Great film for Texas Aggies
347362
Happy to find this rare film - we are a Texas A&M family, and this movie is required viewing for new students at A&M, so it will bring back memories of our graduates' years at A&M
1398309
Coach Herman Boone (Denzel Washington) is asked to coach the TC Williams High School football team and beloved coach Bill Yost (Will Patton) is asked to step down. Yost has had 15 winning seasons and has been nominated for the Virginia High School Hall of Fame and people just can't believe that he has been replaced. Coach Boone steps into a hotbed of hatred and racial tension as the team is newly integrated with both black and white players and the tensions are high.

Coach Boone asks Yost to be the assistant coach and at first he refuses but he sees the racial tension between the black and white players and Coach Boone and he agrees as the white players will refuse to play unless he participates with the team. Football camp is bad because the tempers flare and many conflicts take place over racial tension. Slowly the team begins to reach some sense of teamwork and they begin to gel into a good team. The question is, can they reach their real potential and overcome the town's, the state's and their opponent's racial prejudice....

This is a good story based on real happenings and the movie is excellent. The acting of Denzel Washington is top notch and it is exciting to see how the team begins to work together and to want to prove to the world how good they really are. I like this film a lot and I recommend it to you as a really entertaining and motivational film.
950294
I love the 30 for 30 films and this is no exception.  Fantastic for any basketball fan (except maybe one from University of Houston), and a must for a Pack fan. Bravo.
1833693
This Blu-Ray is a nice upgrade to the DVD, as the colors pop, and there is noticable enhanced sharpness. The film was watched on 42" Panasonic Plasma, and BD35K player. The sound originally came through as DD, I had to hit "audio" and change it to True HD.

The film itself is one of my favorite sports films. The film is unapologetic and the characters are raw and fearless. The film is edgy, and hot, visually. Cameron Diaz, Al Pacino and the rest are perfect for this fast-paced film, and their performances are believable and as well cast.

Definitely worth the upgrade if you're a fan of this flick!
2628684
Since I was raised on a farm, I did enjoy this film very much.  Looks like a wonderful match for many of our veterans.
3596152
Just viewed this on youtube and found it to be one of Audie best films.  It really has a great quality about and is not your tipple western shoot em up film.  Also I did not realize how cute and beautiful Tuesday Weld was at such a young age.
3981710
Finally got to see this hard to find film. Color and (on location) tropical setting was a big plus. The actors were excellent, especially the beautiful Linda Darnell. A young Tab Hunter was good also, considering this was his first film. An enjoyable film, well worth the price!
1527511
There is no easy way to clear up the debate that this film generates for those who are either religious or nonreligious, or religious but not fundamentalist, but I will say this:  I attended a Southern Baptist college, and pretty much everything that one can find in this film I saw in real life.  I was in a play where a girl kissed me on the cheek, to have her parents pull her out of school the next day for immorality.  I knew a host of "good" Baptist girls and boys who could have written veritable Kama Sutras on things they can do together without having intercourse.  I have seen so many good things declared Satanic that one would imagine that there is no room left for God.  As one with an extensive evangelical fundamentalist background, I really didn't find anything too extreme.  I even knew some devout Christians who were just as mean in their faith as Hilary Faye in this film.  Overall, I don't think the film is anti-religious or anti-Christianity.  But it is a critique of the narrowness of many Christians, a critique that I personally think Jesus would completely endorse.  After all, in the Gospels, the two groups of people He had no patience with were the wealthy and the overly religious.

The point of the film wasn't to provide a Polaroid of what life in Christian fundamentalist high schools is like.  If so, they would have included more of the really nice people that inhabit the schools.  The point of the film is to highlight something that Jena Malone's character Mary (albeit, a not so virginal one) says to Pastor Skip near the end:  "Why would God make us all so different, if he wanted us to all be the same?"  I have witnessed first hand the way that many fundamentalist groups want to cut back on diversity, want to limit the number of legitimate lifestyle choices for people.  I think the point of this film is that underneath the rather artificial veneer that many fundamentalist groups impose on people, they still are more diverse than they want to acknowledge, and the individuality eventually comes out, even if suppressed in the short run.

The cast is excellent, and I especially enjoyed Jena Malone as Mary.  She does a great job of combining fragility and innocence and strength.  The humor was sharp and to the point, and I found a host of the situations throughout the film to be thoroughly familiar.

My main complaint with the film is the last half hour, where the narrative starts falling apart, not so much conceptually as visually.  Movies are always told with the camera, and not by the script, and the timing in many of the final scenes is just off a bit.  For instance, where we see the Pastor Skip walking towards the hospital, and then away, and then back.  Or many of the verbal encounters at the prom.  The narrative flow bogged down and didn't match the rhythm of the rest of the movie.

All in all, this is a good movie about being in a teenager in a place that not everyone in our society is familiar with.  With a better-paced final half hour, it would have been even better.
3567080
Great film, and very good commentary.  I can't compare the quality of transfer, but it seems pretty good.  Doesn't compare with seeing an actual 35mm print, but I guess you wouldn't expect it to.
4604490
Enjoyed the film very much. It lets you have a birds eye view on migrant workers lives and their difficult lives. I especially liked the Hispanic methods of making you part of the family. I also liked Kevin Costner working for day as a migrant worker and experiencing the hard work that they perform. Good movie and liked the ending shots that  showed those kids as grown up established members of society continuing to give back and running with the new group of high school  runners.
319728
Happy Texas is one of the greatest comedies you've probably never heard of. Shot in just 29 days on a shoestring budget, this film's acting, directing, script and comedic timing are so clever and incisive that it has attracted an almost cult following, especially among Steve Zahn fans.

There are plots within plots that all pull together in the end to make a perfect film. Starting with escaped convicts (Wayne Wayne Wayne played by Steve Zahn and Harry Sawyer played by Jeremy Northam) who have to hide and steal an RV belonging to two gay pageant designers, to discovering the gay lifestyle in a small Texas community (Happy), to finding love in the arms of a doe-eyed banker (Ally Walker ...sorry for the cliche, but she really does have doe-eyes), this movie hits on all aspects of life and puts a hilarious spin on them.

The greatest things about this film were Steve Zahn's acting while trying to teach pre-teen girls how to dance, and William H. Macy's stunning performance as Happy's town sheriff who comes out of the closet.

Always sharp, incredibly funny, superbly paced, this movie's small budget belies its excellent acting and directing.

Few films will tickle your funny bone as perfectly as HAPPY TEXAS. Watch it. Buy it. Live it!
4254720
I loved this film because my husband grew up in the area in which it was filmed. Birkenhead and surrounding area lent a great deal of authenticity to the story and made this film fun to watch. If you want a dose of true life football hooligans, this is a good one.
4577752
I really enjoyed this movie. It took a great look into the lives of the religious and the challenges of maintaining or strengthening a belief in college. It was a great story of a young man's struggle with his own faith as he looked at how others within his church and faith system seemed to abuse and misuse their what they  believe. I found it to be a great movie.
4654835
i never saw this film at the theater so i can't say what it look like then but the vhs copy's that i have are at best poor.the release on dvd has taken some time but is worth the wait.in letterbox and a great print the film is beautiful to see and experience all over again.sound is ok not 5.1 but it is better than the tape .if you love the zulu history this film is a must buy .
4867441
I watch this film every few years to see the best film Sayles has out there. In fact Its just a great film who ever had made it. Its a pleasure watching a near perfect cast especially David Strathairn as Sheriff Hatfield and Chris Cooper as the union organizer. The events the film portrays (the Matewan massacre) is based on fact. Miners needed to be organized considering the wretched conditions they lived and worked during the turn of the twentieth century. Matewan was only one of several large horrific incidents which occurred to make this organization possible. This story ,although not historically accurate in some areas does indeed communicate the desperate times these and all coal miners were living. There is a running narrative that focuses the audience attention to both the characters and the events which led to the shoot out between the miners and the hired detectives. Sayles has you hissing inside at the mere thought of these hired guns. In reality they were hired to evict the striking miners from company owned housing to break up the strike and have the miners return to work unorganized, starving and ill. The miners in their desperation saw no way out but violence. The union organizer (C.Cooper) is opposed to violence as a solution but the situation  gets out of hand and we as observers see that this is their only solution. We get to watch the transition of the main characters from unorganized miners to a solidarity as union members only through forced violence.  Each character comes to this solution differently .This is the brilliance of the film . Sayles takes us through this transition which is different for each .Its great story telling and wonderful character development .
3926022
This was one of my favorite movies in college.  We watched it so many times and somehow it never gets old to me.  I was recently getting rid of some of the movies that I owned on VHS (because who has a VHS player these days), and replacing the ones I loved the most on DVD, (10 Things I Hate About You, Bring It On, Wedding Singer, Legally Blond) and I purchased this to add to my home collection.  This edition, is really cool!  I love all the music in the movie and own the soundtrack as well.
3404650
I thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of this film, considering I'm from Louisiana, where the movie was filmed.  It definitely tugs at your heart strings.  The story line was immaculate.  It teaches a lesson of how to treat and how not to treat those with mental challenges.  Just because someone is mentally challenged, does not mean that they can't experience all aspects of life like normal people.  Pemon's character portrays that very well.  Therefore, I suggest those that are interested, you have to watch this film.  Thank you.