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ANY GIVEN SUNDAY |
1999 |
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What seemed like it wanted to be Oliver Stone's tribute to professional football is more like a fairy tale. Al Pacino plays an aging coach of a football team in turmoil which has just lost its star quarterback (Dennis Quaid) and is now being torn apart by a punky quarterback (Jamie Foxx) and a bitchy general manager (Cameron Diaz). The action on the field is high-octane and ultra-intensity as Stone used a combination of quick editing and great surround sound to make you feel like you're right there getting hit. Off the field, however, the story drags, yet it seemed to turn around too cleanly in the end -much to cleanly to make you feel like the film had any real basis in reality. And could Stone come up with worse team names or uniforms for his fictional NFL? Pacino, Foxx, Diaz and especially Lawrence Taylor (yes, LT) were very effective in their roles, but there also seemed to be a lot of wasted talent in this film (James Woods and Matthew Modine, especially). Despit it being a long film, however, I didn't realize it until it ended and I looked at my watch and something should be said for that, right? |
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3 Stars |
CDF |
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If you're expecting an Oliver Stone "conspiracy-theory"-style expose of sports...this isn't it. What it is instead, is an exciting, but very traditional film about football, the people who play it, and the media that propels it It even culminates in a "Rocky"-like all-or-nothing game. It's the most exciting film about football that I'VE ever seen, but unless you live and die for football, it's about 1/2 hour too long. Good acting all around(Al Pacino, Jamie Foxx, Cameron Diaz, Lawrence Taylor, Jim Brown, Dennis Quaid, Ann-Margret, LL Cool J, Matthew Modine, Aaron Eckhardt and James Woods,) but no Academy Award nominations here. |
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3.5 Stars |
NJB |