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Any Given Sunday

Any Given Sunday

List Price: $14.96
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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: An well made Drama on the World of Sports.
Review: Pro Football Coach (Oscar-Winner:Al Pacino) has sacrificed his wife and his children for a Career. When his Football them are in a Slump. A Third String Quarterback (Jamie Foxx) has discover his hidden talent to Fame, But when he plays better, he doesn`t play the rules of his Coach and Teammates, but everything in the life of the Coach and the Third String Quarterback, thier lives will be changed.

DVD`s has an strong anamorphic Widescreen (2.35:1) transfer and an excellent Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. Directed by Three-Time Oscar Winner:Oliver Stone (Platoon) has terrific performances by Pacino and Foxx and the supporting cast include:Cameron Diaz, Dennis Quaid, Jim Brown, James Woods, Matthew Modine, Aaron Eckhart, Ann-Margret, LL Cool J, John Mc Ginley and Lauren Holly. Cameos by Charlton Heston and Film Director:Oliver Stone. Newest DVD Edition is packed with Extras:Two Commentary Track by the Director and Actor, Deleted/Extented Scenes, Outtakes and More. This is a familiar film but it`s has energy and some scenes of exciting Football Scenes. Super 35. Grade:B+.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A mythic tale of modern-day gladiators
Review: This Oliver Stone film goes behind the scenes of big time football and delves into it all -- the aging coach, the rich-girl team owner, the players who push themselves through injuries, the rising young star and the living-large seductive lifestyle of big money.

I'm surprised that this film did not win one Academy Award nomination because it certainly deserved to be considered. Not only did the story keep me glued to the screen for its full 157 minutes, but all the performances were excellent.

Al Pacino, as the coach, was outstanding. At 60 years old his face has the creases which add expression and depth to his performance, making me feel his every emotion. Jamie Fox, cast as the new young overnight sensation has a role that demands he first be unsure and vulnerable, then cocky and insufferable, then political and, finally, repentant. That's a tall order for a actor and he does it masterfully.

The rest of the cast is full of star power. Cameron Diaz is the young woman who has inherited the team from her father. Ann Margaret is her alcoholic mother. Dennis Quaid is an injured quarterback, LJ Cool is a football player, James Woods is the unscrupulous doctor, and even Charlton Heston plays a cameo role as the Commissioner. And, of course, there are some real players who round out this cast.

One of the criticisms of the film is that the sports action was difficult to follow because of the cinematographic effects using slow motion spinning of the football or the silhouettes of the men postured as if on a battlefield. But this not a football game to watch on TV. This is a larger-than-life mythic tale of modern-day gladiators who push themselves past the line of good sense for fame, fortune, money and glory and the corporate interests and media hype that keep it all together.

I loved this video completely and give it a high recommendation. You don't have to be a football fan to enjoy it.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: I love Oliver Stone
Review: but this movie is excruciating to watch if you're a true football fan (that is a fan of the strategy, rather than the hip-hop/Texas dumbass cultures it often represents). Stone does do a good job of capturing all that is wrong with professional ball. But none of it is anything that a football fan doesn't already know. The only thing he puts any humanity into is the Dennis Quaid character. And that storyline uses, what, 15 minutes of the 3 1/2 hours of rap, drug use, misogyny, money-grubbing and power tripping that we have to sit through to endure this film. How long can a movie be? Well, when the credits start rolling before the dialogue is even finished, you know somebody other than yourself had a problem with the film's length.
This movie is way over the top in every category except 'heart'. And heart is a true athlete's greatest attribute. So in comparison to Rudy or Hoosiers or Brian's Song or almost any other sports flick out there, this film is a travesty. If, however, you want to compare it to Wall Street, it's probably one of the truer business movies available. I personally was expecting to see a football film. Instead I wasted 3 1/2 hours of my life watching corruption. I can do that come Monday at work.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Football made interesting
Review: Oliver Stone once again manages to put together an insightful masterpiece and despite American football as its main feature, this film is intensely entertaining and with a hot hip hop/rap/r&B soundtrack along with an impressive A list cast, Any Given Sunday can't go wrong. Al Pacino as the coach is godd, as he always is, but I found the real stars to be Jamie Foxx and the always goregeous Cameron Diaz. Foxx who usually is the comic relief, played it straight and gives in an oscar-worthy performance as Willy Beamen, the team's key player after favourite Dennis Quaid is injured. Although occasionally his character is a bastard, he serves up an hilarious music video, an intense performance and clearly has no problem getting his gear off, Foxx is bound to go places. Diaz was another key player in this flick, playing a tough as nails, take-no-crap owner of Pacino's team, and although usually sweet, the long smile is barely seen as she plays it straight and gets through to the cast and audiences, she is someone you don't want to mess with. Besides Pacino, Foxx, Diaz and Quaid (whose barely seen), the cast is rounded off with James Woods (another top star in a barely seen role), Lauren Holly, Elizabeth Berkley, Matthew Modine, Ann Margeret, Charlton Heston and rapper LL Cool J (showing he can act). With the shaky camera work adding to the film's realism this is one of the hottest films to date and should be seen by everyone from 15 above. The excessive language, graphic violence and shocking amount of nudity (I warn you when Diaz goes to the locker room prepare for a shock with a football player - you'll soon see what I mean) only allow it suitable for mature audiences.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Any Given Sunday
Review: This was truly an excellent film. This movie is Oliver Stone's best since Platoon. The fast-moving and dizzying cinemaphotography fits the high adrenaline atmosphere of the professional football world well. The film is also perfectly cast. Pacino gives life to the head coach, and Cameron Diaz's clearly most intense role as the team's owner is believeable. James Woods gives an excellent performance as the team doctor, who doesn't really seem to care about anyone but himself. Jamie Foxx has a breakthrough dramatic role as the new hotshot quarterback, whose ritualistic vomiting adds humor to the movie. With his performance, we find out Foxx really can act. LL Cool J, also puts through a convincing performance as the team's running back. Dennis Quaid doesn't really do much as the former QB with injury problems except help to develop Pacino's character. An outstanding cast, that features Charlton Heston as the football comissioner, and Ann-Margaret as Cameron Diaz's alcoholic mother. Former pro football players Jim Brown and Lawrence Taylor pop up as members of the team. I recommend it highly. This is possibly the best sports movie ever made.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Stone's Modern Day Gladiator Movie
Review: You can always count on Oliver Stone to have something interesting to say. In "Any Given Sunday", he focuses his lens on the world of pro football and treats us to a dizzying vision of million dollar egos, cortisone shots, and concussions.

The story centers on Tony D'Amato (Al Pacino), a battle weary coach whose old school mentality is behind the times. Pacino is at his best as a mess of a drunk, his sunken expression hanging off his face from the weight of his burden throughout. When his starting quarterback gets hurt (Quaid), Pacino looks to Willy Beaman, played by a surprisingly good Jaime Foxx. Foxx is the future of football, a cocky gunslinger who has speed to burn (Stone foresaw the new NFL QB: McNabb, Vick). At the movie's center is the conflict between old vs. new, the player vs. the team, and the cutthroat deals made behind the scenes.

This is a film about excess. From the all-star cast (Pacino, Foxx, Diaz, Quaid, Woods, LL Cool J, Margaret, Lancaster, L.T. and Jim Brown), to its indulgent criss-cut editing (brilliant during game scenes, excessive in others), to its run time (two and a half plus hours), this modern day gladiator movie balloons with bigness.

Kinetic and stylized, the film suffers from a familiar story and characters that are simply too unsympathetic to root for. And by the movie's end, redemption comes all too neatly during the final game (In mythic fashion, the team visits the dragon's lair to battle the Dallas "Knights."). If you're a fan of Oliver Stone or a fan of football, "Any Given Sunday" is worth a look. But at more than two and a half hours, you may find better things to do with your time- like watching a real game.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Any given sports movie
Review: Maybe after coming off the Super bowl high of watching Tom Brady and the Patriots win for the second time in three years I was expecting more from "Any Given Sunday." Everything seemed to line up - the cast, with Al Pacino, Jamie Foxx, Cameron Diaz, Dennis Quaid and James Woods; the director and writer Oliver Stone; the concept, a behind the scenes look at the NFL under the fictional guise of the American Football Association. Unfortunately, all these promising pieces added up to a nothing more than every sports cliché in the past thirty years of filmmaking crammed into one movie.

The story is really Pacino's, as the aging Coach of the Miami Sharks (clever twist in the Dolphins, huh?) facing the challenges of a changing league. His owner has recently died, leaving the unbelievably obnoxious Diaz as the current Owner, always breathing down his neck and forcing her uninformed will upon him. Owner is concerned with television ratings, possibly moving the franchise - tons of other motives other than winning games. Coach is also trying to manage Foxx as the Young Hot Shot. Young Hot Shot has recently come on the scene when the Old Star (Quaid) was injured. Coach and Old Star are of course very close and belong to the same philosophy, but Young Hot Shot is taking over the game with every play, ignoring Coach's plays and doing his own play-calling - but succeeding. So Coach has a dilemma - when the playoffs start does he go with Young Hot Shot, who the cameras (and Owner) love, or with the tried and true methods of Old Star?

Well, Young Hot Shot has isolated himself from the rest of the team with his brash comments and rise to a household name (in all of about three games). So Coach goes with the unconfident Old Star in the first game of the playoffs. But all the while Young Hot Shot has been learning his lesson, quietly nodding in understanding during Coach's rousing halftime speeches. So when the time comes and Old Star is again injured, Young Hot Shot is ready to step in. By this time, though, Coach has accepted Young Hot Shot's unruly methods and allows him to just go for it, and they of course, win the game.

Sound familiar? It should. It's the plot of about every sports film ever made. We don't even need actual names to describe it. I expected so much more from Stone. In an attempt to show what pro sports is "really" like, he apparently thought the story wouldn't matter. We focus on almost everything but football - the egos of the characters, the ulterior motives of the owner, the inaccurate news reporting - but not football. The games are reduced to darkened, rainy war scenes, with people loosing eyes (literally), front flips over defenders, and someone getting injured on almost every play.

Whether or not football is actually the way Stone depicts it, he did not paint a convincing picture whatsoever. Essentially, the owner cares *nothing* for the players, the coaches clear players to play when they are one hit away from having an aneurism, and the players intentionally don't block on the front line because they don't like their quarterback. Sorry. I don't buy it. Stone paints the league as a dark, depressing, unforgiving torture chamber, with games no more sophisticated than a fourth-grade scramble in the park. Football is the most complex game on the planet - why not show even a little bit of that? Instead of the Carolina Panthers and New England Patriots - who chose to have themselves introduced as a team rather than individuals - we get the tough to swallow Miami Sharks, who all *hate* each other. A team like this would never make the playoffs - never. And then, to make it even worse, all of this is thrown together in a horrendous MTV-style montage. The movie is edited like a commercial - it just feels like a collection of scenes, not a movie.

I do not recommend this film, especially if you love football and are hoping for a good sports movie. It's a war film in the costume of a sports film, and apparently Stone doesn't think the audience is intelligent enough to understand this for themselves, because he includes scene after scene of gladiators fighting in the coliseum, ramming the analogy down the viewer's throat. He should stick to the war/crime movies, and stop trying to impose the genre on innocent films.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Loved It...Every Time!
Review: I am not a movie critic so I can't get into all of the details on cinematography, directing,screenplay and scriptwriting. I just know that this was a damn good movie. It was interesting from beginning to end. When I saw it in the theatre I didn't want to get up to go to the restroom and once I bought it I had to watch it right away.
I thought the action was amazing...I'm a football fan and I enjoyed the hits, the sounds, the views from the players....I enjoyed it all.
I hear lots of people complaining about how long the film was...well I guess that shows how much I enjoyed it because I never noticed that it was any longer than any other film because I was into it from beginning to end.

I thought that Jamie Foxx gave a wonderful and believable performance in his role as Willie Beamon. Al Pacino, Dennis Quaid, Cameron Diaz and Lauren Holly (as usual) did not disappoint. LL Cool J looked like he fit right in with the rest of the cast and I enjoyed the antics of so many of the other characters. LT Taylors performance was great and I had no clue Bill Bellamy had any athletic skills. As a sports fan I especially enjoyed trying to pick out current and former NFL athletes and coaches throughout the film.

Needless to say...I found every aspect of the film enjoyable and I have watched it over and over again. If you like lots of on the field action, lots of hits, lots of contact and great acting from the likes of Al Pacino, you will love this film. You'll watch it over and over again...like I do!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Get in the scenes this is crazy
Review: First of all, I would like to say that all the people reviewing the movie on how Cameron Diaz looks and how long it is, are retarded. How do you rate a movie based on its length? How does that affect the acting and the intense screenplay and perfectly written script. Despite the length, I have watched this movie nearly 20 times and not once did I have a second thought on how much I loved it. The plot is a prefect example of the struggles that the modern day NFL goes through. Jamie Foxx, LL Cool J, James Woods, Cameron Diaz, and the legendary Al Pacino all star in this movie and do an excellent job. I think Oliver Stone is one of the best Directors/Producers out there, I mean first Scarface now this? I can't wait to see what's next!

The football Scenes in this movie are breathtaking. It's damn crazy when you see how far into the play they really go. Watch the movie and you will see what Im talking about. Just watch how real these hits are. It's 100% real.

In general, with the huge cast of stars, the great filming style, and the feeling you get of being inside the plays after watching one of the awesome games, this movie gets a 5 stars. In fact I give it 6. And to add on to that, the special features in this film are awesome. Buy this DVD, you will not regret it, no matter how long the movie is.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Stone' s Throw
Review: I like Oliver Stone. On the whole, I do enjoy his directorial style but he has a tendency to belabor a given point. "Any Given Sunday" was a fair football movie that could have been a great sports film if skillfully edited to a more reasonable 2 hour length. Aside from its bladder busting 157 minute endurance, it was a fairly entertaining study of modern day football not too far removed in attitude and tone from "North Dallas Forty". But times as they say are a changing and Stone addressed the new economic realities of creative stadium financing, a new breed of athlete acutely aware of lucrative endorsement possibilities that go hand in hand with success on the gridiron, and Stone played the "race card" to some clever advantage. Comedian Jamie Foxx was wonderful in his dramatic turn as a third string quarterback who suddenly finds himself the object of media and public attention as surprise replacement to "Cap" Rooney, the injured, aging star of the Miami Sharks, nicely defined by Dennis Quaid. As veteran head coach Tony D'Amato, Al Pacino was given carte blanche to let fly with his signature fiery bombast at times directed to players individually or collectively, the franchise ownership (Cameron Diaz), the team doctor (James Woods) or anyone else who crossed his purposes. The remaining cast was rounded out superbly with a host of wonderful performances including but certainly not limited to Jim Brown, Ann-Margret, Lauren Holly, Charlton Heston as the Commissioner, and Clifton Davis as a shrewd big city mayor. On the whole I'd say this was an entertaining and sometimes provocative glimpse into the world of professional sports and big time American pop culture on any given Sunday afternoon.


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