow of someone. We'll talk about Lance Harbor in a minute, but we see Mox sitting on the bench throwing a missile to an official. We see him hit a mascot straight in the nose, exactly where he wanted to hit him.
00:21:40
Speaker
When Mox hit his dad in the nose, do you think that was on purpose? At the time, no. But now, yes. If that makes sense. Like after watching him actually get on the field and play, I'm like, yeah, he had some accuracy. You know, when he hits the mascot in the nose, his dad puts his hand up to his own nose. And at first, I thought that was more of a, oh, I know what that feels like type of thing. But the more and more I watch it, it's almost like that little SOB did that on purpose.
00:22:07
Speaker
Yeah, and I think you're right. I think we can get into some of the more of the themes later, but I think it was Mox's way of just saying like, dad, I don't want to be part of your past and your rivalry and all this. So he just kind of put an end to that. Some may say, I don't want your life.
00:22:25
Speaker
Some may say that. So in that one scene, it's the first game that they show. Mox is sitting on the bench reading a book. No one is reading a book during a football game. I just want to point that out. I don't see that ever happening. Now, the book he's reading is Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. The book's theme, now you may be curious, Rob, did you read this book? No, I didn't, but I Googled it.
00:22:47
Speaker
So the book's theme is unmatched moral clarity and anti-war. Football could be considered war, mocks could be seen as the person with unmatched moral clarity. You know whoever put that in this movie was thinking like, wow, this is so meta and deep. And they are completely forgetting that this is the same movie that had a guy puke in a washing machine next to people getting added on a dryer. Yeah, you know what, though? I mean, let's give him that win. We're going to give him the win, but please know your audience next time, sir.
00:23:17
Speaker
Yeah, know your audience. This is a 1999 MTV-produced movie. Oh, man. So then we've got Jon Voigt playing Coach Kilmer, also from Four Christmases, National Treasure, Mission Impossible. Jon Voigt, four Oscar nominations and one win. That's pretty impressive. There's some pretty impressive actors in both of these movies combined.
00:23:38
Speaker
And let's not forget that John Voight also appeared on an episode of Seinfeld. So you got John Favreau, John Voight. Could we do this every movie, find a character who was acted on Seinfeld? Yes, I think we should try. I'm going to leave that up to you. You bring the Seinfeld. Done. So one thing I read, apparently Voight was pretty method with James Van Der Beek on set. Seems like an interesting, you know, we have an MTV production here. I don't know how method you need to go, but he would invite all the other players to eat with him, but not
00:24:04
Speaker
Fanderbeek and you know really trying to establish that coach Kilmer mocks relationship Do we think Voight was good in this? I feel like he was pretty good. I didn't like him He did turn pretty evil at the end, you know threatening to mess with the transcripts I mean he kind of became like a super villain almost. What did you think of his acting?
00:24:22
Speaker
See, I think he was good in the fact that I hated him. Like he really made me remember coaches I've had and just like believe that, Oh man, this guy is the worst. But yeah, he did kind of get real evil at the end there. One of the bigger differences between varsity blues and Friday night lights is.
00:24:41
Speaker
In the Friday Night Lights movie and TV show, they really focus on state titles. Now, Coach Kilmer had two state titles, very impressive, 22 district titles, but he hadn't won a state title since 1989. So that was a nine year gap. Do you think they still would have been as in all of him after not winning any state titles? Do you think those district titles make up for it?
00:25:01
Speaker
It's still pretty impressive. I mean, Texas is a big state to win state. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but they do mention at one point that they are a 3A division team. I believe so. Now in Texas, it goes up to 6A. Does that make it less impressive? Well, I think if you're from Houston or Dallas, then yeah, you don't care about 3A. That's nothing to you. 22 district titles is pretty impressive though. That is good.
00:25:24
Speaker
That's really you have a shot to win state every year, which is the goal, right? Now, he says in this movie, he calls mocks the dumbest smart kid. Did he and this movie invent that expression? I hear that all the time now. Yeah, you know what? There is a couple of things in this movie which will get to that. You wonder, did that come from this movie? Could varsity blues be responsible for that phrase or style of football? You know, there were a couple of things like that. Yeah, I think it shows this movie is way more popular than
00:25:53
Speaker
people initially gave a credit for because there's a lot of stuff that has kind of transcended into the culture for sure. Going on, we've got Paul Walker as Lance Harbor, a two year all state quarterback, FSU commit. There's just so many cool names in these movies. Shane Falco, Lance Harbor, Mox, obviously Paul Walker from Fast and the Furious movie. She's all that into the blue. Paul Walker, just another guy. He's really, really cool when he's on screen. You just look at him. You're like, man, look at this guy. He was so likable. Yeah, he was so good in this.
00:26:21
Speaker
he is he just he looks cool he acts cool he's got that million dollar smile he's got the name now mocks had a picture of him billy bob tweeter and harbor when they were kids playing football and he says this was the best time who do you think played quarterback on those teams that's a good question i guess i can flip this back on you and say which of the two could play a position other than quarterback
00:26:43
Speaker
You know, we didn't get to see Harbor play that much, but we did get to see Mox run the ball as a quarterback a little bit. So maybe they split time, but I'm saying Harbor probably took more of the snaps and then Mox was probably running the ball or maybe a slot receiver or something like that.
00:27:02
Speaker
So then we've got Scott Kahn, son of James Kahn. His name in this is Tweeter, or Tweeter, depending on what you are looking at. So on his jersey it's spelled T-W-E-E-D-E-R, but in the credits it's spelled T-W-E-E-T-E-R. So that's one of life's great mysteries. What is his real last name? Maybe whoever rewrote it was like, I'm changing this name. And then they forgot to change it in the credits or something.
00:27:26
Speaker
You know what? I think you're 100% right. That's what happened. So Scott Kahn, he's in the Oceans movies, Gone in 60 Seconds, Hawaii Five-O, Entourage. He's been in some cool stuff. He has so many quotable moments in this movie. You want to see the new Tweeter end zone dance? Check it out. You know what it's called? What? New Tweeter end zone dance. You know what I call it? The new Tweeter end zone dance.
00:27:51
Speaker
He played like the great football player, but just dumb as rocks. And I'm like, there's, there's always that guy on the team. He played the dumb horny high school kid. Yeah. So good. Probably definitely in jail right now, but he just had some, some great moments before they call that last play to win the game.
00:28:10
Speaker
Billy Bob's like they said super play where I run around like my chicken with my head cough Is it and tweeters just doing the sign of the cross next to him? It's just it's just like man all this guy has his football and there's not much else going on there But he is he is a funny funny guy What do you think happened to him after the events of this movie the rest of his life? And how many girls do you think he has impregnated? Oh boy
00:28:35
Speaker
some, more than one, less than 10. I don't think he ever left. No. You see in a lot of these small-town movies, it's, I need to get out or that was my ticket out. I think he's perfectly happy staying in West Canaan. He's one of those guys that is still at the practices watching 100%. He's the guy who goes to the parties years later. That's him, but no one will ever give him any gruff. He'll be, hey, Twitter's here.
00:29:01
Speaker
We've got Amy Smart. She definitely had a moment. You know, Scrubs, Crank, Road Trip, Just Friends. I really enjoyed Amy Smart ripping on Vanderbeek in this movie. I thought it seemed realistic for a high school couple. Ally Larter, Eliall Swinton. This is the only movie that he is in. He plays Wendell. He was actually a defensive back at Stanford, played for the Chiefs for a little bit.
00:29:23
Speaker
We've got Jesse Plemons of Friday Night Lights Breaking Bad, Landry Clark in Friday Night Lights. One thing I'd like to point out, so Jesse Plemons plays the brother of Lance Harbor in this movie. In Friday Night Lights, Coach Taylor often calls him Lance. Now I don't know if that was intentionally meta, but something I really liked. Another Oscar-nominated actor.
00:29:44
Speaker
Last but not least, I want to talk about Ron Lester. He plays Billy Bob, got his start in Good Burger, ended up playing basically the same character as Billy Bob in Not Another Teen Movie, a guy by the name of Reggie Ray. He was 28 years old when they filmed this movie. Wow. Yeah. Wow.
00:30:00
Speaker
I find the Billy Bob intro to just be amazing. You know, he's driving the truck away, making mocks jump into it. He's eating a waffle that doesn't even look fully toasted. It looks like it just thawed out in his hand. He's dipping it in peanut butter and then just drinking syrup from the bottle. Then he calls his pig a dog. I love that dog. I think it's a pig. Yeah.
00:30:23
Speaker
I love that dog. Mox, like, I think it's a pig. He's like, yeah, like, what a great introduction to who this guy's going to be. And I actually thought he had, you know, that moment with the shotgun scene, like, I actually thought he did a really good job acting there as well.
00:30:39
Speaker
Yeah, it was. Yeah. When you talk about those two scenes, I mean, that's like his full, that's his full arc. You know, the opening scene, like, how can you take this guy seriously? He's got the truck with the name on it and the, yeah, the pig and the waffle. And then in that same truck later on, he has the, you know, very passionate. He's, he's not dumb. Like we, we come to find, he's not dumb. He, he listens, you know, he listened to what everyone called him when he was younger. He knows who he is.
00:31:04
Speaker
So that was nice. It was nice to see him actually come to come to terms, you know, I'm not just a football player a hundred percent last But not least the announcers were actually real Texas play-by-play guys. I thought that was a cool touch. They were great I love them. All right, so round one Who do you got who wins the cast and performances from replacements or the cast and performances from varsity blues? I think I think varsity blues doesn't they do a great job at developing the characters you get to know them and
00:31:31
Speaker
Replacements, I mean, that cast is just loaded. I mean, you talk about some of the superstars I got for this movie. It's a tough call, man. I think I have to go Replacements. I think I have to concede this one to you. Between Reeves, Hackman, Favreau.
00:31:47
Speaker
Yeah, and I think they did. They did have the luxury of having some of those big names, but no one's bad in it. It's just, you know, everyone plays their character perfectly, I think. I mean, it's a goofier movie, but I think that cast is just way too loaded. I agree. All right. We're going to give this first point to the replacements. All right. Round two. Best line or moment. What do you got for replacements?
00:32:10
Speaker
We had a good mix here of, you know, funny, lighthearted moments, and then actually some pretty good football sports moments, speeches and stuff in this. The cheer tryouts, which I think we will touch on later, why there are cheer tryouts, but that seems funny, you know, the montage of the
00:32:26
Speaker
new cheerleaders coming in. Uh, we got bust a move classic. We got the bar fight, which goes into the jail scene. I will survive playing, which, which was a theme song for this team. Got a couple of scenes in the, in the parking lot with the current team who just seems to hang out in the parking lot at all times. And then he got the two guards pulling out their guns in broad daylight and shooting.
00:32:49
Speaker
Eddie Martell's car, which with really no repercussions, just don't bring your gun next time. And then we get the one of my favorite scenes. It's definitely less of the goof is some funny moments in it. But the scene where they talk about fear, I thought that was a very, very good scene, definitely appropriate for for timing. And I think that's where you really get the overall theme for the movie.
00:33:11
Speaker
For these guys, they're not guaranteed tomorrow, so make it count. I thought that helped set up the rest of the movie, the ending. And then we get a bunch of quotes from this movie. Do you have any favorite quotes from Replacements? There's a lot to choose from here. I really like the fear scene as well for the seriousness of it, but also the beginning of it is just funny, you know? Anybody here afraid of anything other than insects? Huh? Come on.
00:33:41
Speaker
Quick sand. Quick sand is a scary mother, man. I mean, first of all, to suck you right in, and even if you scream, you get all that muck in your mouth. Obviously, the pain heals, chicks dig scars, glory lasts forever, line is great. I know you're tired. I know you're hurting. And I wish I could say something that was classy and inspirational. But that just wouldn't be our style.
00:34:06
Speaker
Pain heals. Chicks dig scars. Glory lasts forever.
00:34:15
Speaker
I think probably my two favorite quotes in the movie though are from Clifford Franklin. The first is when he's at, they're in the cafeteria and he gets introduced to Earl Wilkinson and he says that he hadn't beaten up those cops, allegedly, and then Favreau's staring at him. That scene, that clip is really funny. And then when the coach puts the super sticky catch, stick them glue on his hand, and he's like, coach, I look like I just jacked off an elephant.
00:34:42
Speaker
Those two just, they get me every single time. Yeah. I like, I like the scene where they need a defensive stand and coach was like, I want that ball. Get me that ball. And then, you know, Jon Favreau's character is out there just, you know, he's going nuts. He gets the ball, he runs off. Coach, cut the ball. Go sit down now, Danny.
00:35:10
Speaker
That was really good, really good. All right, let me jump in with Varsity Blues here. There's a couple situations with Billy Bob that I find really funny when he gets knocked out and it's the hole. How many fingers? How many fingers? Three. Wait a minute. Hold on. It's got to be true or false. Billy Bob, the man's holding up some fingers. True or false? True. It's all right, Coach.
00:35:51
Speaker
That is so good. So good. Gosh. Is Billy Bob the real star of this movie? Now, obviously, before you answer, I know it's Mox. We know what it's about. But Billy Bob's arc is just as equally deep and impressive. I mean, obviously Mox is the protagonist, so the camera's going to follow him. The story's going to follow him. Billy Bob, you kind of have to piece together his story.
00:36:03
Speaker
that's a good that's a great one.
00:36:16
Speaker
and the stuff he has to deal with with the concussion and you know obviously probably self-conscious about himself and then where he ends up I don't know to me overall he would definitely be my favorite character because just of where he starts and that might be the obvious answer that he's he's a favorite character but from where he starts where he ends absolutely yeah all right Al it's time
00:36:39
Speaker
It's time to talk about arguably the most important, the most recognizable scene, and maybe any football movie ever. Yeah, I don't think that's a stretch to say. And that is Ally Larder's with Cream Bikini. Now this is a family show, so we are not gonna
00:36:55
Speaker
We're going to keep it that way. But I do have to say this was a very influential scene for me as a middle schooler. It's also one of the most known scenes from a movie of this time period. I mean, you say whipped cream bikini and most people, at least people around our age know what you're talking about.
00:37:14
Speaker
I want to point out a few things. So she asks him, this is Mox, Mox goes to her house. So she asks him if he wants whipped cream on his Sunday, which leads to the whole bikini thing. What would she have done if he said no? Like, what if he was really adamant? Like, no, I really don't like whipped cream. Well, I think things would have progressed quicker. Oh, man. So then she comes out and he's like, oh, we can't do this, whatever. And they give each other a hug.
00:37:42
Speaker
Now he definitely has whipped cream all over him, right? Absolutely. You don't hug someone with whipped cream and not get any off of you. I want to see the after scene of him going home and his dad sitting at the kitchen table drinking some beers, just being like, what the hell you got on? You just know that happening.
00:38:02
Speaker
I also don't entirely understand like the next day they see each other at school and she gives him a kiss just in the middle. You know, we're supposed to be led to believe that nothing happened between them. And then she goes up and she just kisses him. We are sending all kinds of mixed signals to everybody right here.
00:38:20
Speaker
And she seemed to have no shame and Mox was just like, oh, that was cool. And then makes eye contact with Jules. She does a good job of portraying that I just need to get out of this town thing. But, uh, I mean, Mox has willpower to just kind of do what he did and walk away. I don't know many 17, 18 year old guys that would be able to do that. Yeah, right. But then he spent all night at a strip club.
00:38:45
Speaker
Yeah, we're definitely getting some mixed signals from right here. Right. But I will say moral compass at this point did the right thing. Goes back to that book, you know, that book that he was read in the unmatched moral clarity. There's there. There we go. I did find it interesting. I mean, just a little tidbit. They whipped cream wouldn't stick when they were filming this. So they had to use cream. You know, it'd be interesting to see how they figured that out. Trial and error. Maybe. Yeah. One thing I really
00:39:12
Speaker
want to just put out there into the universe that I found weird. Jules, Mox's girlfriend, says to him about the Darcy thing. Oh, once you do the whipped cream bikini thing on you, that's how she got Lance. Now, Lance Harbor is her brother. Why in the world would Jules know that a girl did the whipped cream bikini for her brother? Yeah, I don't know if I really want to think about this one too much.
00:39:36
Speaker
Yeah, don't. It's a small town where
Motivational Aspects of 'Varsity Blues' Final Game
00:39:38
Speaker
it gets around. We'll leave it at that. Yeah, that's good. That's good. We'll put it at that for sure. I do think the best scene, it's kind of like a sequence though. It has to be from the halftime speech of the last game all the way up to the end. That's just that moves really well. Some good football action scene. It's fun. It's motivational. It's all of that stuff. So what do you got? What do you got for round two? Who wins?
00:39:58
Speaker
Yeah, I'm gonna have to punt this possession and give this one to Varsity Blues. I just think it's got too many iconic scenes, just more memorable things that stick with you. I agree. I will take the point on that. So we are tied one to one, going into round three. Better title, better soundtrack. Talk to me about replacements. What do we got here?
00:40:19
Speaker
Okay. So replacements. We have a interesting mix. Got some jock jams, some oldies, but goodies. We got bust a move. Good vibrations. I will survive. Everybody dance now. Interesting with, aside from the soundtrack, the composer, John Debney, just a legend. Some of his projects, bunch of sports movies, specifically football. You got little giants, draft day, American underdog, uh, your favorite movie, 80 for Brady. He did some.
00:40:46
Speaker
He did some work on Madden, which is pretty cool. He also has a few projects with Jon Favreau, which I thought was pretty interesting. So maybe, you know, maybe this is where they met. He did Iron Man 2, he did Elf and Jungle Book. And then we end with Heroes. So I would say pretty solid mix of music and score in this one. Yeah. So what do you have for Varsity Blues?
00:41:11
Speaker
They have two amazing needle drops in this movie with AC DC Thunderstruck in the Hangover game. That's amazing. And then you've got Foo Fighters, My Hero, a little bit later on, you know, very 90s, but really good songs. And then I thought it was funny, you know, when they were introing the different guys, when it was Lance Harbor, they had the gunslinger music playing. When it was Tweeter, it was Nice Guys Finished Last. Mox was like the cool, edgy rock at the time.
00:41:38
Speaker
So I think they tried, but I think you can see some of the MTV influence here because you have some more deeper cuts in here. Great choices. I think I think all the songs that they chose were appropriate.
00:41:48
Speaker
Yeah, now talking about the title of replacements versus varsity blues, I still don't completely understand the title of varsity blues. Replacements is pretty straightforward. You know, they were replacement players. They say it in the movie. They're the replacements. To me, varsity blues is just they're on varsity and they're dealing with not just football, but being that stage in their lives. Yeah. All right. So who do you got?
00:42:09
Speaker
This round, my vote would definitely be replacements. I think I got to go replacements too. Armato here is fun over fresh. I think the replacement soundtrack is definitely more fun. Agreed. All right, round four, plot hole, cringy moments, WTF moments. We're going to have a ton for these movies. We're not going to spend time breaking down every single one, but we can just kind of hit on a few important ones. So go on, what do you got for replacements?
00:42:38
Speaker
Replacements definitely has some of the, what I would call, can't say that anymore moments. A lot of body shaming, a lot of racial stuff, especially with Fumiko, his character, have some moments where they talk about, oh, that's why girls don't play. I just think stuff that probably just has not aged as well.
00:42:56
Speaker
And then when you talk about the actual football action, this is a little bit sillier of a movie, especially with some of the action, but you know, with the penalties being called adding up the, it's just stuff that like, as a, I know Rob, we talk about this a lot, like being sports fans, we maybe hone in on these things a little bit more using timeouts and places you don't need to use timeouts. We got scheduling. These are supposed to be the last four games of the season. So when you think about like when the, when the story's taking place, it kind of doesn't really add up.
00:43:25
Speaker
We got Falco somehow getting to the stadium in no time at all. And on this one too, they knew Martel was coming back. So would they have listed Falco as an active player? No, definitely not. That would have been like the ultimate like bella checkian move to be like, I'm going to list him as active because I have a feeling he's going to be sitting by his Jeep or whatever looking at the river. He's going to show up.
00:43:51
Speaker
And then what are the biggest ones for me? And we haven't really talked about Annabelle or her character that much. She's the love interest. She's the head cheerleader. Why is she holding cheerleader tryouts? First of all, are the cheerleaders also on strike? Why is she holding tryouts during practice?
00:44:09
Speaker
It throws you off and like, I know they needed her to be there and like, this is the way to get her character there. So I guess that's why trials are during an NFL team practice, which seems weird. And also she's just a really bad driver for no reason. It's really interesting. The other thing with that is how did Martel know about Falco's relationship with her? He seemed to know a lot about her. That was weird too.
00:44:31
Speaker
Yeah, it's almost like there was a couple of deleted scenes where Martel wanted to date her and he lost. Or did. Yeah. Or maybe he did, you know. Maybe that's why she said she doesn't date quarterbacks anymore. Oh, there you go. I think we're onto something. If I could point out a couple other things too, could five guys lift a truck? I don't know. I don't know if that could happen. Maybe the other like football related thing was why was Falco on the field for the onside kicks?
00:44:55
Speaker
Why was he on the field for the, for the, the hands team, the players you put out who have the best hands to recover an onside kick and you put your quarterback out there. And speaking of rosters and replacement players, how was it that they could assemble this team so quickly? The owner pulls the coach aside. I want to hire you and he goes, Oh, well, good thing. I have a list of 53 guys in my back pocket in case this exact scenario came up and they happen to be the exact positions needed for a football team.
00:45:23
Speaker
Also, no lawyers or agents were involved in any of these signings. No. No. And apparently they got a guy out of jail, so he's working some magic. I don't know. All right, let's jump into varsity blues. Some of the cringy stuff, Billy Bob says a derogatory slang word for homosexual, which definitely are not saying in movies. There was a lot of BJ jokes, which I think were probably funnier back in 1999.
00:45:50
Speaker
You've got tweeter talking about drugging girls. Now, they did say enjoy prison, but still, even if you know that it was bad, you don't put in jokes about drugging people. Right. That didn't age too well. How fast would Coach Kilmer be fired in today's climate? He's calling the guys dummios, the language he was using, physically grabbing face masks. How fast is he booted?
00:46:12
Speaker
Yeah, pretty quick, especially, you know, someone pulls out their phone, takes a video. Yeah, see you later. I coach high school baseball and you can't even come 1% close to anything he did. Definitely had some coaches in the past who were more, their style was more in your face, call you out. When we were growing up playing, you could definitely still get away with that stuff. Not anymore. Not anymore.
00:46:33
Speaker
A couple other things. I'm just going to go through these quick, but I got to point them out. First thing is about the practice. So Mox takes the backups. They go into the field and he starts calling his own place. First off at no football practice are the players calling their own place. The coaches are calling the plays. They have a script. They're telling them what to do. Mox is going in there calling the Oop-de-Oop right off the bench. How's the entire offense know what that play is? It's definitely in their playbook. And then they do a hook and ladder. That's not going to be in there. Kilmer's not allowing that type of freedom.
00:47:02
Speaker
So Mox comes up with all these wild offensive plays, but he didn't know to just spike the ball. Yeah, I didn't understand that. You would line up and then throw it sideways for, you know, stop the clock. But isn't that intentional grounding? It's intentional grounding. It's wasting an additional two seconds. It doesn't make sense.
00:47:18
Speaker
the oop-de-oop in the, and I love this, it makes for a great scene so you don't care. You're like, oh, he's doing the oop-de-oop, they're going to win, they're going to run it, they're doing this. But he said he's calling plays from the line that they've never practiced before. Right. Right. How are you calling plays that you don't have in the playbook? With high school kids being like, oh yeah, okay. Yeah, we got it, we know what we're doing.
00:47:37
Speaker
You know, another thing I just want to point out, there's no way Kilmer's allowing names on jerseys. He's not that type of coach. Did you notice one of the hats one of the coaches was wearing? It may have been Kilmer. It says Kilmer's coyotes. Oh, I got it. To me, if it was up to him, he would put Kilmer on the back of everyone's shirts, right? Yes. He's not letting Billy Bob just put Billy Bob on the back of his jersey. Right. That's just not his style.
00:47:59
Speaker
So Kilmer leaves at halftime, you know, goes to his office, packs up his stuff, never to be heard from again. Where does his assistance go? How is Lance Harbor now the coach? Yeah, he's the coach. He's got the headset on, so who's he talking to?
00:48:13
Speaker
That was weird. I love it. It makes for a better movie, but it made no sense. I guess it does set up Lance's post-movie story where he goes on to become a coach. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That works for me. That's fine. I'll check it off. It's fine. But still. But still, yeah. Last, and this is, I think, pretty glaring, the Ivy Leagues don't offer academic scholarships. So Mox saying he got full academic scholarship from Brown. No, you didn't.
00:48:37
Speaker
So who do you have winning round four? I guess I should say, who do you have losing round four and we'll give the point to whoever didn't lose? Yeah, I would say losing this round would be replacements. I think Varsity Blues, obviously we'd have some fun talking about some of these plot holes at the end, but I think overall I'm going to have to say Varsity Blues takes this round. I would have to agree with you. Are we at a 2-2 split right now? Or a 2-2 split?
00:49:00
Speaker
Now, round five will always be a miscellaneous question. So for this week, we put, if the cast of these two movies played a real football game, who would win?
00:49:11
Speaker
In my opinion, it basically comes down to Eli Elswin, who played football at Stanford and then was a defensive back for the Chiefs. And you have Keanu Reeves who, rumor has it, was so good that he was offered a professional tryout after this movie. So what do you think? Who wins if the two casts play football? I'm going to have to go replacements. I do too. I think you look at how Jack John Favreau is and no one is stopping that man in this movie. He would legitimately terrify those children.
00:49:40
Speaker
Also, I think so often football comes down to line play and the linemen and replacements are just huge. I agree. All right. So we'll get a replacement. So we've got three, two lead for replacements. All right. Round six, better trivia. So how this will work. I'll say one rock. I'll say one. We'll just go until we don't have any more. So my first one, Paul Walker broke his leg during the filming. So that Cassie's wearing is real. Oh, there you go.
00:50:06
Speaker
I have Keanu Reeves plays a former quarterback from Ohio State. And in Point Break, Keanu Reeves plays a former quarterback from Ohio State. Ooh, that's a good one. I don't know if that's intentional on their part, but if it is, that's awesome. I've got Ali Larder, who plays Darcy, and Amy Smart, who plays Jules. They became friends on this movie. They're still best friends to this day. That's fun. Let's see, Shane Falco is a lefty quarterback. Two lefty quarterbacks, one is Super Bowl. Ken Stabler and Steve Young.
00:50:36
Speaker
So this isn't really trivia, but if you watch the scene where Billy Bob pulls into the parking lot, where there's all people cheering them on, he legitimately almost runs over the cheerleader extras in the parking lot. That would have been wild trivia if he actually had hit them. Oh man, yeah. I'm glad he didn't, but yeah. You kind of paused a little bit long when you said, I'm glad he didn't. I feel like secretly you kind of wish that he would have just hit somebody and they would have went flying.
00:51:05
Speaker
All right, what else you got?
00:51:07
Speaker
For the replacements, they had a stunt double come in for Keanu Reeves, a man named Chris Robbins, who had no acting experience. He was a quarterback at Clemson and then was called in to do stunts for any given Sunday for Dennis Quaid's character, but he was too big. So that did not work, but instead he ended up getting cast in the replacements. And then from there, he got work on Remember the Titans, the Friday Night Lights film, and some work in Madden. Oh, good for him. Way to, way to make something when life gives you
00:51:37
Speaker
Nope, I don't even know. In the movie, Mox says he bases the oop-de-oop offense off of Mississippi Valley State. In the 80s, Mississippi Valley State was averaging 57 points a game being led by star wide receiver Jerry Rice. The replacements was filmed at the home of the Baltimore Ravens in real life.
00:52:01
Speaker
Oh, that is cool. The only other thing I want to point out is, do you remember a few years ago they had that college admissions athletic scandal with some of the actors at USC and their kids? They named that scandal Varsity Blues, which is just a dumb name for that scandal, unless they were basing it off of the fact that Mock said he got an academic scholarship from Brown and they don't give academic scholarships. And so it was a spin like that, but I don't believe they dug that deep into it.
00:52:28
Speaker
Alright, so what do you got? Better trivia goes to... I think I'm gonna have to give this round of Varsity Blues. Alright, so that gives us... I think we're at a 3-3 tie. 3-3 tie heading into round 7. Better story, script, better ending, more fun.
00:52:45
Speaker
I kind of like to think what would happen next, how the story and script set things up in the future. So how do you think the Washington team did in the playoffs with Martel leading them as quarterback? I don't really have any confidence in him. I think there's probably going to be a natural letdown anyway, emotionally. I just think once the story ends, that season ends.
00:53:03
Speaker
It was the replacement players that got into the playoffs. In the real strike, the Redskins ended up going on and winning the Super Bowl. It was shown that the Sentinels in this movie were not a good team. So why would they all of a sudden start being a good team? Exactly. Yeah. I'll probably ask this anytime there's kind of a romantic love story, but what are the chances that Falco and Annabelle are still together a year from when this movie ends? I'd say hi. I keep them as being together.
00:53:29
Speaker
You think so? I do. Kind of could fit, you know, she owns a bar, he owns a boat, you know, they both like football, but it seems like they have other interests. Yeah, let's say it worked out for the kids. I'm rooting for them. Did varsity blues help invent and popularize the modern offense? There's been so many NFL players that have talked about this movie, Warren Sapp, Aaron Rodgers. Did it predict the direction that football was going? There's a part in the movie where they're running the no huddle offense to hurry up offense and the commentators make a point of saying,
00:53:59
Speaker
Oh, they're not huddling. What is this? Some sort of new offense? I was like, Oh, that's really interesting that maybe this was, you know, a new high powered way to run an offense, keep the defense, you know, on their toes, not being able to sub. It's interesting to think about. It's not far fetched to think that it definitely popularized some of these things. So we didn't talk about this in kind of plot holes. The West Canaan coyotes, they win their district. They only had one loss on the season. They just end the season. They don't go onto the state tournament.
00:54:27
Speaker
Yeah, because they do mention after they win the district that that was their last game that they played. I guess they don't have a coach, so maybe they couldn't play or maybe the players were just like, you know, that's good enough for me. Even if they would have competed in the state tournament, I don't think they would have fared that well. So their star running back was hurt. Their star offensive lineman was concussion prone.
00:54:49
Speaker
No, I think the magic runs out there and that's okay. One thing I want to bring up here, and this really has nothing to do with the movie, but I think there's an alternate reality where Mox plays football at Brown the next year. Let me hear this. So in 1999, that would have been Mox's freshman year, Brown went nine and one and finished the season ranked number 25 in the country. In 2000, Brown got in trouble for connecting students with a legal financial aid, Mox's fake academic scholarship, maybe.
00:55:19
Speaker
Man, this gets deeper. In 2000, they went seven and three, but they weren't allowed to qualify for the playoffs. In 2001, they went six and three. And then in 2002, what would have been Mox's senior year, they went two and eight. Now, Mox has shown that he's a good quarterback. He was competitive with a guy that was two time all state going to FSU. So, Mox can play some football.
00:55:39
Speaker
You know a senior-led mocks team isn't going 2-8. We're going to talk about one game in particular in 2002. So in 2002, Brown plays Harvard and loses. Harvard was playing their backup quarterback and he went 10 for 16 with 113 yards passing and two touchdowns and 18 carries for 131 yards rushing.
00:55:59
Speaker
that backup quarterback that started some magic that day, none other than Ryan Fitzpatrick using his Fitz magic to lead Harvard over Brown 26-24. If Mox is playing in that game, there is no way Brown is losing that game, that Fitz magic happens. Maybe he alters the course of NFL history. Maybe it's Mox magic. Oh, maybe he market corrects Ryan Fitzpatrick. I like it. All right, round seven. I think this really comes down to just the better story, better script, who you got.
00:56:28
Speaker
First of all, just say I love both of these movies. And if I am taking into the story and then factoring in the ending paints me to say, but varsity blues, I think I'm going to have to agree with you. So we've got it. The first winner of the movie showdown with rock and rob varsity blues. Only cure I know for the Monday blues is varsity blues.
00:56:53
Speaker
So Alex, what are your rankings for these two movies? So we said earlier, Rotten Tomatoes gave them 41% for replacements and a 43% for varsity blues. What are you ranking them? Man, those are low. I mean, replacements, I'm going 71. And then varsity blues, I'm putting in the 80s, 81. Oh, I think that's fair. I had them a little closer. I think I'm going replacement 78%, varsity blues, 81%.
00:57:18
Speaker
Should we call this instead of Rotten Tomatoes, like Robin Rocking Tomatoes or something? Rocking Robin Tomatoes? Yeah. Yeah. Jumping. We'll work on that. Final Takeaways. What do you got? Rob, I think this is a definitely fun one to look at.
Themes of Living in the Present
00:57:30
Speaker
I think both movies, when you come down to the end, they're your takeaways. It's, you know, the replacements. They were guaranteed tomorrow. And then Varsity Blues. The kids did not want what their dads are living the glory days for. So they're, you know, they're living in the past. Replacements is not worried about the future. So if you think about it, living in the present with these two.
00:57:47
Speaker
I love it. Beautifully said. Well, Alex, this was fun. Our best episode yet. It is. It really is our best episode yet. And it can only get better from here. I'm 1 and 0 on the season. We'll keep track of that. We have some great match-ups coming up in future episodes. If you like what you heard, even if you didn't like, subscribe, all that good stuff, you can find us on all the socials at Rock and Rob Show. That's Rock and Rob Show. And it's spelled out. We have some cool stuff over there. This has been the movie showdown with Rock and Rob. Peace. We're out of here.
00:58:17
Speaker
See ya!