Media overload that maybe lacks a bit of substance

Rating: Null/10 (8 June 2002)

In the modern world of American Football money drives teams, greed and arrogance drives players and boundaries are pushed in terms of physical and mental limits in an attempt to get the money. Coach Tony D'Amato finds himself in charge of a Shark's team that is on a 3 game losing streak before losing it's 2 lead QB's. With Willie Beamen leading the plays and growing in arrogance, Tony finds it hard to hold his team together, meanwhile the owners are pushing for TV money and new stadium deals.
As we all know most Oliver Stone films are like having Stone himself standing shouting at you for 2 hours. Here the effect is the same  even if the message is confused a little. We all know that US sport is more business than sport and we know that it's not all as good, honest stuff as it should be. Here Stone makes his point but also tries to mix in other stories more at home in a standard sports movie  the clichés of overcoming, of team spirit etc. However both work reasonably well. However the main driving force behind the film is Stone.
Despite getting as many cameos in as he can (as a commentator and his picture on a bar wall) Stone delivers a powerful directing job. He uses plenty of visual tricks and never lets the camera rest too easily. Likewise the soundtrack is constant and contains plenty of hot tracks. It's all very exhilarating and mostly makes up for a lack of real substance in the stories. The only downside is that this is quite exhausting  it's very loud and just feels a touch too busy to be enjoyable.
The cast are good despite the fact that they seem to want to watch Stone's in-yer-face direction style. Pacino gives it plenty of `hoo-hah' but struggles in the quieter moments. Diaz is alright but is a bit out of her depth. Nobody does loud, arrogant and irritating like Foxx, the only problem being he is very annoying most of the time. Woods and Modine are good as doctors with varied degrees of realism/cynicism. The support cast is all good  even if they don't all have much to do. LL Cool J is good, Charlton Heston barely says a word and is only there to show the `modern day gladiators' theme, Lela Rochon is as beautiful as ever and does well with little material, Berkley is there presumably because she needs the work and has no problem showing her breasts (as long as she doesn't have to have sex with Kyle McLaughin). Jim Brown, Ann-Margret, Lauren Holly, Aaron Eckhart, John C McGinley etc are all good and help give weight to the film.
Overall it's all very loud and in your face but it's enjoyable  even if it leaves you feeling tired at the end! Oh  and it's `American Football' not `Football'  the rest of the world knows what football is and it's not just a bunch of men falling down every few minutes (unless you're Italian or Brazilian then falling down is what it's all about).