Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

You do not have to be a great fan of college football to appreciate this film but I suspect watching it might offer you a change to become a fan. Visually, the movie is quite lovely. It has a lush warm tone that is unaffected but effective.I like this film. I like the story. I like the way the film is executed. I find the story and characters credible and interesting. The contrast of themes or counterpoint of themes works well. The then young actors seem realistic. They are multidimensional. In fact, this is one of the best football movies.Dialogue is playful intelligent, and perceptive. The film uses multiple points-of-view and varies them in interesting ways. There are subjective reaction shots and asides that give the narrative great interest. I love the helmet camera images.

I was just reading one of the user comments here that hailed this as "one of the best football movies of the 90's next to varsity blues" come one people, both of these movies are terrible and in no way depict what real football is like, but only rather what a stereotype by an ignorant person would think. I can see where people would find both of those movies to have some entertainment value, but as far as documenting of depicting the true nature of the sport for people, that is ridiculous. They only football movie that i can think of as being properly done in the 90's has been Rudy. Football, and sports in general is a lot more complex than guys running around getting drunk, beating woman, laying on train track and jumping harleys as depicted in the program. Terrible, terrible movie.

James Caan is the head of a college football team with a possible future Heisman Trophy winner for a quarterback (Sheffer). The kid is a natural, but he's a natural with problems. But this kid's problems are just a tiny few pages in the big book of the problems the coach has to face.This is a film designed to be, realistically, about the problems concerning a major college football team. I'd say that there were a few too many problems for one team to deal with, but that's what you get, I guess, when you get 80 little maniacs running around in front of a camera. A few of them have to come up with problems, otherwise we would not have a movie...Believable, no...if any coach were to come as close as Caan did to breaking the rules or drawing that kind of negative attention, then those kids would be gone...but, then, there's poetic license and we would not have a movie...Five out of ten...barely!

The Program is a mostly solid movie that takes us into the world of college football, and more specifically into the world of one particular team as it tries to overcome obstacle after obstacle on it's way to a bowl game after a few disappointing seasons.First off I thought the football aspects were done very well. The action looked realistic and that is the least (and most) that I expect in a sports movie. And playing "Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns N' Roses during a football practice is surely worthy of some credit. All in all the game footage was pretty short, a few minutes at a time. What was more interesting, and what the film focuses on most, was what happened to the players between games as they dealt with their personal lives and game preparation.I'm guessing the movie was trying to shock us with this part. Steroid abuse by one player; alcohol abuse, a bar fight, and suicidal tendencies by another; cheating on an exam by yet another and his subsequent expulsion then reinstatement; girl problems with a couple players; etc. The movie has a lot to say and it's a good message, but I didn't find this shocking. Rather this sort of things is really common knowledge among sports fans, although how rampant these issues actually are in real life I can only guess. Having said that, this part of the film is done well for the most part. The one exception is the relationship stuff, which I just didn't find very believable due to a lack of chemistry between the participants.Addressing two of the criticisms that I have read others say about this film. Yes, it does tend to follow a lot of players and their respective issues, but I didn't feel that it spread itself too thin. I thought that despite this fact it did feel like we followed each player enough to get to know the issues he faced. The movie seemed to take a snapshot of one player and what he was dealing with, then quickly moved on to the next, and I thought in the context of this film it worked quite well.The second criticism I have read is that everything ends up working out well for everyone in the end and everyone comes out a better person. This just isn't true at all.**SPOILER ALERT**The defensive end (Alvin Mack I believe) busted up his knee and at the end of the movie it appeared that he would never play again. This was surely the most poignant moment in the film. Lattimer, the one with the steroid problem, was back on the juice and you get the feeling he won't ever lick this problem. Even Joe Kane will likely struggle with booze indefinitely. So I actually give this film a lot credit for not choosing the cliched ending where everyone ends up happy.**END OF SPOILER ALERT**7/10 - for an overall solid effort