Rating: 
Summary: Incompetent as Well as Stupid
Review: This is one of the worst big-budget movies ever made. While the weak story line is pumped up by pretentious screaming and overacting, a not uncommon feature of some oh-so-serious dramas being made lately, what sets this film apart is its incompetence. It is truly startling how poorly constructed and amateurish Oliver Stone's latest effort is. The camera work at times is downright childish. Watching the football scenes becomes painful. How many slow-motion downfield passes can you show in one film? Avoid at all costs. (And keep the kiddees away, this film borders on being x-rated.)
Rating: 
Summary: Outstanding
Review: I really like the range of issues that this movies covered. From the young quaterback caught up in his own hype to the two veterans battling with age to the coach that everybody believes the game has passed.I highly reccomend this movies for football and non-football fans a like. Oliver Stone should do a movie surrounding the politics of College Football.
Rating: 
Summary: A little Disappointed
Review: This movie started out slowly. Well, actually it started out too quickly with just too many flash cuts of football scenes and players partying. Eventually it settled down into a film that we actually enjoy watching. The colors and action is great and a story line even somehow developed. The cameos were fun. LOTS of swearing and some nudity though so not for the faint of heart. Oliver Stone paints everyone with too wide a brush and the characters almost seem like cartoons. Make sure you watch the whole film to catch the end after some of the credits have rolled.
Rating: 
Summary: There are better ways to kill a couple of hours!
Review: Given the calibre of the stars on this film and the credentials of the director, I must say that this film was a major letdown. The action sequences were more like a jazzed up MTV video than a serious attempt to capture a sporting sequence. And as to being a sports movie, its not quite that either. Lets just say that there are better ways of killing 2 hours that to sit through this movie for its outcome.
Rating:
Summary: Watch this instead
Review: Check out "North Dallas Forty" with Nick Nolte
Rating:
Summary: Of course that's just my opinion. I could be wrong....
Review: When this movie first came out to its slate of tepid reviews, I decided not to go see it. When the DVD came out, I decided not to buy it. When I recently received the DVD as a gift, I was surprised to find that I honestly couldn't wait to watch it. Admittedly, I have always found Oliver Stone's films to be entertaining. I am also a life-long Cowboys fan. And, truth be known, I was curious to see what Stone thought about the state of professional football, albeit via his mythical Miami Sharks. The best thing that I ever did was to quit reading reviews, and sat down with a bowl of popcorn to give this film its shot. The verdict is that I really liked this film. Call it a guilty pleasure if you must, but I really enjoyed this movie. The screenplay is structured around some interesting and engaging characters, providing good insights into their individual experiences with the team. The cast is first rate and there are plenty of good performances. From the owner's box, to the training room, at home with the wife and kids, and off the field with all of its complications, this movie does a memorable job of showing all sides of the world of professional football. I even liked the movie soundtrack with its catchy tunes. No offense to the other reviewers, but Heston is perfect as the power-mongering league commissioner. James Woods is great as the veteran team physician who has seen too much. Jim Brown and LT give accurate and believable performances in their respective roles. I also found the parallels between the film's plot line and the present day soap opera going on with my beloved Cowboys to be kind of spooky. True, there are times when the plot to this movie looks a little too cliché. I find it to be a point to the film's level of authenticity, however, that the current highest paid player in the NFL is perhaps living out an eerily similar experience with his family, doctors, coaches and owner. This movie is not a classic but there is a lot about it that holds up in repeated viewings. The dog-eat-dog world of the professional athletics is portrayed in some admittedly predictable scenes, but there are some nice surprises as well. The ending to this movie is, for me, its truest moment. I think that the best thing about this movie is that while it deals competently with the intensity and pathos of professional football, it never forgets to keep its sense of humor. If you can do the same thing, my guess is that you will really enjoy this movie. There is a lot more about it that works than most of these reviews would lead you to believe.
Rating:
Summary: War games.
Review: Oliver Stone's cinematic obsession with portrayting American culture as a Vietnam battleground continues with this exhausting study of their national sport. Once again abandoning the traditional story-telling conventions in favour of flashy cutting, trippy camerawork and a barrage of electic musical snippets, this is a game of two halves. Although the hour or so of in-your-face American football footage is hypnotic, thrilling, scary and technically astounding, the off-field conflicts offer the same old tired sports cliches, albeit with big names and Stone's eccentric camerawork. The first half hour of the film is almost a mini masterpiece. Sticking the audience smack in the middle of a ferocious game of American footbal, he brilliantly orchestrates frenetic, muddy, bloody, bone-crunching MTV visuals in a Natural Born Killers vein, and introduces the stressed protagonists. There's explosive coach Tony D'Amato (Al Pacino), cynical owner Christina Pagniacci (Cameron Diaz), dedicated star player 'Cap' Rooney (Dennis Quaid) and self-important star player to-be Willie Beaman (Jamie Foxx). When Rooney receives a major injury, Beaman is thrust into the spotlight and begins to show his potential. As his quarterback skills improve and the team seems destined for a play-off place, his arrogant disregard for the rest of the team causes majoy ructions. Meanwhile, Tony and Christina's major hate-hate relationship worsens. There's a handful of other subplots too, which you could probably write yourself and the fine supporting cast - James Woods, Matthew Modine and Aaron Eckhart - are criminally underused. The behind-the-scenes drama is decently performed, but it seems so flat and pedestrian compared to the explosive games, that you find yourself willing on the next touchdown. Pacino is energetic as usual, even if he is in shouty auto-pilot, Foxx is almost Oscar-worthy in a memorable performance, and Diaz is pretty amazing, it is good to see the actress playing different roles, as her character, Christina Pagniacci is a cold-hearted bitchy business woman, and Diaz usally plays blonde sweet-hearts. It would seem that the character-and-plot driven days of Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July are long gone for Oliver Stone. Pushing the technical envelope is an alright decision, but it is about time Stone varied his game a little.
Rating:
Summary: Look! Look! Up there in the booth! It's ...
Review: Barry Switzer! (An omen of this year's Phoenix-like "Up from ashes" Sooners? Everybody sing "Boomer Sooner" really loud now!) Coach Switzer is just one of the many famous folk suiting up in Oliver Stone's quasi-expose of NFL football. The many cameos make this movie fun. Perhaps it's a modern football-as-morality play. I found Pacino's locker room pep talk more inspiring than "Win one for the Gipper!" I did an "instant replay" times 3 with this movie - every time discovering something more! Don't just rent it - buy it to savor over and over.
Rating:
Summary: What a load of...
Review: This movie was a major disappointment to me, partly because I have trouble accepting anything about football as a "serious" movie. The plot was innane, the characters so-so and the movie was way too long. It was a real yawn fest. I still can't believe I actually sat through this entire tripe. I wouldn't rent or buy this movie on any given sunday, let alone any other day of the week. What a stinker.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Movie, Even if You're NOT into Football
Review: I am not a big football fan. I don't watch it. However, I was delighted with the fresh spin on the game given through the visionary Oliver Stone. I do, however, love movies about sports such as "Hoosiers", "The Cutting Edge", and "Vision Quest" so I took a chance on De Niro being in this movie and was mesmerized by him and the rest of the cast including football hero Jim Brown, Cameron Diaz, Mathew Modine, Dennis Quad, and Jamie Foxx (who knew he could act?, and as an added treat Lawrence Taylor as the defensive leader "Shark". As a woman, the shower and locker room sequences were enough to watch but the rest of the movie proved to be true Oliver Stone--excellent soundtrack, sound effects, personal drama and FOOTBALL! I was thoroughly pleased and went on to watch the movie about 3 more times. This is truly the best sports movie I have ever scene. Something for everyone, especially us girls. Loved it!
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