Second String

Craptastic! This movie is as wonderfully predictable as it is cheesy. Primarily because the characters are fairly enjoyable. Set your expectations low and you will not be disappointed.

This is not a rip-off of "The Replacements" it is far superior. Instead of watching a bunch scabs, (the lowest life form on the planet-read Jack London's definition of a scab), the audience is treated to a much more inventive, though highly improbable, reason as to why the the starting squad is not available to play football. The story takes you away with groans and yeah rights. Chances are you will laugh out loud at the contrivances and trickery.

On an added note of actual production value. The cinematography is actually pretty awesome during the game play, especially since the budget was far less than an actual feature film.

Not worth renting, not worth planning to watch, but definitely worth your time. I would have much rather seen this whilst trapped on a plane than The Replacements.

Well intended and interesting, especially for football fans. The Buffalo Bill's offensive starters are side lined by food poisoning. It is now up to the bench warmers to take the team to the play offs. A glory hound coach(Jon Voight)is not thrilled with his replacement quarterback(Gil Bellows)a former NFL star relegated to selling life insurance. Bellows not only has his former coach to contend with, but also an egotistical free agent quarterback(George Eades). Bellows takes the bench jockeys and meshes them into a contending team. Supporting cast:Richard T. Jones, Lamont Johnson,Teri Polo and Evan Dexter Parke. Very entertaining trick plays keeps this daydream between the lines. This is fun to watch.

In the year 2000 (keep in mind, this is two years ago, not four), two men had the motivation to create the most miraculous piece of art on this side of the Mississippi.

Thanks to Jere Cunningham and Tom Flynn, the world can now enjoy Second String, a delicious TV movie depicting a tale of a rag-tag gang of second stringers (thus the title) who are thrust into the position of starters due to an order of bad oysters.

Because of the motivational direction of both the director Robert Lieberman and the Buffalo Bills' last minute QB, Dan "Give 'em hell" Heller (portrayed by Canadian actor, Gil Bellows) the oft Super Bowl snake-bitten Bills find themselves in the ultimate position.

With an intriguing mix of internal and external conflict, a love story, comraderie that only the fine sport of football can bring, and an overall theory that the underdog can compete, Second String is an excellent movie worthy of viewing every possible moment that it appears on TNT.

The only thing potentially bad about this production is the spelling of the Costume Designer's first name, Jenifur Jarvis.

For a made for TV movie I thought that it was a great popcorn movie - don't expect anything to be very accurate and don't expect any award winners in this bunch but I do recommend this for a TV type version somewhat like "The Replacements". Look for cameos from real NFL players & officials.

We just got "Second String" on video today, and I always the sucker for underdog movies, and after reading the synopsis on the box, decided to check it out. I was rather impressed by this small release (we only got two copies in). Now, I too, got the whole "Replacements-wannabe" vibe that several of the other reviewers may have had. However, I really got into this one a lot more. I thought it had a much better, and more importantly, believable story to it than the "Replacements" did. I thought Voight did a much better job than Hackman ever did as the old coach. Bellows was great as the QB, and since his 5-year stint on TV, its great to see he's making a comeback. I particularly liked when Bellows helped out his teammates with their physical and mental aspects of their game. While other movies have done this several times over, "Second String" doesn't have that corny feeling that is left over for the viewer to digest. Instead, it adds a little humor into it. I chuckled a few times as the players were counting up how much their running-back would pay up for the Superbowl party everytime he dropped the football. If you manage to find this treasure somewhere in the back of our store and are trying to avoid some of the more recent blockbusters that have been released, try giving it a chance. I'm sure you'll be quite impressed.