Rating: 
Summary: Great movie but put the kids to bed first
Review: I thought this was a well acted, written, and directed movie, but what is it with the cuss words? I am no prude and being a military wife I feel I have heard it all but I have to admit I did flinch a few times when someone would go off. I know Mr. Stone is an educated man but come on that is why there are thesauruses out there!! The language aside this is a very good movie. Al Pacino is a god to me, I have nver seen him in a bad movie and this one doesn't disappoint. The football scenes are shot in a way that make you feel like you are in the stadium and you can feel every hit happening. DO NOT turn the movie off when the credits start to roll-the best part of the movie happens during the credits (I will not spill the beans!).
Rating: 
Summary: great movie
Review: I originally got this movie because of the football. I am a huge football fan. This movie was great from start to finish. The football was excellent along with the acting. Do not listen to any bad reviews about this movie. After about thirty minutes into the movie I forgot the whole reason I got it, which was cause of the football. I really got involved in the movie because they made you wonder what would happen next with constant team fighting and quarterback contraversies among many other things. This was great in all aspects of the movie.
Rating: 
Summary: Any Given Sunday
Review: I found this movie quite entertaining but pointless at times. I thought the action scenes during games were very well done - but sometimes too lengthy. I would have preferred a little more time spent on the off-field stories. The story line with the team Doctor was interesting - but haven't we seen this before? NORTH DALLAS FORTY comes to mind. I should also point out that I am a member of the media who has covered football on a regular basis and I found the portrayal of the players as a bunch of crazy party going womanizers a little overdone. Yes there are those athletes that revel in that sort of lifestyle, but there are also a good number of church going players who are committed family men. Stone gave us the false impression that all football players are a crazy wild bunch that do nothing but booze it up. I also got a kick out of the postgame locker room scenes. Where was the media? Any reporter can tell you that NFL locker rooms are the worst after games. There is simply too many media types to even move around. How did Foxx's character do such a 180? Are we supposed to believe this would happen in real life? I don't think so. By the way the Dallas uniforms were AWFUL! Who approved those? And was the eyeball scene really necessary. My wife and I both laughed like crazy. What was Stone smoking when he dreamed up that stupid scene. Don't get me wrong - the movie is worth seeing for football and non-football fans. Just a little overdone in some parts and I would have preferred more about the off-field stuff. Pacino was very good by the way, but his character could have been developed more. I'll take BRIAN'S SONG and NORTH DALLAS FORTY over this one.
Rating: 
Summary: this movie sucks
Review: Why so many positive reviews for this out and out clunker? Lets look past the Oliver Stone acid trip/conspiracy theorist style of filmaking. You either hate or love it. Let's instead look at the basic problems with this product (and let's not kid ourselves this is a product and not a film). First, the story sucks. It may be told via a slightly different persepctive but wasn't this basically the same story line as those Major League comedy movies? I don't think this was supposed to be a comedy but it sure is fun to laugh at the unrealistic dialogue (does anyone really talk like these people, i think not). There is a sub plot about the evil team doctor played for no apparent reason by James Woods. Do I really care about the gripping issue of letting old players play too long? No. I Don't). And why in the world would Dennis Quaid's character stay married to such a horrible person as the hag he is married to and spouts some of the most ridiculous sets of words I have heard in years. The acting by the two leads could not be any worse. Al Pacino is not convincing as a professional football coach. Period. He kind of wades through the movie chewing up the rotten script and never in years of overacting has he seemed like less of a real person let alone a real coach. The same goes for Cameron Diaz who is even worse than she was in that crappy movie where they killed the guy in Vegas. There are so many other pointless cameo's that you forget that LL Cool J is still in the movie at the end and overlook what is the best performance (handed in by a non-actor (sit com comedian Jamie Fox)). Don't buy or rent this piece of manure, lets shut down Oliver Stone before he makes another movie that damages our children's view of history again. HE MUST BE STOPPED!!!! OLIVER STONE IS EVIL!
Rating:
Summary: Stone has done it again...
Review: Actually more like 4.5 stars, but you can't rate halves. Oliver Stone is a great story teller. Either with a satirical film about excessive violence with "Natural Born Killers", or with one of the best movies about The Vietnm War with "Platoon". This film is about athletes, not just football players. The film starts out with a Steve Young kind of character played by Dennis Quaid that gets injured, and struggles throughout the rest of the movie to get better or retire. Al Pacino plays the coach that drinks to much, spends money on hookers (Elizabeth Berkley), and distances himself from anyone that care for him. He is the workaholic, and old-school coach that doesn't take "junk" from anyone. There is Cameron Diaz that is the General Manager of the team. Not a very nice person. Last, is Jaimie Foxx: he does an outstanding job of playing the rising star. He takes the game to his head, and makes enemies. He does a good job playing the emotions of his character. He was a great casting contribution to this all-star cast. There are a lot of quick roles played by big time actors. The DVD has some extra footage, most of it is just extra nudity. Locker room scenes. Not to graphic. The movie contains very explicit language. What Stone Film doesn't. The man can do a movie on Elementry teachers, and every other word would be profanity. The language is not insulting or really even unnecessary. I mean, it's footfall. Players talk junk all the time. A very enjoyable movie, something to watch any given Sunday (no pun intended).
Rating:
Summary: Pretty Good but way too Long
Review: this Film has some good solid moments but overall it's way too Long.Interestingly Oliver Stone a Genius at Finding things Wrong within a Picture Never Stirs up any Issues here.most of The Acting is Overrated.the Football Scenes are cool.the film never really ever taps into any kind of Issue for any Length of time which is surprising considering How Long the film is.should have been a Better film.but still it has it's trip out Moments Especially with Jamie Foxx&LL.CooL J.you can feel the tension Sadly it has Continued off The Screen.
Rating: 
Summary: Boring, and about an hour too long
Review: Saw this movie last night on video. Very disappointed overall with the entire movie. Although Al Pacino was very good (when is he not?) and Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz were also good, the movie itself sucked. Oliver Stone has lost it. Besides making one of the most mediocre movies I've seen in a long time, he also gratuitously forced himself into several scenes, and he even put himself on the wall of a restaurant as a caricature, next to Al Pacino's. Oliver gives "ego" a new meaning! He needs to take a leaf from Alfred Hitchcock's notebook on how to maintain greatness. Not to mention that this movie was WAYYYYYY too long! Cut about half of the movie out (including ALL scenes with Mr. Stone) and a watchable movie could be there though that is also questionable.
Rating:
Summary: pumped-up but shallow film
Review: Unlike "Jerry Maguire," which found a way to appeal to a broad segment of the movie going public, Oliver Stone's "Any Given Sunday" pretty much requires that one be a hardcore aficionado of professional football to really appreciate it. Stone and co-writer John Logan deserve credit for attempting to create a comprehensive panoramic view of the sport, warts and all. For example, they don't shy away from portraying the drug abuse and shady medical practices that run rampant both in the locker room and out. Nor do they minimize the detrimental effect that has come about as professional football has become more and more about obscenely huge salaries, product endorsements and individual stardom and less and less about the values of winning and sticking together as a team. Unfortunately, the canvas becomes simply too broad to keep all this profundity in focus. For every sharp psychological insight into the people and values that comprise this sport/industry, the film provides half a dozen hoary clichés, stock characters and predictable plot turns that consistently undercut those quality elements. Al Pacino plays the typical aging coach who, as his losing team begins to become the laughingstock of the league, must decide whether to bow to corporate pressure and remove the injured, aging quarterback (Dennis Quaid) or stay true to his ideals and demonstrate loyalty to his players. Cameron Diaz plays Pacino's major foil as the hard-driven team owner whose only motivating factor seems to be the Almighty Buck. By making this character a beautiful woman, the authors get to play it both ways: they satisfy the feminists by showing that a woman can be just as ruthless and cutthroat as any man in a position of decision-making power, yet, by making her so evil, they also placate all those men who have been smugly assuring us for years that "professional football is no place for a woman." (The filmmakers even have her cry in a few places). Around these two main antagonists swirl a dozen or so equally stereotypical characters including the nefarious team doctor (James Wood, in yet another of his one-dimensional villain roles), whose shameless disregard for the health of the players is set in obvious counterpoint to the righteous young intern (Matthew Modine) who is frankly shocked at this senior doctor's cavalier indifference to the Hippocratic Oath. LL Cool J has a minimal and undeveloped role as a cocaine-sniffing rival to the upstart young quarterback (Jamie Foxx) whose lack of understanding about the role team spirit plays in a winning strategy provides much of the driving force of the plot. Not only does Foxx give by far and away the finest, most intensely dramatic performance of the film, but also his character provides the few moments of really solid insightful drama in the entire movie. However, so intent are Logan and Stone in providing an upbeat ending to the film that they completely abandon the truths of this character and send him through a 180-degree conversion that is never adequately dramatized in the screenplay. He simply awakens one morning a new man, all ready to take his rightful place as a rah-rah team player. In fact, the neat way in which all the characters and loose plot ends somehow resolve themselves into the happiest possible outcome contradicts the tone of thoughtful seriousness the filmmakers have been trying to establish all throughout the film. This soft final section of the film is not the only element that undercuts the verisimilitude of the story. For some reason, in a day and age in which Brand X has long since passed from the scene in the world of advertising and the most minor of sports films routinely use real life teams as focuses for their stories, Stone has opted to create not only a fictional franchise but a fictional league as well. Moreover, because the team allegedly hails from Florida, the entire season seems to be played under the glowing auspices of blazing sunshine and balmy tropical breezes. For a sport one associates with crisp fall weather and bone-chilling blizzards, this entire summer-like atmosphere seems a bit disconcerting. As a director, Stone buries the drama under a flurry of MTV-like stylistic flourishes. Too cute by half, this pretentious directorial method merely serves as a device to distance us from the characters whose plights should be drawing us deeper into the film. In the middle of quietly dramatic scenes, Stone intercuts, in rapid succession, utterly irrelevant shots of lightning storms, roiling clouds and even snippets from the "Ben-Hur" chariot race (as a possible sop to Charlton Heston who makes a cameo appearance herein?). Similarly, the never-ending cacophony of blaring rap tunes cluttering up the soundtrack cannot cover up the essential emptiness of the film's characters and message. Stone has rarely seemed so transparent in his facile slickness. Even the football scenes are pumped-up beyond necessity. Part of the beauty of the sport lies in seeing the players' movements as all of a piece. In the visually fractured view that Stone accords us, he does not heighten our excitement and involvement, but rather diminishes them. "Any Given Sunday" is definitely a long haul and it does offer a few moments of effective drama scattered along the way. But if you are going to devote 157 minutes to the subject of professional football, you might find that time better spent watching the real thing.
Rating:
Summary: Football's "Saving Private Ryan"
Review: This movie does to football what "Saving Private Ryan" did to war. "Any Given Sunday" puts you on field of battle and makes you see the violence and the pain from the perspective of the participant. The cast on paper is first rate but, other than Pacino, the acting is mediocre. Jim Brown is embarrassing as Pacino's defensive coordinator. I found the violence in the movie a bit excessive. I watched and played numerous games and understand the brutality of the game, but some of this stuff reminds me of the "Friday the 13th" series. The characters are predictable and learn profound life lessons too easily. Oliver Stone does offer an effective ending, using a press conference during the credits as an epilogue. "North Dallas Forty" still reigns as most entertaining, realistic, and well-done movie about professional football. "Any Given Sunday" steals a lot from that movie but falls far short in its effectiveness. All in all, Any Given Sunday is a watchable and entertaining movie.
Rating:
Summary: Possibly the worst movie I have ever seen.
Review: This movie is a joke. Pacino takes on one of his worst roles, as a football coach on the edge of a nervous breakdown. Oliver Stone tries so hard to be cutting edge and avoid playing to the mainstream, that he fails to realize that he IS the mainstream. This film is a mess, with a plot that even a six year old could have written, filled with every cliche in the book like the aging quarterback who wants one more season, and the brash rookie looking to take his spot. The theme of commercialism reoccurs throughout Any Given Sunday and just fits in perfectly with another pointless Stone observation (i.e. Violence in the Media from Natural Born Killers). Yes, every modern day football fan knows that the NFL is all about money, TV contracts, and endorsements, SO WHAT! This movie is not a glimpse behind the scenes into what its really like to be a football player, its more like an old episode of HBO's 1st and Ten. Don't even get me started on Cameron Diaz because her casting in the film as the owner was just plain atrocious. Jamie Foxx is the only good thing about this film, as he proves he can do more than just comedy. Please avoid this movie at all costs, and if your a football fan looking for a smashmouth football movie, then rent The Program with James Caan. This movie is strictly for devout followers of the misguided prophet, Oliver Stone.
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