Rating: 
Summary: Oliver Stone's interesting take on pro football
Review: Loud, raucous, and at times indecipherable, Any Given Sunday is director Oliver Stone's best movie in years. After all, all of Stone's pictures are loud, raucous and at times indecipherable. Off hand, I can think of three kinds of movies that are supposed to be this way - action movies, war movies and football movies. This incisive look at a pro football team undergoing a make or break period is, in my opinion, the best picture about the game ever made. The movie opens in the middle of a game that is going badly for the Miami Sharks. The team is on a losing streak and really need a win. To make matters worse, star quarterback Jack Rooney [Dennis Quaid] suffers a major back injury. Coach Tony D'Amato [Al Pacino] has no choice but to send in third string quarterback, Willie Beaman [Jamie Foxx], who blows enough plays to cause the team to lose. Up in a posh sky box, owner and general manager Christina Pagniacci [Cameron Diaz] is furious. Christina's deceased father founded the team, and D'Amato has led it to many victorious seasons in his thirty years as coach. This means little to Christina, a ruthless businessperson, whose goal is to sell the franchise. She can't get top dollar for a losing team. There is not an ounce of sentimentality, much less sympathy, in this woman. By the next game, D'Amato has worked his magic on Beaman, who turns out to be a great football player after all. Success soon goes to his head, however, and he becomes an egotistical nightmare for the coach and the team. Rooney is trying to get well enough to return for the playoffs, but in his heart, he knows he's getting too old for the game. Another back injury could land him in a wheelchair permanently. There is much more to Any Given Sunday's story, but it is the movie's drive and the great acting that make it so good. Nobody can play a man in the twilight of his glory better than Al Pacino. Cameron Diaz is so good as the heartless Christina that she's almost scary. Jamie Foxx gives a career making performance as Willie Beaman, while LL Cool J is first-rate as Julian Washington, a star player who's had one concussion too many. The film has been criticized for the fast, jumpy edits involving the action on the field, though I really liked them. The idea is not to sit and watch football plays. The idea is to put the viewer on the field with the players, and Oliver Stone achieved this. These scenes are so intense that I came away feeling a bit bruised myself. There have also been complaints that the movie's producers couldn't get the NFL to cooperate. If the NFL had done so, the result would have been as squeak clean as the war movies the Department of Defense used to approved of. What Stone does is to portray the players as modern day gladiators. He also pulls no punches in dealing with the issues of money, fame and the abuse of power and of privilege. His Miami Sharks may not be representative of pro football on the whole, but the team does have problems and issues which often do occur in real life.
Rating: 
Summary: North Dallas Forty meets MTV.
Review: I never got the chance to se this in a Theatre. The first time I saw it it was a rented VHS on a home surround sound system. I watched it 3 times in two days. The music in the background, constantly there, draws me back again and again.
The Widescreen Format on DVD gets in the way a bit but it soon is less distracting as the beat continues.
James Woods steals the scenes he's in - I hated to see him leave. LT was amazing, especially in the Steamroom scene - almost as good as John Matuszak's outburst at the end of North Dallas Forty. Al Pacino is Al Pacino - I believed him.
Jamie Fox did a wonderful job portraying the "How did I get here?" persona. Very convincing.
But the music, the music. I think I'll go watch it again.
Rating:
Summary: Football - Oliver Stone Style
Review: Oliver Stone is a maniac, his movies are stylistic funhouses which showcase just how far one can push film as a stylistic medium. Any Given Sunday is a fairly mainstream football movie, you have the aging mentor to the arrogant youngster, the coach on his last year and the big game at the end, although it really isn't a big game. Somehow, it doesn't feel formulaic because Stone and his case invest and bring so much energy to the preceedings. The NFL scenes are relentlessly outlandish, most say they are unrealistic; So what, if they were realistic you would be watching a regular football game, why would you want to do that. The cast is uniformly excellent, Al Pacino isn't disappointing as he rarely if ever is. Cameron Diaz is amazing as the team owner who can more than act head on with Pacino. Jamie Foxx is very convincing as an arrogant player who begins to reform as the season winds on. All in all, if you have seen this movie, odds are you knew it was directed by Oliver Stone. What did you expect, Rudy. It is stylistic overkill, but it fits the material so it's successful, the only time style overcomes a story is when the story doesn't warrant the style. A fact lost on most "pure" pseudo film-buffs. I recommend watching it and experiencing the Oliver Stone view of football, it's very different from everything else.
Rating:
Summary: The Next Chapter In The Quest
Review: ANY GIVEN SUNDAY is more than just one of the best movies made about professional sports, it's the latest installment in Stone's mythic quest to understand the big questions in human relationships, especially between men. Actually, this movie is not that remote from PLATOON, because both movies are set in a divisive scenario. Not since NORTH DALLAS FORTY, though, have the interactions between corporate politics and sports been examined. Stone portrays these aspects with a female owner, whose character is well-developed, but still surprising. Al Pacino is the other end of the equation, and his character's evolution from washed-up coach to second wind is the most poignant part of the film. In his casting choices, Stone adds nuance to every minor character. When Lawrence Taylor talks about a life outside of football, his character takes on layers of significance not seen in any other film. Jim Brown adds authenticity and old school values. Even Dennis Quaid, expands on a theme, one he examined in an earlier football movie, about the choices football players make and their sacrifices. McGinley and Woods, two Stone veterans, are there, too. Ann-Margret gives a great cameo performance, one that most wives and girlfriends of football fanatics would understand. The cinematography, however, is brilliant, and also draws on Stone's ground-breaking contributions to film. Like the head cam on Monday Night Football, his jaring, real-time shots capture the variations in speed and calculation that is football, but also conveys the bone-breaking pain that makes it so addictive to watch and play. But, Stone also gives his bloodsport a moral underpining. His is a call for purism, a return to 11 men in the huddle looking down the field. Little boys who just want to play ball. Filtering out the money, the pain-killers, the corporate and media politics, this movie makes football fun. This movie is for fans, and their loved ones, perhaps looking for a reason to understand the allure of football.
Rating:
Summary: Not quite a touchdown, but it's no fumble, either.
Review: You don't need to be a footbal fan to appreciate "Any Given Sunday," the high-voltage, testosterone-heavy film by Oliver Stone. The performances range from reasonably solid (Cameron Diaz as the tough-as-nails owner of the Miami Sharks), to good (Al Pacino, as the aging coach of the team which is quickly becoming an NFL laughingstock), to on-the-money (Jamie Foxx, who gives an electrifying performance as the cocky QB Willie Beamen). The film has its unfortunate share of sexism, but we're talking football, which, sadly, has many followers who believe that it has no place for women. The film clock at 2.5 hours, but Stone's direction is brisk so that the time passes by nicely. Some folks really hated "Any Given Sunday," but I think it's a decent film that's worth a look.
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining film, nothing else
Review: With cliches and all, this film is better than the overated Gladiator, movie that I don{t see how it could win the Oscar. AnNd I say this seriously. I thought that the movie Gladiator had a poor script, and as much as cliches -and maybe even more- than this one. Im not saying that these two movies are similar, but they do relay on the pumped-up macho thing... battles in the field, and on the arena, etc. The reason why Gladiator won an Oscar it was because it was a historical epic, set in the Rman Empire, so that impresses people. But the movie was much poorer, flawed, brainless and less entertaining than this Oliver Stone's OK film.
Rating:
Summary: Oliver Stone tackles football. but loses the game.
Review: Football has changed drastically as technology improves. You cannot watch a televised game without incredible computer graphic wipes, morphs and play recreations, all of it feeding through your stereo system with a high definition video signal. With his use of cutting edge film editing and different photographic stocks, it seems only appropriate that Oliver Stone would 'tackle' the subject. The result is a very entertaining film, but never a good film. The story line(s) go on and on to make the film come in shy of three hours. They aren't boring, just trite, overdone and pointless. Some of the performances, particularly Al Pacino and comedian Jamie Foxx stand out in a sea of unispired superstar casting and cameos. Stone himself effectively plays a commentator with a voice and mind for the game. Stone must know and love the game so he knows what the audience wants. The biggest payoff happens midway through the closing credits so if you made it through the end of the film, stay seated a couple extra minutes. So, the film is a hodge podge of ideas with a hodge podge of characters and a hodge podge of techniques. That sounds like Stone's usual playbook. unfortunately, he won't make the playoffs with this. The Widescreen DVD is great but, ironically, the film might benefit from the pan and scan version (as that is how a televised football game is currently seen...)
Rating:
Summary: another masterpiece
Review: "Any Given Sunday" keeps the unmistakable style of Oliver Stone, especially seen in Natural Born Killers, transporting it this time in the new, agitated, full of events world of american football. Al Pacino is the coach of a football team, owned by the greedy Cameron Diaz, team that passes through difficult times, after 4 consecutive defeats and the injury of the best 2 quarterbacks. In this moment enters Beaman (Foxx), the "always substitute", and he doesn't miss the unexpected chance awarded by the coach. By his style of play, spectacular, but not caring about the tactics and the schemes, he wins the heart of the fans, but enters in the disgrace of the coach. The world of football is an eternal source of stories or problems that can be used in a movie. After he showed us wars, from many points of view, the murder of JFK, the agitated history of The Doors, or the satire against the media in Natural Born Killers, Oliver Stone enters on an unused territory so far. And he does it in style, with an exceptional movie. One thing must be clear: this is not a movie only for football fans, but for everybody. Because it's not a movie necessarily about football, but about team spirit, about friendships, joys or troubles, a film with strong characters played by really special actors. A film that will keep your interest at high levels, despite its long runtime, by the fabulous style of Stone, but also by the story, full of events dictated by interests or the rush for money, that many times dims freindships or any bit of morality. During the movie, you are taken through the backstage of american football. You will discover a dirty world, full of interests and passions, far of the beauty observed from outside. Al Pacino is a character caught between the desire of winning every match no matter what and the friendship that ties him with "old" Rooney, who injures himself at the beginning. Beaman is a young football player, selfish, insensitive, but with an extraordinary talent. Many times, the sudden pass from anonymity in the spotlights can bring with it major changes in the character's personality, changes that can only be bad. That's what happends to Beaman. The selfishness, the interest only for himself, bring major misunderstandings between him and his teammates or his coach. Al Pacino has the tough mission of bringing the team to the desired levels, calming down the spirits and also making the difficult decision concerning the quarterback: Beaman or Rooney. New or old. Talent or team player. Although the script is very good, the film wouldn't have had the same value without Oliver Stone on board. He shows us again, one more time, his great talent. By his awesome way of filming, that reminds us of NBK, the fast paced, incredibly real dialogues, or last, but not least, the full of significance "inserts" with what he feasted our eyes and mind also in NBK, you actually feel that you are a part of this world, that you are really inside it. You can't even blink without being sorry. Again, the camera moves very quickly, this agressive style, of fast filming, "short" editing, strange angles or permenent camera movement, being a characteristic of many Stone movies. And the "inserts" have a special meaning again, especially in the scene of the dialogue between Foxx and Pacino, maybe the best and most significant of the whole movie. All in all, another success for Oliver Stone. A movie added to his impressive collection of masterpieces, of the most varied and original director of our times.
Rating: 
Summary: Junk
Review: One big music video. Quick cuts for the person with mush for an attention span. Junk writing. Junk direction. And Al Pacino gives another one of his "yell every line" performances. What happened to the Pacino of the GODFATHER days, who knew what "subtlety" meant? Stone NEVER knew what subtlety meant!
Rating:
Summary: visual overkill
Review: this is natural born killers ... only that they are playing football now and instead of the murders you get first class war right on the football-field - and right behind it! this movie rocks - any furhter questions?! RENT / BUY / WHATEVER / JUST WATCH / !
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