Sadly Over-hyped

hyped garbage

In truth, any opportunity to see the film on the big screen is welcome.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

In October of 2010, my wife and I were attending the Ohio State-Purdue football game. During timeouts and halftime at the closed end of Ohio Stadium, they would film brief scenes. We knew beforehand that this was going to take place, but we didn't know the name of the film. It wasn't until last night -- nearly eight years later -- that I would actually get to watch this movie. This film takes place in the early 90s, around the same time I was attending The Ohio State University. Students at OSU come from all over the state, the country, and the world. But during my time I became friends with several of those similar to the main character of this film, who come from small Ohio towns in less than ideal situations just wanting to better themselves.The main character -- Scott Murphy -- was the star quarterback at Coldwater High School and was the state's Mr. Football with a scholarship offer to Ohio State. But he severely injures his leg on the final play of the state championship game as he scores the winning touchdown. The movie begins several years later as Scott works on his farm in Coldwater. He's married to a former classmate and band member from his high school with two children. Scott finds himself in debt and his farm is struggling due to an early frost and a broken header on his combine. To add insult to injury, his high school teammate who played both in college and the NFL returns to Coldwater with Scott's former cheerleader girlfriend. As his depression mounts, Scott decides to kill himself via carbon monoxide poisoning in his truck. After he passes out, he's back in 1991 as a high school senior. But here's the thing: for nearly the rest of the movie, he's in a DREAM. Other reviewers have suggested that he's transported back in time or it's like the movie "17 Again." It's not. It's just a dream. There's no shot at redemption, nor does he alter his future by making any different decisions, including the final play of the state championship game, Later, he wakes up to discover that his truck ran out of gas. Scott then walks to town, but finds no one there and heads back to the farm. When Scott returns, the citizens are out in full force picking his soybean crop by hand. In the end, he appears happy with the decisions he made in his life with no regrets. Overall, it's a very good movie. I thought it was well written and well executed. Yes, the high school football players depicted in the film all look like they're in their 30s. But other than that small detail, I enjoyed the film very much.

This one sets one... I came across this movie because I'd just read the article about Walt Disney's last words written on a piece of paper on the death bed - "Curt Russell".Following my "WTF?" I came to IMDb and checked Curt Russel's recent movies. Thus, I found Touchback.The movie is naive at some points but it kept my breath still for some moments along the way.In two words I would readily call this movie a younger brother of "Moneyball", don't know why, but I just feel this way.The movie touches some grown up disappointments mixed with teen-age expectations, but they all come together wonderfully by the end.Loved the experience..Walt, you were right.. if there's Curt Russell, there's a story. Touchback makes sure of it.

Touchback is one of those "reflection" movies that mystically reverse the hands of time in order to give the antagonist, Scott Murphy (Brian Priestly), a new perspective on life. We the viewer love these movies, especially if we're middle aged and often reflecting on our own lives wondering "what might have been"; if only we had done things, or even one thing, differently. It also leaves us with the question, "If we could change the past, would we?" We see this sort of genre work well in Hollywood, as it did with "Peggy Sue Got Married". The overall theme of Touchback is very reminiscent of Peggy Sue. That is to say, mid-life characters playing them selves as they were in high school. That being said, it barley worked in Peggy Sue. Kathleen Turner was 32, playing a 42-year-old housewife, going back to age eighteen. Nicholas Cage was 22, playing ages 42 and 18. The numbers were off no doubt, however it was an A list of skilled actors/actresses for the day easily taking up the slack for the sloppiness of numbers. Regrettably, the similar attempt in Touchback unquestionably does NOT work, to the point that all the touchy-feely stuff that makes us feel so good is completely lost in thoughts of "You've got to be kidding!" 40-year old (at the time) Marc Blucas is playing an 18-year-old for the better part of the movie. And poor (still very handsome) Kurt Russell's "aging" process simply made him look like he had leprosy. I'm not making fun of the disease of leprosy or those who endure it, but Kurt Russell does not have leprosy. Unfortunately, that's just the start, and if you can't get past that, the rest of the movie doesn't matter.We see this sort of thing work great for those actors who are thirty and who look young or in those quick flashbacks of a character's life where they use lots of make-up and dewy filters to give the character the appearance of youth. But the make-up department for this movie didn't carry off what they intended, and how could they in the first place?

Kurt Russell was the chief reason I saw writer/director Dan Handfield's fantasy football epic "Touchback," and I can understand why Russell wanted to appear in this movie. This represents the first time that Russell has played a character older than his actual age. He is cast as a small town Ohio football coach who has no problem living in the butt end of nowhere. Brian Presley plays the protagonist, highly ranked football quarterback Scott Murphy, who has been touted as "Mr. Football." During a game against a team that lives only to smash their opponents because they have such bigger players, Scott scores a last quarter touchdown and defeats them. Unfortunately, when the two opposing team players take Scott down, they injure his leg so seriously that he winds up crippled for life and cannot enter college ball. Years later, after Scott has married the woman of his dreams, confined himself to the small town of Coldwater, and gotten himself deeply debt farming his wife's father's land, he contemplates suicide. Yes, "Touchback" resembles "It's A Wonderful Life" because our honest, hard-working farmer, whose debt has been called in and whose land has been put up for sale, shoves a wet rag in the exhaust pipe of his pick-up truck and tries to kill himself. Before he dies, he awakens to find himself back in high school for a second time. The premise of "Touchback" is would you change your life if you had a second chance. This movie clocks in just shy of two hours, but it is worth what it takes to sit through it. Initially, when I saw it on home video, I paid only passing attention to it, but after a while, I started to get into the spirit. Sure, Handfield serves up a sloppy amount of schmaltz, but this feel-good saga is something that snags you the same way turf snags cleats. The football scenes are well staged. Christine Lahti contributes a moving performance as the hero's hard-working, trailer mom.