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Simply Perfect

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Blistering performances.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

After about 25 years of reading about this movie shot in my long-time hometown of Baton Rouge, I finally watched Everybody's All-American with my mom on Netflix disc. From the parade at the State Capitol to shots at Airline Highway near the end, I recognized many of the landmarks that were depicted in the film. Oh, and the shots at LSU Tiger Stadium (otherwise known as Death Valley) were glorious! It follows Dennis Quaid and Jessica Lange as football hero and homecoming queen as they go through the trails and tribulations of falling in love, getting married, making a family, and the ups-and-downs-of career and marriage. There's also nice supporting turns by John Goodman-as a fellow player who has some personal problems, Timothy Hutton-as Quaid's cousin who becomes a writer, and Carl Lumbly-another former football star who thrives when the civil rights era passes. If there's some disappointment concerning the narrative, it's near the end when there seems to be some scenes missing which was confirmed when I looked at the deleted scenes section of the DVD and found a whole sequence concerning Quaid's affair with another woman in it. With that, it might have been a much better movie. Still, I enjoyed what I saw and was glad to watch this. So on that note, I recommend Everybody's All-American. P.S. I recognized singer (and New Orleans native) Aaron Neville as the man with a track pistol in the Spanish Town sequence and Patricia Clarkson (fellow N.O. native) as Hutton's fiancée. I also loved seeing Mike the Tiger when he was shown!

First off, this is an OK film, no more, no less. I've never been much of a fan of Dennis Quaid, even though we hail from the same town. His essential cockiness, though, seems made for this part. Jessica Lange was, as always, very beautiful, even though she exhibits a bit of hard-edged brittleness. John Goodman turned in a very good performance. All three seemed a bit too old to pass for college kids, but hey, what're you gonna do when your film spans 25-plus years? The central themes were old, familiar, and a bit tired. In general, it seems that football movies are a lot harder to make than baseball movies, for obvious reasons. The action sequences were mostly done pretty well. Overall, this one is probably worth a Netflix rental, but don't spend any money on it.

I read Walter Shaw's rather scathing review of the film. As an expatriated American, I have a different take on it. Don't get me wrong, I gave it a 6 (ie nothing special). What got my attention is the way this film draws a caricature of our culture.It contains the following elements of American culture: football and the heroism bestowed on great athletes, a homecoming queen who lived only for her man saving herself for marriage(it was Louisana in the 60s), capitalism, the empowerment of blacks from the 60s through the 80s, the career woman becoming the head of the family (not typical of every American family, but a trend that was taking off in the 80s). Furthermore, it contains elements typical of American film: mass appeal and a plot which is rather simple, a happy cheesy ending, rekindled love, athlete's friendship/loyalty to one another, nauseating predictability, persevering the trials of marriage (marriages everywhere have trials and athletes have loyal friends everywhere, they are just the subject of American films a lot more often). In short, even its shortcomings are typically American.I don't really know if the creative team that realized "Everybody's All-American" (even the title is Americana to an extreme) intended to make an intelligent film that takes elements unique to our culture to a near absurd extreme, or if I interpret the film this way because I pay closer attention to everything "American" than I used to. The beginning of the film is so cliché I can't help wonder if it is intentional: the homecoming game, the hero, his beautiful blonde girlfriend, his nerdy relative who has a crush on the girlfriend. There are two possibilities: either the creators of this film intended the film to be a reflection of American culture to be studied critically, or they produced a film that would have mass appeal because it contained all the elements that would attract an American audience.The US is the single-most talked about/written about nation in the world. For me this film declares itself to be the quintessence of American culture in its title, and the storyline is right out of Norman Rockwell. I recommend this film not for its entertainment value, but for food for thought and analysis.

This movie is far above average, in no small part due to the performances of the principals. It is not a big movie, but as lesser movies go is a fantastic ride. You might forget it by tomorrow, but the memory of what a great job everyone did in it will linger in your mind. But for a few cosmetic errors it might have been a classic.Quaid doesn't really seem to be on his way to impressing in the beginning; Lange is stunning as always; we don't really know what to make of Hutton; and Goodman comes across immediately as that loose cannon on deck he was to play so well in The Great Lebowsky, albeit with more irony.As time goes on these characters gain a third dimension and the actors behind them show their quality. Lange shines brighter and brighter, Hutton surprises as well, and what really amazes is how Mr. Meg Ryan can act! All of which points to there being a good director behind it all. That it is Taylor Hackford comes therefore as no surprise. Hats off to a great collaboration between the screen writers and the cast as well. How they made certain hard-to-play scenes work is magnificent.Towards the end you begin to see what this movie is all about. Ebert says we never know if the movie is about Gavin or Babs. What a dumb comment from such a seasoned movie lover. No movie need be about one person, and this one is about a whole slew of people if anything, and ultimately is not about people at all. As the Russian choreographer was to have said, "Honey, if I could tell you that I wouldn't have had to write the ballet!"Aside from the ending which seems a bit contrived ("we gotta end this thing!"), there are no cheap shots in this movie. If this had been a made-for-TV flick it would have been very bad. But it was not. Everyone both in front and behind the cameras gave their all to make a great movie.