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Friday Night Lights

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Friday Night Lights (2004)

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Reviews Counted:162

Fresh:132

Rotten:30

Average Rating:7.2/10

Consensus: An acute survey of the football-obsessed heartland that succeeds as both a stirring drama and a rousing sports movie.

Rated: 12A [See Full Rating] for thematic issues, sexual content, language, some teen drinking and rough sports action

Runtime: 1 hr 58 mins

Genre: Dramas

Theatrical Release:13-05-2005

Synopsis: From OscarŽ-winning producer Brian Grazer and Imagine Entertainment and based on the best-selling book about high school football by H.G. Bissinger, Friday Night Lights chronicles the entire 1988... From OscarŽ-winning producer Brian Grazer and Imagine Entertainment and based on the best-selling book about high school football by H.G. Bissinger, Friday Night Lights chronicles the entire 1988 season of the Permian High Panthers of Odessa, Texas, with football players, coaches, mothers, fathers, pastors, boosters, fans and families struggling with ongoing personal conflicts while the team fights for a state championship. A town for sale, Odessa, Texas has seen better days--the financial bust evident in its boarded-up shops and broken lives. Yet one hope sustains the community where, once a week during the fall, the town and its dreams come alive beneath the dazzling and disorienting Friday night lights...when the Permian High Panthers take to the field. In a city where economic uncertainty has eroded the spirit of its inhabitants, nearly everyone seeks comfort in the religion of the Friday night ritual, where the unfulfilled dreams of an entire community are shifted onto the shoulder pads of a team of high-school athletes. Friday Night Lights captures the frenzy of a small town that reveres its school team and their weekly games. With Odessa standing in for places just like it all across America, the film provides an illuminating look at the hoped-for successes and the built-in failures of trying to live the American Dream through the efforts of a group of talented young men. The film is produced by Academy AwardŽ winner Brian Grazer, directed by Peter Berg (The Rundown, Very Bad Things) and adapted from Bissinger's book by Berg and David Aaron Cohen (The Devil's Own). -- © Universal Pictures [More]

Starring: Billy Bob Thornton, Tim McGraw, Derek Luke, Jay Hernandez

Starring: Billy Bob Thornton, Tim McGraw, Derek Luke, Jay Hernandez, Lucas Black, Garrett Hedlund, Lee Thompson Young, Lee Jackson

Director: Peter Berg

Director: Peter Berg
Screenwriter: Peter Berg, David Aaron Cohen
Producer: Brian Grazer
Composer: Explosions in the Sky
Studio: Universal Pictures

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Reviews for Friday Night Lights

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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 >> >|
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Had Billy Bob Thornton not been so good in so many films, people would be talking about this as his greatest role.

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
07/31/08
Richard Luck
Richard Luck
Channel 4 Film
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The affecting, gruelling result is less a document of recreational sport than one of obligation and ordeal.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
06/24/06
Ben Walters
Ben Walters
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The best sports movie for years, as it's not about sport at all. Forget fears of jingoistic grandstanding, this is an un-American all-American tale that deserves attention.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
04/01/06
Ian Nathan
Ian Nathan
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Thornton anchors the film with his understated but no less effective performance but the stand-out is Derek Luke (Antwone Fisher) - the scene where he finally realises that his football career is over is truly heartbreaking to watch.

Full Review Source: ViewLondon | comment Comment
05/14/05
Matthew Turner
Matthew Turner
ViewLondon

Its script is pure corn, drenched in syrupy sentiment and topped with prize ham in the shape of Billy Bob Thornton's tub-thumping coach.

Full Review Source: BBC | comment Comment
05/10/05
Neil Smith
Neil Smith
BBC
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

There's nothing particularly universal or relevant about this place- and sport-specific ode to American football. Although it's a gripping and watchable true story.

Full Review Source: Shadows on the Wall | comment Comment
04/18/05
Rich Cline
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall

What Friday Night Lights offers is the perspective that, for the people and young players caught up in this whirlwind, football simultaneously means everything and ultimately nothing.

Full Review Source: Window to the Movies | comment Comment
10/30/09
Jeffrey Chen
Jeffrey Chen
Window to the Movies

Friday Night Lights is a feel-good movie, but it's not real. It's a hard-hitting Hallmark greeting card. It's no wonder it appealed to Larry King %u2014 it's safe, easy, conventional, and feigns incisiveness.

Full Review Source: Bright Lights Film Journal | comment Comment
02/02/09
Tony Macklin
Tony Macklin
Bright Lights Film Journal
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | comment Comment
10/18/08
Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Sacramento News & Review | comment Comment
08/07/08
Mark Halverson
Mark Halverson
Sacramento News & Review

Few films have shown so powerfully the slashing double edge of sports fever.

Full Review Source: Newsweek | comment Comment
11/01/07
David Ansen
David Ansen
Newsweek

The script spends at least as much time exploring the psychologies of the young players and the problems they face at home as it does rallying the audience behind their efforts on the field.

Full Review Source: Film Threat | comment Comment
04/14/07
Rick Kisonak
Rick Kisonak
Film Threat

A heart-pounding big-screen treatment that captures all the action of a tumultuous season while showing the emotional toll on the players.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
03/26/07
Andrea Gronvall
Andrea Gronvall
Chicago Reader

While the atmosphere is excellent, and the general elements all strong, the film sadly fails to give any real insight or depth in regards to explaining the hows and whys of the near fever over the game and its players.

Full Review Source: Dark Horizons | comment Comment
10/30/06
Garth Franklin
Garth Franklin
Dark Horizons

You'll leave the theater somewhat emotionally spent -- feeling like you've been tackled by a 220-pound linebacker -- but it's worth the ride. One of the best sports movies ever.

Full Review Source: Christianity Today | comment Comment
09/22/06
Mark Moring
Mark Moring
Christianity Today

The movie's principles are seriously out of whack, even as it angles toward a Big Life Lesson about learning to live with falling short of greatness.

Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | comment Comment
05/26/06
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid

An excellent effort that packs a solid, emotional punch.

Full Review Source: Sydney Morning Herald | comment Comment
01/17/06
Sydney Morning Herald

a good film, but it is preaching to the converted

Full Review Source: Draxblog Movie Reviews | comment Comment
09/03/05
Dragan Antulov
Dragan Antulov
Draxblog Movie Reviews

Friday Night Lights is a film about football, but it shares more in common with films from the horror genre than with its predecessors.

Full Review Source: www.kcactive.com | comment Comment
07/25/05
Uri Lessing
Uri Lessing
www.kcactive.com

A Friday night movie if ever there was one.

Full Review Source: RTE Interactive (Dublin, Ireland) | comment Comment
07/21/05
Harry Guerin
Harry Guerin
RTE Interactive (Dublin, Ireland)
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 >> >|
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