Any Given Sunday

December 9, 2004

Rated: R Runtime: 162 min Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

How can you go wrong with a football movie starring Al Pacino and an allstar cast? Well, one way is to let Oliver Stone make it.

The story here is about a clash between the old traditional football and today’s newer game with high scores, big salaries and even larger egos. Al Pacino is in the role of the old coach while Jamie Foxx is the hotshot young quarterback who wants to play the game his own way. Although coach and quarterback are the centerpiece of the movie we see the same conflict at all levels of the game ranging from the team physicians to the owners. But most of the film is set where it should be in a great football movie, on the field and in the games.

So what’s the problem? The problem is Oliver Stone got artsy fartsy with this thing and really made the movie difficult to follow visually. He inserted alot of freaky imagery into the scenes much as he did in Natural Born Killers. He also did some very jerky editing while zoomed in very close to the players during the games. I’m sure he was attempting to demonstrate the speed of the game, but instead he just made it less enjoyable visually. This is a crying shame as he had some topnotch football scenes going thanks to a very talented cast including Lawrence Taylor. I would’ve loved to have been able to actually see some of those hits and plays. For this I wish a big festering boil on the left buttock of Mr. Stone.

This movie had a chance to be the definitive football movie with a great story and an allstar cast. Get a load of some of the names you’ll see in this flick in addition to Pacino: LL Cool J, Dennis Quaid, James Woods, Ann Margret, Jim Brown, Cameron Diaz, Lauren Holly and even Charlton Heston. And of course Stone stuck himself in there too. If you doubt his ego consider that he makes you watch the conclusion of the movie thru the credits so you can see his name in glowing neon fonts 3 or 4 times.

Edit out the artsy crap and fix the visuals and this movie would be absolutely outstanding. It would also cut it down to a shade over two hours instead of the nearly 3 hour bladder busting epic that it is now. And while I’m talking about the flaws in this movie, I must also point out that there’s a ton of flesh in this movie, but all of it is hairy and masculine. I’m not talking about women who wear comfortable shoes here either. There’s several full on winkie shots and tons of naked male hiney, but only one good female breast shot in the entire movie.

Although I was disappointed that this movie came no where near to living up to expectations, it’s still entertaining once your eyes adjust to Stone’s visuals. Also one thing the movie does correctly is have one hell of a good football game as the grand finale. If you’re an Oliver Stone fan you’ll find this to be a great movie. If you’re not, if you are at least a football fan, and especially if you enjoyed movies like North Dallas Forty, you’ll still enjoy it.

Posted by Billy Bob | Filed Under 3 Stars, Action, Al Pacino, Cameron Diaz, Jamie Foxx, LL Cool J, R, Theatrical